Note 609 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
The merit or blame of this rounded padded work (a caricature of the raised embroidery of the opus Anglicanum) is often erroneously awarded to the “nuns of Little Gidding.” The earliest specimens we know of this “embroidery on the stamp” are German. At Coire in the Grisons, at Zurich (see chapter on ecclesiastical art), and in the National Museum at Munich are some very beautiful examples. The Italians also executed elaborate little pictures in this manner; but I cannot praise it however refined in execution or beautiful the design. I have seen no English specimens that are not beneath criticism; they are only funny.