The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderers’ Story - Jan Messent

The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderers’ Story by Jan Messent is a richly illustrated exploration of the making of the Bayeux Tapestry, written from an embroiderer’s perspective. This hardback collector’s reissue from Search Press includes a new preface by the author and presents the work in a large-format edition.

Key details

• Author: Jan Messent
• Format: hardback
• Pages: 116
• Publisher: Search Press
• Publication date: 16 June 2026
• ISBN: 9781800924338

Synopsis

Created to shed light on how the Bayeux Tapestry may have been planned and stitched, this book considers who the embroiderers were, the tools and materials they used, and the working conditions behind such a large undertaking. Messent draws on her own experience as an embroiderer and artist, piecing together evidence found within the tapestry itself to offer a researched, practical account of its construction.

The volume comprises an introduction, seven hand-drawn and handwritten chapters, and a landscape presentation of the author’s finished reconstruction, with recommended reading and a full transcription of the handwritten text in printed type at the back. For this collector’s edition, a new preface acknowledges discoveries made since the book’s first publication 25 years ago.

About the author

Jan Messent is an embroiderer and a teacher of Art, History and English who has lectured worldwide and taught embroidery to members of the Embroiderer’s Guild. In 1996 she was commissioned to reconstruct the missing last eight feet of the Bayeux Tapestry, an experience that informed this carefully illustrated study.

Rackhams Reference : CP3LQ7FA2R