Redwork

British work bag decorated with red work, second half 17th century. British work bag decorated with red work, second half 17th century. Copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 2006.263.

Redwork is a form of counted thread embroidery that uses a red thread (usually silk or cotton) on a white cloth background. It is usually carried out in a double running stitch (Holbein stitch), but other stitches are possible. The patterns produced tend to be geometrical or stylised figurative and floral forms.

Redwork became popular in northwestern Europe during the sixteenth century, although it never reached the heights of its near identical form, blackwork, which used a black rather than a red thread. This redwork should be distinguished from later redwork, which stands for any form of Western decorative needlework that is exclusively worked in a red thread on a white or natural coloured ground. This redwork became popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the end of the twentieth century redwork again became popular.

See also the TRC Needles entries on bluework and the Portrait of Bess of Hardwick.

Metropolitan Museum of Art online catalogue (retrieved 6th July 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Sunday, 07 May 2017 12:46
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