Embroidered Fukusa
Japan ornamental arts, by George Ashdown Audsley, 1882.
VERY few of the specimens of the Japanese embroiderer’s skill which have come under our observation are equal, in point of refinement of feeling and delicacy of colouring, to the fukusa represented in the present plate. The execution of the embroidery is absolutely faultless; and the stitches (opus plumarium) are laid with a skill and accuracy unknown even in the finest specimens of fourteenth and fifteenth century English or Continental embroidery.
The perfect representation of such marvellous embroidery is almost beyond the powers of chromolithography; but every care has been taken to do justice to the original in our reduced Plate, and the general effect of the colouring has been admirably secured. The size of the original fukusa is 29½ inches by 24 inches.
The border round the embroidery in the Plate is from a piece of silk and gold brocade; the pattern is one of the simple interlaced diaper designs so much affected by Japanese artists.
In the possession of Monsieur S. Bing, of Paris.
Source: The ornamental arts of Japan by George Ashdown Audsley. Lithographer: W. Greve, Berlin. Published: Lemercier & cie., Paris 1882.
