EMBROIDERY.
Tatriz, ARAB. Chikandozi, . . . HIND.
Broderie, FR. Chikankari, . . „ Stickerei, . . . . GER. Ricamatura, . . . IT.
Xashida Zardozt, HIND. Bordado, SP.
. The art of embroidery is one consonant with the habits of the people of India ; their patience and delicate handling render success certain, and there is scarcely a town or city where creditable embroidery cannot be found. The oriental races have ever been celebrated for their skill in the art of embroidery, which appears to have been practised in Assyria, and introduced from thence into India. Pliny, however, mentions that it was a. Phrygian invention, and, in Rome embroiderers were called Phrygiones. The art of embroidery was known and practised with great skill in ancient times, in Eg,ypt, Assyria, and Persia. The Israelites learnt the art before their exodus ; the Babylonians were famed for their rich tapes tries, and the Assyrian monuments display richly embroidered robes and trappings. In Babylon, clothes were woven of different colours, and called Babylonica. During the early part of the middle ages, Europe obtained its most important em broideries from Greece and the East In the pre sent day, the embroidery of Kashmir, Lahore, and Dehli is the most beautiful. Sindi embroidery has a character of its own, and is easily recognisable. In India, embroidery is done on muslin, silk, velvet, merino, or cloth, in gold or silver thread, in a variety of styles, and very elegant and ingenious designs, on shawls, scarfs, jackets, bottle-stands, tablecloths, tablecovers, footstools, chess cloths, cushions for chairs, mats, bags, slippers, dresses of (women, aprons, parasols, and book - covers. In the embroidered fabrics of India, it may bo mentioned, as a principle, that their patterns and e,olours diversify plane surfaces without destroying or disturbing the itnpression of flatness. They are remarkable for the rich diversion shown in the patterns, the beauty, distinctness, and variety of the forms, and the harmonious blending of several colours. Embroidery in gold and silver is an art which furnishes some of the most gorgeous and expensive manufactures for which India has been long celebrated. In the taste and judgment evinced in the blending of brilliant colours, and contrasting them with gold and silver on grounds of velvet, satin, silk, or muslin, India in this manufacture stands unrivalled.. Some are very gorgeous shami analis and elephant saddle-cloths. The gold and silver fancy fringes of Hyderabad are deserving of mention. Small samples of solid silver wire fringes and ornaments from Madura were deemed worthy of notice, but they are surpassed by the silver thread of Hyderabad. The embroiderers of India, though bringing into use, especially on her thinner textiles, a great deal of tinsel, the articles do not look tinselly, and the tasteful application of foil, tinted in various colours, often lends great beauty. Long deep borders and large centres embroidered in gold and silver are wrought with much skill, and the admirable contrasts made by the mingling of silver with gold, as well as the happy way in which the dispersing is managed, is well worth the attention of European embroid erers. The artistic judgment with which the golden embroidery is tastefully encircled by finely executed scrolls done in silver, while the bright scarlet _flowers lend and receive back brilliancy from the golden ground. out of which they are made to sprout, as well as the admirable dispersing itself of the gold, ask for, and ought to win, the notice of Europe.
Dehli is a great place for embroidered fabrics, both in silk and gold threads. In Lahore and Amritsar, the manufacture of kalabatun, or gold thread, is extensively carried on. And Benares has long been famed for gold and silver threads, and also for its beautiful broca,des.
'From Dacca,' says the Abbe de Guyon, writing in 1744, as quoted by Dr. Taylor, come the finest and best Indian embroideries in gold, silver, or silk, and those embroidered neckcloths and fine muslins which are seen in France.' There has always been a demand for such scarfs for the markets of Bussora and Java,. In the present day, they have silks and woollens, rentals and nets, Kashmir shawls, Europmn velvets embroidered with silk or tasar, that is, wild. silk of either floss or common twisted silk thread, or with gold and silver thread and wire in great variety. The cloth to be embroidered is stretched out on a horizontal bamboo frame, raised about a couple of feet from the ground, and the figures intended to be worked or embroidered are drawn upon it by designers, who are generally Hindu painters. On woollen cloths, however, the outlines are traced with chalk, and on muslin with pencil, and the body of the design copied from coloured drawings. The em broiderers, seated upon the floor around the frame, ply the needle by pushing it from instead of to wards them. In place of scissors they commonly use a piece of glass or chinaware to cut the thread. Among the embroidered articles at the Exhibition of 1851, those from Dacca and from Dehli were probably the best known. In Dehli, small shawls and searfa aro chiefly embroidered both with floss and twisted silk. In Dacca, both nets and mishits witlt floss silk of various colours. But Dacca is also famous for ita embroidery of muslins with cotton, which is called chikankari or effikrindozi. Ono kind is forined by breakieg down tho texture of the cloth with the needle, aud converting it Mt° open ineshee. Dr. Taylor states that Kashida isthe name given in Dacca to cloths embroidered with tnuga silk or coloured cotton thread, and, though yenerally of a coarse description, gives occupation to a number of tho Mahornedan women of Dacca. Though the iseinis of both Deldi and of Dacca aro much admired, =slims or nets, worked so as fo he suitable for making ball dresses, would probably be in dentinal, as those which are now sold in Britain for such purposes aro very inferior in taste aucl elegance to the Indian embroidery. The beetle-wing embroidery exhibited in 1851 from Madras was particularly elegant ; and the velvet awnings, nmsntal covers, hooknh carpets, and elephant trappings, embroidered with gold and silver, chiefly at Murshidabad and Benares, were admired as well for richness as for the skill with which the groundwork was allowed to relieve the ornaments. The embroidered saddles and saddle cloths and floor-coverings front Pathan, Multan, and Lahore were of the usual style of what are called the works of that famed valley, and which WaS conspicuously shown in the dresses, caps, and slippers from Kashmir itself. But that the skill aud taste are not confined to one part of India, was also to be seen iu the tablecovers from Tatta in Sind, and in the embroidered boots from Khyrpur, which Mr. Digby Wyatt illustrated.