Thu Aug 9, 2018 07:03 AM

Morning Modelbuch (8/9/2018)

I haven’t talked about one of the other major sources for embroidery inspiration that was used in addition to the modelbucher and emblem books, Conrad Gessner’s _Historiae Animalium_. The first volume was published in 1551. An abridgement, _Thierbuch_ (animal book) was published in 1563 and an English translation was published by Edward Topsell in 1607. Dover published an inexpensive collection of just the drawings which is where I first encountered it.

Here’s an elephant from Gessner and it done up as an embroidered panel that’s part of the Oxburgh hangings by Mary Queen of Scots. http://vam.ac.uk/collections/item/O73346/the-oxburgh-hangings-panel-mary-queen-of/

Complete first volume is here. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/136746#page/7/mode/1up