I can kinda-sorta help you out with this one. One of the shirts in the Sicilian Bride collection at the Met is completely reversible, done not only in polychrome silks, but gold thread as well. Both cuffs and collars are coated in it in good 2 inch bands. These date to ca. 1500-1600 Sicily. They employ several stitch types, none of which are Assisi or Blackwork in nature. Satin stitch is most predominant in the motifs. As for publishing....wait a year or so and see who ends up published first -me or the Met. ;-)
I understand that insisting on completely reversible, uber-tidy embroidery backs is far more a Victorian convention than Medieval. I've heard this statement debated hotly both ways. The Met collection is by no means nasty looking on the back, but you can spot the knots if you look for them. Kathy It’s never too late to be who you might have been. -George Eliot Tosach eólais imchomarc. - Questioning is the beginning of knowledge. http://www.sengoidelc.com/node/131 So, questions: 1. Is my memory correct -- is this indeed a characteristic of blackwork? Or any other kind of historic embroidery style? 2. Is this characteristic actually documentable to any non-modern examples? (I know it's easy to assume that a standard definition of a technique must date back forever, but it might be done differently in different periods.) If so, how early? I mentally associate blackwork in particular with the Tudor period, but the reference in this case is about 1400. 3. Can anyone point me to a published source that would document the use of such a "two right sides" technique to a medieval artifact? Ultimately my friend would like to have a citation that shows the use of such inside/outside embroidery from around 1400. Doesn't have to be blackwork. Failing that, it would be helpful to have a citation of such a technique from a later period, even if it's not c. 1400. Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail at http://mrd.mail.yahoo.com/try_beta?.intl=ca _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
