Historical roots of the origin of embroidery go deep into the depths of centuries. Embroidery is a very gentle thing. It isn't long-lived. Even in museums special conditions are required to preserve it from damage. Don't believe anyone who tells you: "I know when embroidery was born!" The first embroidered piece of cloth had no chance to survive for a long time.
It is closely linked with the appearance of the first stitch in the manufacture of clothing (about 200 centuries before). The material of the first embroidery could be veins of animals and natural hair. It is clear that there no any evidences from that period. In later years we can base on written and painted sources.

For example Liu Xiang (79-8 BCE) in his Shuoyuan ("Garden of Stories") wrote that silk embroidery already had been used in the country of Wu. It means that Liu Xiang already new about silk embroidery and even more – the silk embroidery wasn't something new at his time! So we can conclude that the silk embroidery is at is at least 2000 years old.

The Middle Ages (476AD – 1492 AD), sometimes called Mediaeval times, left us much more samples of embroidery.

About European Medieval embroidery of middle age we can learn a lot from the painted pictures.

Here some examples of medieval middle eastern embroidery:


Egyptian tiraz inscription, 10th century; Silk embroidery on linen.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.73.5.635


Silk Textile with Six-Petaled Flower
Bahri Mamluk period, 13th century
Red and blue silk embroidery on white silk.
Museum of Islamic Art

By the way: one popular assumption is that Islamic culture does not tolerate figural imagery. This ban can certainly be seen at work in religious contexts. No human or animal figure appears in mosque decoration. On the other hand, figural images were common in secular contexts, especially in works of art made for the courts of Islamic rulers. Ivory caskets from the courts of Muslim Spain, for example, are sometimes carved with images of courtiers and musicians surrounded by birds and animals in a garden setting, and many literary manuscripts contain figural illustrations.


Cordoba, Ivory Casket in Pamplona, 1004-05

Many of the surviving Persian textiles contain human figures:

Detail of Persian Cloud Collar, early 15th Century

About European Medieval embroidery we can learn a lot from the painted pictures.
For example: icon with Saints Boris and Gleb, Moscow, mid-14th century:
(State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg)
Here you can clearly realize the details of the embroidered cloth.

Another well-known example of embroidered cloth is the Bayeux Tapestry (1066), which explains the events leading up to the 1066 Norman conquest of England as well as the events of the conquest itself.


Portion of the tapestry: Harold is struck in the eye by an arrow and dies.