The Steeple Aston Cope - Angel Playing Lute 🎼🎶

 

Sorting through all the embroideries that I've done over the years , with a view to framing some of them , I came across this little one . 

I worked on this piece through some difficult years , while my husband was away working abroad . 

I looked forward to the quiet evenings , when the children had gone up to bed , sitting beside the Aga with the dogs at my feet , just doing my embroidery .

It came everywhere with me , in my bag , to pull out and do a little more ,whenever I found a few minutes .

People would ask "Are you going to frame it ? " I never really knew . 

I was just enjoying the doing of it .

Framing is so expensive and to be honest , to my medieval mind anyway , I think this wouldn't look right in a modern frame .

I decided to add the side borders to it as on the original Steeple Aston Cope . Here I am marking it out roughly with simple stitches .

How the memories come flying back to me as I stitch .  I remember that the material I used was just a scrap ! A scrap of upholstery material .

I can even see the selvedge edge on one side of it . I had not planned to embroider all of it , but maybe just the top part of the angel , but little by little I finished it ....well almost .

I remember thinking , how wonderful to make my hands do what those medieval hands did back then and ...could I do that ? 

         I loved every minute of embroidering this little piece ...

                                        and now I am going to enjoy finishing it  .   🤍                

The Steeple Aston Cope

                                 

   
This is my Angel Embroidery .  The design taken from the 14th century Steeple Aston Cope .
 Opus Anglicanum means English Work , English embroidery of the church .   
  

The Steeple Aston Cope , it is thought , was made between 1310 and 1340 .

A beautifully embroidered , long semi-circular cape that is worn by bishop or priest , maybe in procession or during a ceremony . For a Holy Mass or Feast day . 

Here is a link to a brilliant video made by the V+A Mueseum of a virtual reconstruction of  how it originally would have looked as a Cope .

 https://youtu.be/bjMl9UNDGkw

 

Threads of linen and fine silk don't last forever . Beetles , woodworm , moths and mould .
 Seven hundred years of history . Wars , plagues , fire and floods , upheaval of the church and Cromwell's rampaging and plundering .

This precious treasure has been kept safe in the Church of St Peter and St Paul , in Steeple Aston for seven hundred years , either on the Altar or folded away in the Sacristy cupboard drawers .  

 

At some point in time , someone thought to make better use of it and cut it up to make an Altar Frontal and it must have been beautiful up on the Altar during mass .

  So for some time , it was left on display up on the Altar , but , it is said that the Vicar became aware that people were coming in and trying to snip off pieces from it . Shocking ! So he arranged for it to be kept safely , and sent it ,on loan , to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London .
  It was on display there quite recently in an Exhibition on medieval Opus Anglicanum  and now put away into safe storage . Good to know that it is being  kept safe for future generations to study and appreciate .

                                                    An Angel on horseback , playing a lute .

All of these pictures are of my embroidery interpretation of it and  my embroidery doesn't come anywhere near the excellence of the real thing .

 Opus Anglicanum was at it's very best during this period . Then came plague times and sadly these fine embroidery techniques were not passed down . 
.
                         

           Look at the sweet expression on the horse's face !  I fell in love !
......and on a small scrap of upholstery fabric I drew it on with my pencil and embroidered him with cotton and silk threads , a few gold threads and seed beads .

 I began to stitch and as I stitched , I found myself meeting the minds and thoughts of the medieval hands that originally drew and embroidered it .

 I looked forward to any odd minute that I could grab to sit and embroider it .

I didn't think I would do so much of it , or I would have used a larger piece of material .

I enjoyed making the tiny tassels on the horse bridle and across his chest I stitched a kind of braid, weaving it as I stitched .
 The halo around the Angel's head I stitched with gold threads .
The lute has playable strings !

                In both embroidery and illumination , I love the medieval sense of humour !
  

 This kind of English Ecclesiastical embroidery is known as Opus Anglicanum .

  I am uncomfortable about putting it in a frame.  I don't think it would look right somehow .

 I don't think medieval textiles were ever made to be displayed the way we do today , hung in a frame covered with glass . 

 

 Wall hangings were hung just as they were and Church vestments , albs, copes and altar cloths were worn and then stored carefully away in oak coffers in the Sacristy of the Church or Cathedral .

 I ,m thinking of working on it some more , out onto the green fabric and maybe make a devotional piece of some kind .
 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing  some of my needlework  . 

 Update - here is a link to the V+A Museum's page all about the Steeple Aston Cope - enjoy !

               https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-steeple-aston-cope

I love the V+A !

Just in case you were wondering.......

 I embroidered this about twenty years ago and I originally posted it onto my other blog which is mostly about gardening and other more general things .You may have seen it there . I am now gradually moving all my embroidery posts over , to this , my Cornish Needlework Basket journal  .                
                                Debbie x

The Censing Angel - Church of St Peter and St Paul - Cattistock - Dorset

This was one of the first things I stitched using silk thread .
 The Censing Angel from the William Morris and Sir Edward  Burne-Jones  stained glass window  c.1882.The Church of St Peter and St  Paul Cattistock in Dorset .  I so love Pre-Raphaelite paintings and was just inspired to have a go at embroidering this .
 My mother had given me a small collection of reels of the most beautiful  Japanese silk ....so fine but slippery and very difficult to work with ...I used it for the Angel's silken robe . I then embroidered the floral pattern over it .

 I used DMC cotton for the background and some tiny seed beads for the stars .
I,m uncomfortable with using beads in my embroidery . Maybe I should  have worked French knots .

               Some glittery gold thread for the thurible or incense burner .
 

My next piece of silk embroidery is going to take some time to do , I wont be putting it on here for a long while yet ...I prefer to go slowly . This is not a piece that I can easily carry around in my work bag .

 I love to embroider Angels . When I embroidered my medieval Steeple Aston Cope Angel..time travelling back to C.1320 .. I used DMC embroidery cotton for no other reason than I have so much of it , having been much obsessed with cross stitch at the time !
  I prefer surface hand embroidery now and mostly with crewel wool .
 Anyway ... so now I,m dabbling with silk again .....and I also have another crewel project in mind ..well ... I have to have something to work on , that I can take out with me in my bag !  It is very calming for me .
 Well , Winter has returned here in Mullion , although we did enjoy an ice cream down at the  Poldhu beach cafe this afternoon , we were all wrapped up . The sun was shining but there was a cold easterly breeze blowing ....we might have a touch more snow this week  . I,ve been dashing around the garden wrapping up my more tender plants ..and carrying in more logs for the fire ..not good for hands that want to stitch silk !  Keep warm all !