The hand embroidery machine is a manually operated embroidery machine. It was widely used in the Swiss embroidery industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was also used in the lace industry near Plauen, Germany, and it played a role in the development of the embroidery industry centered in Hudson County, New Jersey during the early 20th century.
Hand embroidery machine by Karl Bleidorn, Industriekultur Museum Neuthal, Switzerland
Fig. 1. Hand machine and needle threading machine about 1890, see text for details
Fig. 3. Hand embroidery machine, side view. See text for description
Original drawing of the machine invented by Joshua Heilmann, front view
St. Gallen embroidery, sometimes known as Swiss embroidery, is embroidery from the city and the region of St. Gallen, Switzerland. The region was once the largest and most important export area for embroidery.
Around 1910, its embroidery production was the largest export branch of the Swiss economy with 18 percent of the overall export value. More than 50 percent of the world production came from St. Gallen.
With the advent of the First World War, the demand for the luxury dropped suddenly and significantly and so a lot of people were unemployed, which resulted in the biggest economic crisis in the region.
Today, the embroidery industry has somewhat recovered, but it will probably never again reach its former size.
Nevertheless, the St. Galler Spitzen are still very popular as a raw material for expensive haute couture creations in Paris and count among the most famous textiles in the world.
Trade and Industry in St. Gallen, Emil Rittmeyer, oil on canvas, 1881. The image shows the World Trade in embroidery at the end of the 19th Century. On the left side, at the column, pose the designers of the embroidery next to factory chimneys and a locomotive. The telegraph line builder in the center indicates the importance of the new technology for the trade - the first Swiss telegraph line ranged from St. Gallen to Zurich in 1852. On the right side, the exporter presents the embroidery to the representatives of all continents.
First Lady Michelle Obama wearing St. Gallen Embroidery during the inauguration ceremony of her husband.
An excerpt from the World Expo 1876 in Philadelphia: the motif comemorizes the 100-year anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. Coat of Arms with lions and the flags of Switzerland and the United States.
Swiss 500 - franc note from the series of 1911, according to a draft of Eugène Burnand. The big economic weight of the St. Gallen embroidery shows the choice as a motive for the banknote with the second highest nominal price.
