The term Opus Anglicanum can be proven for the Continent in historical documents from the 13^th century onwards. The term was used for popular luxury embroideries from England and probably also for such embroideries ‘made in the English way’. Historically, the term was never actually used in England itself (Blöcher, 2010). Scholarly, the term used to only refer to embroideries made in England from AD 1250 to AD 1350/1400. More recently, scholars now include all embroidery made in England during the medieval period (Hourihane, 2016).

The distinctive features of most ‘classic’ Opus Anglicanum pieces are the very fine split stitch in silk and the underside couching of the metal threads. Both underside couching and very fine split stitch are, however, not exclusive to Opus Anglicanum and were in use on the Continent, too[1].

As the topic covers such an extended period, this lesson explores the oldest goldwork embroideries from England and the earliest forms of Opus Anglicanum. In lesson 3, we will explore the heyday of Opus Anglicanum and goldwork embroideries from late-medieval England. Many of these surviving earlier pieces of goldwork embroidery come from a “semi-archaeological” context. They were discovered when the tombs of important medieval clergy were opened in the 19th century. Collecting fragments of liturgical vestments was a kind of fashionable pastime for gentlemen of a certain standing. Instead of keeping the fragments of one vestment together or leaving a complete embroidery in one piece, they were often shared and cut up between these enthusiasts. Later, they frequently sold or bequeathed their collections to the first museums. That is why we now often see fragments dispersed over several different museums. And, although scholars nowadays do not approve of the collection methods of their predecessors, as collecting took place before the two world wars with all their destruction, we are probably lucky to have these fragments. Incidentally, the viewing and sharing of these collections inspired the Gothic revival movement in church art and architecture. Famous collectors were Joseph Braun SJ (1857-1947), Canon Franz Bock (1823-1899), Louis de Farcy (1841-1921) and Leopold Iklé (1838-1922).

[1] There often is a marked difference in tone between papers on Opus Anglicanum written by British scholars and those papers written by non-British scholars. Bluntly put: the first stress the uniqueness and never again reached high-quality of Opus Anglicanum, whereas the second group firmly draws Opus Anglicanum into the wider picture of the development of embroidery and textile trade in Europe (for instance: Blöcher (2010), Duverger (1955), Ertl (2010) or Geijer (1964)). Notably, the exhibition catalogue of the Victoria & Albert Museum (Browne et al. (2016) is not completely free of the former sentiment. However, scholarly papers should always be objective.