A little while ago I wrote a blog about zijdjes, cigarette silks produced by the Dutch company of Turmac, between about 1920 and 1934. It was noted in the blog that the embroidered examples now in the TRC Collection were machine, rather than hand stitched. I have had several questions since then about how to tell the difference?
First of all a difference has to be made between a free-motion embroidery machine with a single needle that can be moved all over a piece of cloth, and an industrial embroidery machine which might have hundreds of needles all working in synchronisation. The former tends to be more irregular in shape and a lot closer to free-style hand embroidery. The latter tends to include the repetition of one or more motifs.
Below I want to focus on multiple-needle machine embroidery, which is produced by a variety of machines, namely Cornely (chain stitch), Schiffli (basically satin stitch, zig-zag stitch, running stitch) and Leaver (basically satin stitch, zig-zag stitch, running stitch) machines, and the multiple-needle hand embroidery machine (a wide variety of stitches).
So how do you tell the difference between hand and (multiple-needle) machine embroidery – well, sometimes it can be very difficult to spot the difference! Nevertheless, there are several things to look for, namely:
Regularity of the design
The individual motifs on an industrial embroidery look as if a ruler has been used to get everything on straight lines, and the form and size of the stitches are also very regular. It is worth noting that cigarette silks were produced in long lengths of identically embroidered motifs that were later cut up into individual silks. The size and position of the stitches and use of colour are identical on each motif.
Front and back of a length of identical, machine embroidered posies that would have been separated and then added to a packet of cigarettes (1920s-1930s, the Netherlands; TRC 2021.2478a).
Threads
Check to see if there are threads that go from one part of the design to another appearing on the front of the ground cloth. Hand embroiderers normally hide the yarn on the back of the cloth.
The red arrows point to where the bobbin threads have been moved from one area of the motif to another on the front surface of the ground cloth. 1920s-1930s, the Netherlands, TRC 2021.2473c
Bobbins and shuttles
If a Schiffli type machine is applied then two threads are used on the front and the back of the ground material, with the front thread from a bobbin, and the back thread from a spool. Often these are in different colours. In addition, in order to create a neat appearance on the front of the cloth, the tension of both threads is set so that the bobbin yarn appears on the back as well as the front, while the spool yarn is only on the back. This principle, using two threads, is also used by most of the single-needle embroidery machines, which however do not show the identical repetition of motifs.
Front and back of a machine embroidered butterfly; the blue floss thread from the bobbins are clearly shown on the front of the butterfly, but are only irregular blue lines on the back. In addition, there are white lines on the back created by the spool threads. The high tension on the white (spool) thread has pulled the blue (bobbin) thread to the back (1920s – 1930s, the Netherlands, TRC 2021.2475b).
Facing material
In more modern examples there may be a facing material on the back to strengthen the ground cloth.
Workshop
If you are interested in learning more about the differences between hand and machine embroidered forms, then why not register for the TRC’s workshop on the subject, on Wednesday 20 October, 10.00 - 13.00.
Gillian Vogelsang, 29 August 2021
