File:Adam and eve embroidered book cover.jpeg

Embroidered Binding, English, ca. 1615 A swath of white silk satin (8 ¾ x 12 ½ in.; 222 X 318 mm) embroidered with colored floss silks of pink, peach, sky blue, yellow, apple and dark green, puce, burgundy, and brown and couched purl wire incorporating chiefly satin, seed, and chain stitches, the original design traced in blue ink, the left (or rear) panel depicting the sacrifice of Isaac and the right panel (or front) depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the devil in the form of a serpent emerging from the branches of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the whole contained within a border filled with flower heads and floral sprays flanked on each side by two heralds in contemporary dress, the two panels divided by a column (intended to be the spine) containing the four cardinal virtues, one on top of the other, the original selvage retained on the right side, the left side hand-rolled with a whipstitch; uninfinished in a few small places and therefore unused, some soiling and age-darkening, the purl wire tarnished, the top and bottom edges a trifle frayed. Loosely laid in a frame double-glazed with thick mylar film and hinged to a green cloth folding-case.