Bargain Box 11 Books Plus * £40 €60 Including Shipping (Shipping probably not economic for USA, Canada, Australia and NZ)

11 needlework books and a nice sampler foldout - a weighty boxful! These are all large format used books in good or better condition - some are deaccessioned library books. All are interesting because the contents far exceed the expectations of their covers and their usefulness as resources is often missed. I have shown a sample page or spread from each book. A bargain for you to stock up your library or share with your stitching group.

First is Greek Island Embroideries a softback book of 40 pages with the same number of images in colour and black and white.

Turkish Embroidery is also a softback with over 100 pages of patterns drawn for you to copy together with full explanations of techniques. Most of the examples are taken from the exquisite Hamam towels - there was obviously competition among the ladies in these public bath houses to have the most beautiful towels....

More Greek Island embroidery from pieces in the Victoria and Albert Museum

I am intrigued by the occurrence of northern folk motifs in these southern pieces - or perhaps it is the other way round!

Above is a spread from Elegant Embroidery - a very beautiful hardback book of around 120 pages, published in Australia and in pristine condition.

Above and below are spreads from Smocking - which apart from having modern projects for you to stitch yourself contains a wealth of historical information and pictures of these lovely embroidered old garments.

Melinda Coss' DMC Stitch Library is so much more attractive than the rather prosaic cover leads you to believe. It has comprehensive and well-diagrammed illustrations of stitches and techniques

as well as some achievable projects for all stitchers to enjoy.

Below is an illustration from The Eastern Carpet in the Western World from the 15th to the 17th Century. Looking at art of this period, we find examples of the most wonderful carpets everywhere. Not all carpets are geometric, some like the wonderful florals below must have inspired stitchers to create their own versions - the rugs on the left hand side of the spread below resemble trellised motifs seen on early spot samplers

carpets were more often used as display hangings and table covers as opposed to something to be trodden upon

There is an extra item in this set for you.....

a high quality 8 sided fold-out of samplers in lovely colour - an occasional catalogue of a Witney Antiques Exhibition.

Above is from Gladys Windor Fry's vintage work of nearly 270 pages with exquisite diagrams and hand mounted colour illustrations of needlework.

Needlework an illustrated history above is one of my favourite books and is always a great surprise when I show it to people - they just would not guess the wonderful treasures inside. Many historical illustrations. Around 350 pages.

Embroidery by Mary Gostelow was a classic in the 60s and she has researched and authored some excellent needlework books - again a book of great illustrations and technique details - over 270 pages.
Below are pages from Thomasina Beck's Embroidered Gardens (around 140 pages) which features details of early embroidery together with well-researched history of the subject.

The books could be shipped further afield than Europe but I would expect the total cost including shipping to be around $200 - do email for more details if you are interested and outside Europe. If you would like these 11 items and can pay via PayPal simply click on the flying angel below. The price includes shipping to wherever you are. >