Inneedlework, aslip is a design representing a cutting or specimen of aplant, usually withflowers orfruit andleaves on a stem. Most often,slip refers to a plant design stitched incanvaswork (pettipoint), cut out, and applied to awoven backgroundfabric. By extension,slip may also mean anyembroidered or canvasworkmotif, floral or not, mounted to fabric in this way.[2][3]
Isolated motifs arranged in rows are common inEnglish embroidery from the 14th to the 17th centuries, and small floral slips were the most popular.
The nameslip as used in needlework derives from thehorticultural sense, where it describes a cutting of a plant used forgrafting.[4]
Canvaswork floral slips and other motifsappliquéd to a woven background fabric such asvelvet ordamask became common in England from the mid-14th century, replacing the all-over embroidery ofOpus Anglicanum.[6] These were worked withsilkthread intent stitch onlinencanvas, cut out, and applied to the ground fabric, often with an outline and embellishments ofcouched thread or cord or other embroidery. Slips were also appliquéd of rich fabrics on plainer ones, similarly detailed with couched cord and embroidery. This style of decoration is characteristic of latermedievalecclesiastical embroidery (and probably of domestic embroidery as well, although little of this survives). Following thedissolution of the monasteries during theEnglish Reformation, richvestments were cut up and the fabrics and motifs reused to make secular furnishings.[7] Appliquéd slips of both old fabric and new canvaswork are characteristic of domestictextiles such aschair covers,cushions, and especially wall hangings andbed curtains throughout theElizabethan andJacobean eras.
Elizabethan slips were based on thewoodcut illustrations inherbals and flower paintings,[8] such asJacques Le Moyne'sLa Clef de Champs,[4]William Turner'sA New Herball (published in three parts, 1551-1568),Henry Lyte'sA niewe Herball (1578), andJohn Gerard'sGreat Herbal (1597),[9] and were intentionally naturalistic. Slip motifs are also seen inblackwork embroidery, worked in silk, and inJacobean embroidery andcrewel embroidery in silk andwool.
As aNew Year's Day gift toAnne of Denmark in January 1619,Lady Anne Clifford sent a cushion of cloth of silver, embroidered with the royal arms of Denmark, and decorated with "slips of tent stitch". The cushion may have intended to complement acloth of silver bed with the Danish arms owned by the Queen.[10]
By the first quarter of the 17th century, simpler designs for slips were being published in books ofpatterns specifically for embroidery, like Richard Shorleyker'sA Scholehouse for the Needle (1632).[4][11]
