Embroidery and its early medieval audience: a case study of sensory engagement

ABSTRACT

Embroidery made and used in early medieval England (c. 450–1100) was considered fine art. Today 43 surviving examples known or believed to have been made in early medieval England have been stylistically and technically analysed, and placed within chronological timeframes. Recently the embroideries and their makers’ positions within early medieval society have also been explored, and ‘life’ biographies have been written for some pieces. Until now, the viewers’ experiences of encountering and interacting with embroidery have never been fully investigated. This paper uses sensory archaeology as a technique to access the early medieval ‘mindset’ in order to explore how people actually engaged with embroidery as opposed to what each piece was meant to show or tell them. The early 10^th-century embroidered stole and maniple, which were rediscovered in the tomb of St Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral in the 19^th century, are used as a case study.

KEYWORDS:

• Embroidery
• textiles
• gold
• silk
• liturgical vestments
• early medieval
• St Cuthbert
• England
• sensory archaeology
• senses

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Peter Lester and the two anonymous reviewers for commenting on the earlier version of the manuscript. Also, to Gale Owen-Crocker for answering a number of seemly random questions, and to her and Peter Lester for sourcing a number of hard to come by references during lock down.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Lester-Makin

Alexandra Lester-Makin is a textile archaeologist, specializing in early medieval embroidery. She originally trained at the Royal School of Needlework. Her PhD (Manchester 2016) examined Embroidery and its context in the British Isles and Ireland during the early medieval period (AD 450-1100). She is the author of, The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: the sacred and secular power of embroidery, Ancient Textiles Series 35 (Oxford: Oxbow Press, 2019). At present she is undertaking a Janet Arnold funded experimental project, recreating part of the Cuthbert maniple to learn more about early medieval embroiderers working practices. She is also co-editing a volume exploring collaborative working methods between researchers, conservators, curators and makers for studying early medieval textiles. Alexandra continues with her research interests in early medieval embroidery, its production and place in society, while lecturing, giving talks and runing workshops. Alexandra also founded and runs the Early Medieval (mostly) Textiles blog.