Embroidery evokes other shores, times; Lunenburg class in stitches over royal, Moorish-inspired blackwork.

Byline: Lynne Klaft

LUNENBURG - Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of the infamous King Henry VIII, brought blackwork embroidery to the royal courts of England from Spain in the early 1500s.

"She was the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella; her mother was known as a great seamstress, too," said June H. Dettenrieder of Lunenburg, while teaching a class on blackwork at the Lunenburg Public Library.

"Can you imagine ... they had no electricity, no magnifying glasses, no eyeglasses! I read somewhere that Catherine had a young lady-in-waiting thread her needle for her," said Mrs. Dettenrieder, who described the fine weave linen and very thin needles that are used to embroider the designs.

Nancy Collins of Shirley, who loves stitching and had never heard of blackwork, said, "It's an ancient art and I feel that these types of things should be continued on. I'm going to try a black and gold pattern, like that chess board that June showed us," she said.

Blackwork, or black-on-white (linen) embroidery, was known as Spanish work, and used for decoration on men and women's fashions of the day, imitating delicate lace, much of it sparkling with gold thread.

"The designs were made to be reversible, so that it looks the same on both sides. Holbein, the famous portrait painter, painted these detailed designs on the clothes his subjects were wearing," Mrs. Dettenrieder said.

Although Catherine of Aragon is credited for introducing and popularizing blackwork to England, this form of stitching was known in England long before she arrived in 1501. Chaucer mentions it in his "Canterbury Tales" written during the period 1390-1400, in "The Mylleres Tale."

However, historians such as Patricia Wardle in "Guide to English Embroidery" trace the roots of blackwork embroidery to A.D. 711, when the southern part of Spain was settled by Arabs from northern Africa.

They brought with them an Islamic expression of art and culture that soon spread to the rest of the country.

Known as the "Moorish style," it featured a floral fluted work, scrollwork, interlacing and carefully controlled geometric patterns. Islam forbade the reproduction of natural forms and early designs...