Schuette

Since I mentioned it yesterday, I thought I'd talk a bit about Schuette -- more accurately, A Pictorial History of Embroidery by Marie Schuette and Sigrid Muller-Christensen.

The photo on the cover is actually the back of a piece

Originally published in German in 1963, the copy I have was published in English in the US in 1964.


There are 464 black and white plates and 29 color plates of embroidery spanning from the 5th Century B.C. to the 29th Century.  It opens with two short articles - 6 pages of materials and techniques (with some excellent stitch diagrams) and just over 11 pages of Historical Introduction.  After the plates there is a catalog which provides a short write up about the piece.

The photos are pretty good.  There are both overall photos and detail. It is true that better photos are available now -- photography resolution has come a long way in over 50 years -- but in most of them good detail can be seen.

Detail shots of the linen altar cloth discussed yesterday

My favorite use of Schuette is as a jumping off point.  If I'm looking for inspiration for a new piece, I will pull it out and just leaf through.  Once I find a piece that sparks my interest, I check the catalog for information and look to see what more detailed information may be available.

Unfortunately, Schuette has been out of print for a very long time, and it is not an inexpensive book.  Some libraries have it (usually non-circulating) and many embroiderers have it. If you have an opportunity to peruse this book, do so.  If you're going to be seeing me, for instance, let me know you'd like to look at mine and I'll bring it along.

Are there better, newer embroidery books out there?  Maybe.  There are certainly ones with better photos of some of the items.  There are newer resources with information not included in Schuette.  There are whole books written covering just a handful of the items shown, or a short period.  Still, it is Schuette that I turn to when considering a new project; it is Schuette that I turn to when I need images to show to a class, and it is Schuette that I pull from my shelves when I just want to revel in the glory of over 20 centuries of thread art.