Editing Berlin wool work (section)

== History ==
[[File:Boy's Slippers Berlin Wool Work.jpg|left|thumb|Boy's slippers, Berlin wool work, 1800–1850, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.2007.211.309a-b.]]

Berlin wool work patterns were first published in [[Berlin]], Germany, early in the 19th century. The first Berlin wool patterns were printed in black and white on grid paper and then hand-coloured. Previously, the stitcher was expected to draw the outlines on the canvas and then stitch following the colours on the pattern. Counted stitch patterns on charted paper, similar to modern [[cross-stitch]] patterns, made it easier to execute the designs, because amateur embroiderers were able to follow the patterns using just a simple [[tent stitch]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cluckie |first1=Linda|title=The Rise and Fall of Art Needlework: Its Socio-economic and Cultural Aspects |date=1998 |publisher=Arena books |isbn=9780955605574|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oETeePxtlhUC&q=berlin+wool+work&pg=PA60}}</ref> They were published mostly as single sheets which made them affordable to middle-class women.

Soon they were exported to [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and the United States. The patterns were used sparsely in the United States until the 1840s, when they started to appear in women's magazines,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Needle arts: a social history of American needlework |date=1990 |publisher=Time-Life Books |isbn=0-8094-6841-7 |location=Alexandria, Va. |pages=43 |oclc=21482166}}</ref> after which "Berlin work" became all the rage. Indeed, ''Berlin work'' became practically synonymous with ''canvas work''.

In Britain, Berlin work received a further boost through the [[Great Exhibition of 1851]], and by the advent of ladies' magazines such as ''[[The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine]]''.

The popularity of Berlin work was due largely to the fact that, for the first time in history, a fairly large number of women had leisure time to devote to [[needlework]].

Designs started to be published in Vienna and Paris as well, and included geometric, floral, and pictorial scenes, before sentimental Victorian tastes impacted the patterns.<ref name=":0" /> Subjects to be embroidered were influenced by [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[Romanticism]] and included floral designs, Victorian paintings, [[Bible|biblical]] or [[Allegory|allegorical]] [[motif (art)|motifs]], and animals.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Barbara J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52295597 |title=Victorian embroidery : An authoritative guide |date=2003 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=0-486-42609-2 |location=Mineola, N.Y. |pages=21 |oclc=52295597}}</ref> Berlin work patterns could be applied to various kinds of clothing and home furnishings or could be made as stand-alone artworks, in the style of needle paintings, which are works that copy well-known master paintings in thread.<ref>Rosika Desnoyers, ''Pictorial Embroidery in England: A Critical History of Needlepainting and Berlin Work'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2019).</ref>
  
In the late 1880s, the demand for Berlin wool work decreased dramatically, largely because the tastes had changed, but also because Berlin work publishers failed to accommodate new tastes. Other, less opulent styles of embroidery became more popular, such as the [[art needlework]] advocated by [[William Morris]] and his [[Arts and Crafts movement]]. Yet the wide distribution of Berlin work patterns had made needlework available to a large number of women, and it also caused them to become interested in other types of needlework.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|68}}