This image was scanned from my private collection
This image was scanned from my private collection
NO TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title: The Dictionary of Needlework
Author/Designer: Sophia Frances Anne Caulfeild, Blanche C. Saward
Format/Publication Date: HC:1988, 1972reprint without 159 plates
Publisher: 1988:A W Cowan, London, UK; 1972: Arno Press, NY;
Page Count: 1988: 528 + 159(CLIX) Plates of Samples;
Book Dimensions(ht. x w.): 11 1/4" x 8 3/4"
ISBN: 0405006950
SUMMARY- This is a facsimile edition reprinted from the original published by L. Upcott Gill, London, in 1882. There are nearly 800 wood engravings throughout. Arno Press did a great job of reproducing this book without making it feel like they just bound a photocopy. The text and pages are clean and neat and crisp enough I don't feel anything was lost from the original. There is no Table of Contents - it is, after all, a dictionary, and is laid out as such, starting with the entry "Abaca", the native name for the Manilla hemp, and ending with "Zulu Cloth", a closely woven twill-made cloth designed for Crewel Embroidery. The "Tatting" entry covers (14)fourteen pages! The article is well laid out and well developed, all terms defined and explained, with examples given. There are what look like SCMR(self-closing mock rings) in the Diamond motif shown, but the instructions don't read correctly for this. There are some very clever visual illusions accomplished with refacing of chains, and the article overall does a fantastic job of showing what can be accomplished with what we think of now as the traditional techniques. If you are interested in the history of tatting, this is a great find. If you want some traditional examples that still have some magic in them, or if you puzzle over terms and words that have fallen out of use - this is a fantastic find. This one is going on my "must have in my library" shelf.
Small side notes- it turns out that the tatting article is split between volumes 5 and 6 of the original six-volume set. So if you were thinking you only needed to buy the sixth volume to get this article, you would be incorrect. This reprint has it all in one tome and is much easier to find! What the reprint is missing is the supplements in the back of each volume of plates - 159 plates of samples of work covered in the dictionary. If you want a complete reprint, look for the Dover Press 1972 2-volume edition titled "Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework". It is renamed, but the same dictionary with all the plates. I have it reviewed as well.
I finally found an original second edition of this fantastic dictionary that was originally published in a six-volume set. I was able to get the seller to reduce the price quite a bit(they were asking for $2,000) - and still paid more for this set than I paid for my beloved Encyclopedia Britannica set in 1982(mom wouldn't let me take her set when I moved out, even though I was the only one in the family that used them...) But this 1888 set is in good shape, and puts me one step closer to having a collection that a museum will consider worthy of preserving. Now I just have to convince my husband that my sudden and unwaning yen for beans and rice dishes for the next 12 months is genuine...
...anyone who doesn't think I suffer for my art, has not had to eat my cooking.