Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in unused condition. Plates bright and vivid. Spine faded. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> While nuns embroidered chasubles and altar cloths for their bishops queens adorned their husbands’ garments for both ordinary and state occasions. Queen Edgyth (pronounced Edith) embroidered her husband’s gowns with complicated floral designs and probably her own too. Wall-hangings were as much a part of recording events and extolling men’s virtues as the professional harpist/singer (Le. the scop) was in Anglo-Saxon society as described so vividly in the Old English story of Beowulf. The wife of the Essex chieftain Byrhtnoth was embroidering a beautiful curtain to celebrate his victories when her husband was killed at the Battle of Maldon in 941. She later donated the curtain to the minster at Ely. The designer and patron of the Bayeux Tapestry may even have seen Byrhtnoth’s curtain hanging at Ely. Even the daughter of England’s first Norman king William may have had a gold-embroidered hanging surrounding her bed. (MP)