Neües Danβerlein Büechel: Winter Und Sommer Gaertlein, Plate 8

Eighth plate of pocket-sized Textile Pattern Book with title page 13 pages of letterpressed text, printed on recto and verso, and 33 plates with small textile patterns. This type of pattern book, dated 1691, is of an unusually small format, featuring intricately decorated titles and text, rarely present in German pattern books for women of the 17th century. The plate consists of a grid of thin lines, filled with two horizontal embroidery patterns, likely intended for cross-stitching. The first pattern is made up of an undulating garland with alternating pairs of small rosettes, bordered above and below by thin, horizontal, intermittent lines. The second pattern is made up of alternating rosettes and knots that form a motif with eight lozenges, each containing a smaller lozenge in the center, bordered above and below by seamless strips of rectangles. The patterns are executed by filling with dots the spaces of the grid with black to reveal the design motifs. They would have been used mostly by women as a guide in their needlework, which was a type of "entertainment-work" they were expected to engage with during their free time in the home at the time this pattern book was produced.