Old needlepoint

Needlepoint, petit point or tapestry?

Is there canvas under the stitches? Then it is needlepoint: stitches worked with a needle over an open canvas until they cover it. Before you look, read "Before you do anything to it" below and handle the piece as it says. Do not take a piece out of a frame, off a board, off a chair, a stool or a fire screen, or out of its backing to look. If no canvas shows without opening it, leave it closed: a piece in an old frame or stuck to a board goes to a conservator, as that section also says. Look for the grid where it shows. That may be at the back: behind half cross, one of the three ways of working tent stitch, the canvas shows through the thread, and half cross covers less well than the other two. A back with no canvas in sight does not rule needlepoint out.

Crosses on the grid. If the stitches are X-shaped crosses, the stitch is cross stitch, which is worked on canvas as well as on fabric; needlepoint and related terms explains the names. Old work on canvas has it too: museum records of Berlin woolwork, described below, include a picture and a fire screen panel worked in cross stitch on canvas.

Tapestry first meant something else: a cloth woven on a loom, with the picture made in the weaving. In the 19th century people began stitching on canvas to get the look of woven tapestry with far less work, and the word is now used for both. Stitching on canvas is itself far older than that: a national museum holds a table carpet worked in tent stitch on linen canvas between 1600 and 1615. Many pieces called tapestry are needlepoint. See needlepoint and related terms.

Petit point is needlepoint in small tent stitches. Definitions differ on where it begins; one puts it at 16 stitches to the inch and finer. On double canvas, which is woven with its threads in pairs, the term has a specific meaning: a tent stitch over a single thread is petit point and a stitch over a pair is gros point, four times the area. A piece with fine stitches in some parts and, in others, stitches that each cover the area of four fine ones, all on one canvas, may be worked on double canvas, which allows both. Double canvas is also called Penelope canvas, and canvas and mesh sizes describes it under that name.

What museums say about age, and the limits

A museum record can say when a kind of work was made. It cannot date your piece.

What one national museum says of Berlin woolwork, the fashionable canvas work of the 19th century:

• It is wool, sometimes with beads, worked on canvas by copying a colored chart.
• It takes its name from the printed patterns and dyed wools that came from Berlin from 1804 onward.
• It was the most popular embroidery technique in Britain between 1830 and the 1870s, and the museum calls it almost exclusively a 19th century technique.
• Bouquets of flowers, often full-blown roses, were popular motifs.
• The printed patterns were colored by hand at first, until industrial printing took that over.

So a canvas of wool roses, perhaps with beads, fits a fashion of about 1830 to the 1870s. That does not mean it was made then. The same museum holds a canvas bag with roses in petit point from about 1900 and a seat cover with a floral pattern in wool tent stitch from the 1930s, and it records that Berlin wool was made until the 1930s. These records date a fashion, not a piece.

To learn more about a particular piece, ask the relevant department of the nearest museum with a collection of that kind of textile, which can point you to a conservator or to someone qualified to appraise. Before you ask, read the next section and handle the piece as it says. Then write down a description of the piece and what you know of its history, measure it, and photograph it square-on with a card marked with a scale beside it.

Before you do anything to it

• Handle it little. Wash your hands first and take off rings that could catch a thread. Carry it with its weight supported on a tray or a sturdy piece of cardboard.
• Do not wash it, and do not vacuum it on your own judgment. A textile museum's advice is not to clean a historical textile without first asking a conservator, because cleaning can do more harm than the dirt. Dusting with a vacuum is cleaning too. A conservation institute that publishes notes on the care of textiles says the condition of a textile must be assessed before it is vacuumed. One that is extremely fragile or has powdering fibers should not be cleaned at all, and one with many broken threads or loose beads goes to a conservator. On an old piece that assessment is a conservator's work, so ask one before you dust it. The cleaning guide says the same of anything old, and its steps are written for sturdy modern pieces.
• Know when to stop. The conservation institute lists what should go to a textile conservator, because wrong attempts to deal with these can do further damage: dyes that run, mold, insect damage, threads that are powdering, stains, splits, tears, missing areas, old glue, and any piece stuck to card or board. It says the same of a piece that is already in an old frame.
• Insects. If you find insects or signs of them on a piece in a frame or on furniture, leave it as it is: do not take it out or off to bag it, keep it away from other textiles, and ask a conservator. Seal any other piece in a clean polyethylene bag and keep it apart from other textiles, which is the conservation institute's first step with an infested textile. Use a bag large enough that the piece need not fold: "Storing it" below says what a fold can do to a brittle piece. Then ask a conservator. The textile museum tells the owner of a rare textile to get a conservator's advice before treating it. The treatment it describes is freezing, at temperatures that most refrigerator freezers do not reach, so it is not work for a kitchen freezer.

To find a conservator, the textile museum points to the directory that a professional body of conservators keeps of its members.

Storing it

The guidance of the textile museum and the conservation institute, in short:

• Choose a place that is cool, dry and dark. Avoid attics and basements, where temperature and damp swing widely.
• Keep it off the floor.
• Lay it flat if you have the room. The conservation institute calls flat storage ideal for most textiles, and puts very fragile and heavily decorated pieces, such as beaded ones, first in line for it. Use an acid-free box with a lid, or a drawer (a wooden one is lined first, as the next point says), large enough that the piece need not fold. Line it with washed cotton sheeting or unbuffered acid-free tissue, and do not stack other textiles on top.
• Line a wooden drawer or shelf first with acid-free paper, either tissue or barrier paper, because wood gives off acid. The textile museum says a lining lasts two or three years before it needs changing. That paper goes against the wood, not against the piece: acid-free paper may be buffered, and buffered paper can damage wool and silk, as said below. The washed cotton sheeting or unbuffered tissue goes between the paper and the piece.
• Do not roll a piece that is in poor condition, has weak or detached parts, has stiff decoration that might split when bent, will not lie flat, or is made of layers that would not roll as one, as a lined or backed piece may be. The conservation institute stores those unrolled, in flat storage as described above. If you are not sure, lay it flat.
• Any other piece can be rolled instead, without folding it first. A fold left for years becomes a crease, and the crease can break a brittle piece. Roll it around an archival tube, not a PVC pipe, which gives off harmful chemicals as it ages. The tube should be longer than the piece is wide and of a diameter that suits the piece. The conservation institute wraps a tube in bubble cushioning to make it thicker where needed, and the acid-free tubes it describes are about 3 inches (8 cm) across. Before the piece goes on, it covers the tube, padded or not, with polyethylene sheeting and then wraps it completely in unbuffered acid-free tissue or washed cotton sheeting. It rolls embroidery and other raised work with the right side, the stitched face, outward, and rolls unbuffered acid-free tissue or washed cotton sheeting in between the layers.
• The tissue should be unbuffered. The conservation institute says buffered acid-free materials contain alkalis that can damage wool and silk.
• If it must be folded, pad the inside of every fold. The conservation institute pads folds with unbuffered acid-free tissue pleated like an accordion, and it moves the folds of a folded textile regularly.
• Cover it with washed cotton sheeting or washed muslin to keep off dust and light. The conservation institute ties a roll loosely in several places with white cotton tape, so that it cannot unroll.
• Look at it from time to time for signs of insects.

Displaying it, or making something of it

Framing. Ask a textile conservator before an old piece is framed. The conservation institute says most embroideries can be safely framed. It sends any piece with one of the conditions listed above to a conservator first, and it says a textile that is soiled or in poor condition should not be mounted until a conservator has advised. For a small, light textile in sound condition the conservation institute has a method of its own: the piece is sewn flat to a fabric-covered board, a mounting that supports it all over and is meant to be reversible. Whether that method suits a needlepoint is a conservator's to judge. The steps in how to frame needlepoint are for new work. They begin by blocking the canvas, which means dampening it and pinning it out square, and then wrap it around a board and lace it. That guide also says to ask a textile conservator before framing a piece that is old or fragile. Do not dampen, block or lace an old piece on your own judgment. For the frame itself the conservation institute asks for what that guide asks for: acid-free boards, and glass held off the stitches. Light is the cost of display: the textile museum suggests showing a textile for four months and resting it in the dark for the remainder of the year.

On furniture. Berlin woolwork was often used in upholstery, and an old piece may still be on its chair, stool or fire screen. Leave it there. Taking old needlepoint off its furniture, or putting it back, is a conservator's work: the conservators' directory lists upholstery among its textile specialties.

A pillow. Ask a conservator before an old piece is dampened, blocked or cut, before glue or any adhesive is put on it, and before it is sewn into a pillow or made up into anything else. The conservation institute lists glues, adhesive tapes and adhesive-coated boards among the things that should never touch a textile. The steps in how to finish a pillow start from a blocked canvas, and blocking dampens the canvas and pins it out. A pillow gets more wear than a framed piece, and trimming an old canvas cannot be undone.

What is it worth?

What a particular piece is worth is for an appraiser to say. Before you ask one:

• Value depends on the question. The replacement value for insurance, the price it would sell for, and its value against other things when an estate is divided can be three different answers. Decide which you need.
• Curators and conservators do not value things. Museum guidance for textile owners says they are prohibited from making valuations.
• An appraiser does. To find someone qualified, ask the relevant department of the nearest museum with a collection of that kind of textile. Appraisers' associations also keep directories of their members.
• Ask about the fee first. It should normally be a fixed fee, not a percentage of the valuation.
• Send pictures, not the piece. Send the description, the history and the photographs. Do not carry an heirloom from place to place in search of an opinion.