EMBROIDERY DESIGNS FOR FASHION AND FURNISHINGS BY A 18 TH C. FEMALE DESIGNER.

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HELMIN (Margaretha). Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen; oder, neu- erfundenes Neh-und Stick-Buch. Worin dem, solche schöne wissenschafftliebendem, Frauenzimmer, allerhand, zu vielen Sachen anständige, Muster und Risse, nach der neuesten Façon, zu deren nützlichen bedienung, [with Part II. Fortgesetzter... & Part III. Continuantio...], 3 parts in one, 1st edition, Nuremberg: Johann Christoph Weigel, circa 1725, 156 copper engraved plates, of which 59 are folding, three engraved titles within floral wreath frame, the first with armorial bookplate on verso, each part with two letterpress leaves, occasional minor toning, spotting, and edge-creasing, small tears and repairs, a few plates trimmed and re-guarded, pageblock 19.5 x 31cm, modern brown half calf, gilt decorated spine with raised bands, oblong folio. Apart from the small tears (because fold out) the book is very clean and in a beautiful state of preservation.

Margaretha Helmin (1659-1742), also known as Margaretha Helm, was a German embroiderer, teacher and skilled copper plate engraver working in Nurembuerg, who created plates of her many embroidery designs. This substantial work contains a plethora of beautiful designs, to be worked in varying techniques, for household linen and clothing, e.g. fans, shoes and slippers, gloves, stomachers, borders, night caps, jackets, neckerchiefs, muffs, neck linen, gown hems, hats, bags, aprons, tassels, saddle cloths, and book covers. This volume was purchased by Martin Orskey at Sotheby's in 1968 and reauctioned at Dominic Winter 2019 and bought by us. No other copies can be found in the auction records. The V&A has the work in its collections. In Germany there are no complete copies, the Lipperheidische Kostümbibliothek, only has part one. The MET has possibly a complete copy.

The following information is derived from 'Deserving Attention: Margaretha Helm's Designs for Embroidery in the Eighteenth Century',. Moira Thunder, Journal of Design History, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2010), pp. 409-427. Pattern books, such as those of Margaretha Helm, for eighteenth-century embroidered dress that show the cut of the garment, the embroidery techniques and include letter pouches to saddle cloths are surprisingly rare. Helm's pattern books do show how fashionable dress and embroidery techniques spread in eighteenth-century Europe. In the past, designs for textiles, and especially those by women, have not been treated as equally important to those by men for media such as metalwork or sculpture.

Margaretha Helm was a female designer, here work is catalogued as the artist responsible for a group of printed designs for embroidery in the Word an Image Department (WID). These patterns are valuable to dress and design historians. The prefaces provide technical information for some of the designs. The patterns show the cut of fashionable and regional dress embroidered in diverse techniques. They show multi-purpose designs for different textile crafts. They can be used to compare reused designs, and

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generic fashionable patterns adapted to dress and household objects. They can be compared to surviving examples of textiles and dress such as the bodice and skirt of a suit, men's nightcaps, a woman's jacket, night- gown and a child's jacket.

What is important about Helm's pattern books is the compilation of reused earlier Italian designs with generic ones adapted to fashionable dress that put the 'newly invented' into the title of The Delights, Further Delights and Continuation of the Delights, making them marketable to the fashion conscious. Since the pattern books can be dated, they assist in the identification of styles of embroidery in dress and textiles for the domestic interior, giving an indication of fashion's longevity. In addition, it is the discourse about women continued in the forewords that provides insight into morals, religious preoccupations and the arguments for women to express themselves familiar to the patrician class in eighteenth-century Saxony.