May Morris 
Decorative Needlework 

First published in 1893, this work is an instructional manual on embroidery. It discusses many aspects of decorative needlework, and contains numerous illustrations to explain the techniques involved. It is a fantastic book for anyone wishing to learn the skill and get started on some needlework creations of their own. The following passage is an extract from the work stating the author’s aim:

‘I have tried to show that executive skill and the desire of and feeling for beauty, realized in a work of definite utility, are the vital and essential elements of this as of all other branches of art, and that no one of these elements can the embroideress neglect or overlook if her work is to have life and meaning. If she pursues her craft with due care, and one might even say with enthusiasm, however, she will not only taste that keen pleasure which every one feels in creative work, however unpretending, but the product will be such as others will be careful to preserve: this in itself being an incentive to good work.’

To this volume is added a specially commissioned introduction to the art of embroidery.