Brooks 2004

Brooks, Mary M. English Embroideries of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum. London: Jonathan Horne Publications, 2004.

at least a thousand pictorial embroideries survive (conservative estimate) (7)

print sources

• Gerard de Jode, Thesaurus Sacrarum Historiarum Veteris Testamenti (1585)
• Claude Paradin, Quadrins Historique de la Bible (1553)

similarity between prints indicates intermediary pattern drawer; but "there is generally less correspondence than might be expected than if the designs were being prepared for sale in a completely standardised manner. This seems to indicate that the embroiderer -- or her teacher -- could exercise choice in the selection and combination of images." (13)

1607 play, The Faire Maide of the Exchange', cripple who works as a pattern drawer

same clouds and frog in cat. 9 and cat. 4

nut tape measure, holding tape with verses inside (cat. 20)

cat. 12, embroidered book cover showing abraham's sacrifice of isaac, samson triumphant and saul's conversion on the road to damascas