sides of the stamped leather bindings of mediæval books.

[Illustration: FIG. 6. Spangle kept in place by a stitch
through a short piece of Purl.]

[Illustration: FIG. 7. Spangle kept in place by a stitch
through a seed pearl.]

[Illustration: FIG. 8. Binder's stamp for gold tooling, cut in
imitation of a spangle.]

It may be mentioned that the seventeenth-century Dutch binders, Magnus
and Poncyn, both of Amsterdam, invented a new tool for gilding on
leather bindings, used, of course, in combination with others. This was
cut to imitate the small circular spangles of the embroidered books
(Fig. 8), and the English and French finishers of a later period used
the same device with excellent effect for filling up obtrusive spaces on
the sides and backs of their decorative bindings. Thus it may be taken
as an axiom that, for the proper working of an embroidered book, except
it be tapestry-stitch or tent-stitch, on canvas, which is flat and
strong of itself, there should invariably be a liberal use of metal
threads, these being not only very decorative in themselves, but also
providing a valuable protection to the more delicate needlework at a
lower level, and to the material of the ground itself.

The earliest examples of embroidered bindings still existing are not by
any means such as would lead to the inference that they were exceptional
productions--made when the idea of the application of needlework to the
decoration of books was in its infancy. On the contrary, they are
instances of very skilled workmanship, so that it is probable that the