Printed design for an embroidered man's nightcap, in corded quilting, about 1725, by Margaretha Helm (1659-1742).

Printed design for an embroidered man's nightcap, in corded quilting featuring a stylised floral and leaf motif. The floral motif is in the centre of the dome shaped design and has symmetrical leaves and flowers either side of the central stalk.

These printed designs by Helm are catalogued as by Helmin, the feminine of Helm, in the Micromedia online catalogue.

Attribution note: Recorded as a new technique in embroidery in Germany in 1715, corded quilting was fashionable in Europe and Britain. Helm included designs for dress embroidered in corded quilting in some of her pattern books which were likely to be more generic than her own invention. This French technique was praised in the foreword to Kraus's Clear Presentation . That patterns for corded quilting were actually used is shown by garments embroidered int his technique in German dress collections, for example, a woman's nightgown and a child's jacket in the GNM (Germanisches Nationalmuseum). Numerous British examples can be found in collections in the UK.

Marseilles stiching means corder quilting. See bibliographic reference for Kraus.

This is a printed design for a man's nightcap for embroidery in corded quilting featuring a floral motif. Corded quilting was recorded as a new technique in Germany in 1715 and was fashionable in Britain and Europe. It is from a pattern book for embroidery (about 1725) by Margaretha Helm (neé Mainberger) (born in 1659 in Deiningen, died in 1742 in Nuremberg, Germany). Helm worked in Nuremberg as an embroiderer, a teacher of embroidery and a copperplate engraver who had her designs published by Johann Christoph Weigel. The V&A has a series of pattern books for embroidery in three parts by Margaretha Helm of which this volume is Part I. It is entitled Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen oder neu- erfundenes Neh-und Stick-Buch or
The Delights of the Art and Industry of the practising Needle or the newly invented Sewing and Embroidery Book .

E.3393-1932