EMBROIDERY. The name given to the art of working figures on stuffs or muslins with a needle and thread. All embroidery may be divided into two sorts, embroidery on atufa and on mus lin: the former is used 'chiefly in church vestments, housings, standards, articles of furniture, &e., and is executed with silk, cotton, wool, gold and silver threads, and sometimes ornamented with span gles, real or mock pearls, precious or imitation stones, &c. ; the latter is em ployed mostly in articles of female appa rel, as caps, collars, &c., and is perform ed only with cotton. In Germany this division is indicated by the expression weiese (white or muslin), and bunk Sticke rei (colored or cloth) embroidery. Th? embroidery of stuffs is performed on kind of loom or frame ; that of muslin by stretching it on a pattern already de signed. The modes of embroidering stuffs or muslin with the common needle are extremely various ; but a minute de scription of these processes would be as difficult as it would be uninteresting to the general reader. They consist for
most part of a combination of ordinary stitches ; but no limit can be assigned to their number or variety. The art of em broidery was well known to the ancients. As early as the time of Moses we find it practised successfully by the Hebrews ; and long before the Trojan war the wo men of Sidon had acquired celebrity for their skill in embroidery. At a later pe riod, this art was introduced into Greece, probably by the Phrygians (by some considered the inventors) ; and to such a degree of skill did the Grecian women attain in it, that their performances were said to rival the finest paintings. In our own times the art of embroidery has been cultivated with great success, more especially in Germany and France ; and though for a long period it was practised only by the ladies of these countries as an elegant accomplishment, it is now regard ed as a staple of traffic, and furnishes em ployment for a large portion of the popu lation.