Patchwork and Quilting During the Middle Ages

I N THE early days of Christianity the various organizations of the mother church took a deep interest in all the textile arts, and we are indebted to the ecclesiastical orders for what progress was made in needlework during the beginning of the Middle Ages. The makers of church hangings and vestments were stimulated by thoughts of the spiritual blessings with which they were assured their work would be rewarded. Much of this early ecclesiastic needlework is extremely elaborate and was always eagerly desired by the holy orders. At one time the craze for gorgeous vestments reached such an extreme that we have record of one worthy bishop chiding his priests because they “carried their religion on their backs instead of in their hearts.”

The artistic needlework of the Christian era consists almost entirely of embroidery; no positive reference to patchwork or quilting being found in western Europe prior to the time of the Crusades. But with this great movement, thousands of the most intelligent men in Europe, urged by religious enthusiasm combined with love of adventure, forced their way into eastern countries whose culture and refinements of living far surpassed their own. The luxuries which they found in Syria were eagerly seized and carried home to all the western lands. Returning Crusaders exhibited fine stuffs of every description that roused the envy of all who obtained a glimpse of them. A vigorous commerce with the east was immediately stimulated. From Syria merchants brought into Italy, Spain, and France silks and cottons to supplement the native linen and wool, and also many kinds of embroidered work of a quality much finer than ever known before. As a result dyeing, weaving, and needlework entered on an era of great development.

Previous to the eleventh century so memorable in the history of the Crusaders, references to quilting and patchwork are few and uncertain, but from that time on these twin arts became more and more conspicuous in the needlecraft of nearly every country in western Europe. This is explained by the stimulus which was given to these arts by the specimens of appliqué hangings and garments brought from Syria, where the natives wrought for centuries the identical applied work carried into Palestine from Egypt in Biblical times by the Hebrews and the Phœnicians.

About the earliest applied work of which we have record were the armorial bearings of the Crusaders. A little later came rather elaborate designs applied to their cloaks and banners. Among other specimens of Old English needlework is a piece of applied work at Stonyhurst College depicting a knight on horseback. That this knight represents a Crusader is beyond question since the cross, the insignia of the cause, is a prominent figure in the ornamentation of the knight’s helmet and shield, and is also prominent on the blanket on the horse.

Noticeable progress in the arts of both quilting and appliqué was made during the Middle Ages in Spain. Spanish women have always been noted for their cleverness with the needle, and quite a few of the stitches now in use are credited to them. At the time of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, applied work had long been known. Whether it developed from imitating garments brought home by the returning Crusaders, or was adopted from the Moors, who gave the best of their arts to Spain during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, cannot be positively stated. However, it is worthy of notice that whenever the Christian came in contact with the Moor, a great advance in the textile arts of the former could generally be observed. This holds true even down to this day, our eagerness to possess the rugs of Turkey and Afghanistan, and the imitation of these designs in the manufacture of domestic carpets, being a case in point.

During the reign of King Philip II, 1527-1598, the grandees of the Spanish court wore beautifully wrought garments, rich with applied work and embroidery. A sixteenth-century hanging of silk and velvet appliqué, now preserved in Madrid, is typical of the best Spanish work. It is described as having a gray-green silk foundation, on which are applied small white silk designs outlined with yellow cord; alternating with the green silk are bands of dark red velvet with ornamented designs cut from the green silk, and upon which are small pieces of white silk representing berries. Also, another handsome specimen of Spanish applied work of the seventeenth century is a linen curtain richly embellished with heraldic emblems couched with gold thread. Horse trappings and reposters, loaded with appliqué flowers cut from gold and silver cloth, were much in evidence among the Spanish nobility of this period.

Of particular interest, as showing how oriental quilting designs filtered into Europe through the intercourse of the early Portuguese traders and missionaries with the East Indies, is the brief mention by Margaret S. Burton of a very elaborate old quilt now in a New York collection: “My next find was a tremendous bed quilt which is used as a portière for double folding doors. It formed part of a collection of hangings owned by the late Stanford White. He claimed there were only four of its kind in existence, and this the only one in America. It is valued at $1,000. It is a Portuguese bed quilt and was embroidered centuries ago by the Portuguese missionary monks sent to India. They were commissioned by their queen to embroider them for her to present as wedding gifts to her favourite ladies-in-waiting.” On account of intricacy and originality of design this quilt represents years of patient work. It is hand embroidered in golden coloured floss upon a loosely woven linen which had been previously quilted very closely. The work is in chain stitch, and there are at least fifty different stitch patterns. In the centre panel is the sacred cat of India. Doves bearing olive branches, pomegranates, daisies, and passion flowers are intermingled in the beautiful design.

While the uses of patchwork were known over Europe long before the Renaissance, some credit its introduction, into Italy at least, to the Florentine painter, Botticelli (1446-1510). The applied work, or “thought work,” of the Armenians so appealed to him that he used it on hangings for church decoration. Under his influence the use of the applied work, opus conservetum , for chapel curtains and draperies was greatly extended. In time these simple patchwork hangings were supplanted by the mural paintings and tapestries now so famous. There are still in existence some rare pieces of Italian needlework of the sixteenth century having designs of fine lace interspersed among the embroidered appliqué of silk.

A homely cousin of the gorgeous opus conservetum , which has filled its useful though humble office down to the present day, is the heavy quilted and padded leather curtain used in many Italian churches in lieu of a door. Many of the church doors are too massive and cumbersome to be opened readily by the entering worshippers, so they are left constantly open. Leather hangings often several inches thick and quilted with rows of horizontal stitches rather widely spaced, are hung before the open doorways. Even these curtains are often quite stiff and unyielding, so that holding back corners for the passage of both worshipper and tourist forms a favourite occupation for numerous beggars.

Appliqué, described as opus consutum , or cut work, was made in Florence and Venice, chiefly for ecclesiastical purposes, during the height of their glory in the fifteenth century. One such piece of Florentine cut work is remarkable for its great beauty and the skill shown in bringing together both weaving and embroidery. “Much of the architectural accessories is loom wrought, while the extremities of the evangelists are all done by the needle; but the head, neck, and long beard are worked by themselves upon very fine linen, and afterward put together in such a way that the full white beard overlaps the tunics.... For the sake of expedition, all the figures were sometimes at once shaped out of woven silk, satin, velvet, linen, or woollen cloth, and sewed upon the grounding of the article.... Sometimes the cut work done in this way is framed, as it were, with an edging either in plain or gilt leather, hempen or silken cord, like the leadings of a stained-glass window.” Gold and silver starlike flowers, sewn on appliqué embroideries, were common to Venice and also southern Germany in the fifteenth century.

Belonging to the Italian Renaissance period are some marvellous panels, once part of a curtain, which are now preserved in the South Kensington Museum in London. The foundation of these panels is of beautiful blue damask having applied designs cut from yellow satin. These hangings are described as being very rich in effect and unusually handsome, and nothing in the annals of needlework of their period was more glorious.

A very ingenious patchwork, originating in Italy during the sixteenth century and peculiar to that country and Spain, consisted of patterns designed so as to be counter hanging. For example, if one section of a length of such patchwork consisted of a blue satin pattern on a yellow velvet ground, the adjoining section would, through the interchange of materials, consist of a yellow velvet pattern on a blue satin ground. The joints of the patching were overlaid with cord or gimp, stitched down so as to conceal them entirely and give definition to the forms constituting the pattern.

Italian needleworkers were very fond of this “transposed appliqué upon two fabrics,” especially when composed of designs of foliage conventionally treated, or of arabesques and scrolls. On a piece of old Milanese damask, figured with violet on violet, appear designs in appliqué cut from two shades of yellow satin. These are remarkable for their powerful relief, suggesting sculpture rather than embroidery, and have been pronounced worthy of the best masters of their time—namely, that period so rich in suggestions of ornament—the seventeenth century.

Closely related to patchwork, but not as commonly used, is “inlay.” In the making of this style of decoration one material is not laid on to another, but into it. It is the fitting together of small sections of any desired fabric in a prearranged design. For convenience, all the pieces are placed upon a foundation of sufficient firmness, but which does not appear when the work is finished. Ornamental stitches conceal the seams where the edges meet, and it is especially adapted for making heraldic devices. During the Renaissance it was much used by both Spaniards and Italians, who learned the art from the Moors.

An example of quilting, attributed to the Island of Sicily about the year 1400, is described as being a ground of buff-coloured linen. The raised effect is obtained by an interpadding of wool, and the designs are outlined in brown thread. This entire coverlet is embroidered with scenes from the life of Tristan, who frequently engaged in battle against King Langair, the oppressor of his country. This bit of quilting hangs in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Another hanging of the fourteenth century, belonging to the same collection, shows a spirited naval battle between galleys. A striking peculiarity of this hanging is that floral designs are scattered in great profusion among the boats of the combatants.

A patchwork made by the application of bits of leather to velvet was extensively used in some European countries during the Middle Ages. As leather did not fray and needed no sewing over at the edge, but only sewing down, stitching well within the edge gave the effect of a double outline. This combination of leather and velvet was introduced from Morocco. A wonderful tent of this leather patchwork, belonging to the French king, François I, was taken by the Spanish at the battle of Pavia (1525), and is still preserved in the armoury at Madrid.

Some of the very finest specimens of the quilting of the Middle Ages have been preserved for us in Persia. Here the art, borrowed at a very early period from the Arabs, was developed in an unusual and typically oriental manner. Prayer rugs, carpets, and draperies of linen, silk, and satin were among the products of the Persian quilters.

We are indebted to Mr. Alan S. Cole for the following description of a seventeenth-century Persian quilted bath carpet, now preserved at the South Kensington Museum in London. “This typical Persian embroidery is a linen prayer or bath carpet, the bordering or outer design of which partly takes the shape of the favourite Persian architectural niche filled in with such delicate scrolling stem ornament as is so lavishly used in that monument of sixteenth-century Mohammedan art, the Taj Mahal at Agra. In the centre of the carpet beneath the niche form is a thickly blossoming shrub, laid out on a strictly geometric or formal plan, but nevertheless depicted with a fairly close approach to the actual appearance of bunches of blossoms and of leaves in nature. But the regular and corresponding curves of the stems, and the ordered recurrence of the blossom bunches, give greater importance to ornamental character than to any intention of giving a picture of a tree. Similar stems, blossoms, and leaves are still more formally and ornamentally adapted in the border of the carpet, and to fill in the space between the border and the niche shape. The embroidery is of chain stitch with white, yellow, green, and red silks. But before this embroidery was taken in hand the whole of the linen was minutely stitched.”

Worthy of mention is a patchwork panel made in Resht, Persia, in the eighteenth century: “The foundation ground is of ivory coloured cloth, and applied to it, almost entirely covering the ivory background, are designs cut from crimson, cinnamon, pink, black, turquoise, and sapphire coloured cloths, all richly embroidered in marigold and green silk.”

The following is a quilt anecdote, typically oriental, which contains a bit of true philosophy. It seems that the hero, Nass-ed-Din Hodja, was a Turkish person who became chief jester to the terrible Tamerlane during his invasion of Asia Minor. He was also the hero, real or imaginary, of many other stories which originated during the close of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. His tomb is still shown at Akshekir. The story is given entire as it appeared in “Turkey of the Ottoman” by L. M. Garnett:

HOW THE HODJA LOST HIS QUILT

Appliqué, or applied work, has never been used in France to the same extent as in England, even though the French name “appliqué” is more frequently used than any other. However, there is one striking example of appliqué work, of Rhenish or French origin, now hanging in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This realistic patchwork represents a fight between an armoured knight mounted on a high-stepping white horse and a ferocious dragon. The designs are arranged in a fashion similar to the blocks in a modern quilt, and depict several scenes showing the progress of the combat. There is also a border covered closely with figures of monks, knights, and ladies.

An extract from “First Steps in Collecting,” by Grace M. Vallois, gives an interesting glimpse of an old French attic. An object of great interest to us is the old, unfinished quilt she discovered there: “A rummaging expedition in a French grenier yields more treasures than one taken in an English lumber room. The French are more conservative; they dislike change and never throw away anything. Among valuable antiques found in the grenier of a Louis XV house in the Pyrenees were some rare curtains of white linen ornamented with designs cut from beautiful old chintz; the edges of the applied designs were covered with tightly twisted cotton cord. Also, in the same room, in a drawer of an old chestnut-wood bureau, was found an unfinished bed quilt very curiously worked. It was of linen with a filling of rather soft cotton cord about an eighth of an inch wide. These cords were held in place by rows of minute stitching of white silk, making the bedcover almost solid needlework. Besides the quilting there were at rather wide intervals conventional flowers in peacock shades of blue and green silk executed in chain stitch. When found, the needle was still sticking in one of the flowers, and many were traced ready for work. The traced lines appear to have been made with India ink and were very clear and delicate. What caused the abrupt interruption of the old quilt no one can tell. It is possible that the great terror of 1793 caused the patient maker to flee from her unfinished task.”

In the countries of northern Europe there is scarcely any record concerning the art of quilting and patchwork, and little can be said beyond the fact that both existed in some form or other. In Germany the quilt so familiar to us is practically unknown. In the past appliqué was very little used, except as cut work, or opus consutum , in blazonments and heraldic devices. The thick feather beds of medieval Germany were covered with various kinds of thick comforts filled with either wool or feathers, and sometimes sparsely quilted. The only decoration of the comfort consisted of a band of ornamental work, ten to twenty inches wide, usually worked in cross-stitch design with brightly coloured yarns. These bands were generally loose upon the comfort, one edge being held down by the pillow, but occasionally they were sewed to the edge of the bedcover.

In a work on arts and crafts relating to their presence in Sweden, it is written that “woven hangings were used to decorate the timbered walls of the halls of the vikings. They were hung over the temples, and they decorated the timber sepulchres of the dead. When the timbered grave of the Danish queen, Fyra Danabode, who died about 950, was opened, remains of woven woollen cloth were found.” As far back as Swedish records go it can be shown that Swedish women wove and sewed figured material.

On account of the cold there is urgent need of wall hangings, and they are used extensively throughout Scandinavia. On festive occasions the stiff, cold appearance of Swedish peasants’ homes is transformed by the gay wall coverings to one of hospitality and warmth. The hangings used are made of linen, either painted or embroidered in bright colours. The painted ones are especially interesting as they depict many historical scenes. Allegorical and religious subjects are also used to decorate many of these linen hangings. The Swedes are very patriotic, and on their wall hangings show all the saints clad in typical Swedish costumes. The apostles wear Swedish jack boots, loose collars, and pea jackets; and Joseph, as governor of Egypt, is shown wearing a three-cornered hat and smoking a pipe.

There is a valuable collection of Swedish needlework in the Northern Museum of Stockholm, dating from 1639 to the nineteenth century. Among this collection there are a few small pieces of applied work: some cushions, glove gauntlets, and a woman’s handbag. It is possible that patchwork was used more extensively than the museum’s display would indicate, but since large pieces are very rarely found, patchwork was evidently not held in the same esteem as embroidery and painting.

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