Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1902 — Old Needlework. A Thackeray Anecdote. [ARTICLE]

Old Needlework.

A Thackeray Anecdote.

The needlework picture seema to have made its first appearance in the first years of the reign of Charles I, for although Elizabethan and Jacobean are said to exist, one with an absolutely unimpeachable pedigree is yet to be found, and the costumes in the oldest specimens the writer has yet seen certainly indicate that they cannot be assigned to a date before 1630. The earliest Stuart pictures are worked with silks on coarse, irregularly woven brownish linen canvas, in the fine, slanting stitch taken over a single thread, which is technically known as “tent stitch,” or petit point This method of working produced an effect much resembling that of tapestry, by which, indeed, the embroidered picture was probably suggested. * • • As time went on the simple stltchery was elaborated, portions of the design being wrought in silver “passing”—a fint, metallic thread passed through the material instead of being applied; hence its name.—The Connoisseur.

A correspondent kindly contributes the following amusing anecdote of Thackeray’s stay in New York, and vouches for the authenticity of a retort courteous which we seem to have met in other connections. “Your reminiscences of Thackeray’s visit to America recall another. While here he was very much attracted by the beauty and brilliancy of Miss 8., and, in accordance with the foreign custom, made a morning call when she did not expect any one. Hearing some talking in the lower hall, she leaned over the banisters and asked the servant who it was. ‘lt’s Mr. Thackeray, ma’am.’ ‘Oh, damn Thackeray!’ replied Miss B. ‘No,’ said Thackeray, who could not but hear the remark, ‘it’s not Misther O’Dam Thackeray, but Mr. Makepeace Thackeray.’ And with a laugh Miss B. came down. P. S.—ls Miss B. is alive still, she can confirm this.” New York Evening Post.