"The cover embroidery is 7 3⁄4" by 5 3⁄4", couched in a zigzag pattern using fine gold thread. The remainder is worked in linen floss using a split stitch that flows independently from the mesh of the canvas. In the opinion of Cyril Davenport, the embroidery on this book is very high quality: "I know of no other instance for which appropriateness of workmanship, or charm of design, can compare with this, the earliest of all." Davenport praises both the technical quality of the stitching and the overall rendering of the figures and drapery. See illustration for the front cover.[3]
"Davenport describes the back cover in the following manner:
On the lower side, on a groundwork of gold similar to that on the upper cover, is a design of the Crucifixion. Our Saviour wears a red garment round the loins, and round his head is a red and yellow nimbus, his feet being crossed in a manner often seen in illuminations in ancient manuscripts. The cross is yellow with a green edge, the foot widening out into a triple arch, within which is a small angel kneeling in the attitude of prayer. On the right of the cross is a figure of the Virgin Mary, in robes of pale blue and yellow, with a white head-dress and green and yellow nimbus. On the left is another figure, probably representing St. John, dressed in robes of red and blue, and having a nimbus round his head of concentric rings of red and yellow. This figure is unfortunately in very bad condition. The edges of the leaves of the book are painted with heraldic bearings in diamond-shaped spaces, that of the Felbrigge family 'Gules, a lion rampant, or' alternately with another 'azure, a 32 fleur-de-lys, or.'[4]
"By the close of the 19th century, when Davenport wrote, the book had been rebound in leather. The back embroidery had been quite done away with and the embroidered sides had been damaged both by time and by efforts at repair.[5] The two panels have been laid into a calf leather binding dating from the 18th century.[6] No other embroidered English book survives from this early period; the next oldest dates from approximately 1536.[7]
"Grace Christie wrote in 1928 "The Felbrigge Psalter is the only example of existing Opus Anglicanum worked before 1350 with a 'surface' couched gold ground." (Wikipedia article on Felbrigge Psalter, accessed 10-2020).
The British Library records this information regarding the provenance of the volume:
"Provenance English ownership: additions in the calendar of the translations of Edmund of Canterbury, bishop and confessor, and Edmund, king and martyr, in June, and other additions (see Wallis 1987 p. 71. Anne Felbrigge, daughter of Sir Simon Felbrigge (b. 1368, d. 1442), standard-bearer to Richard II, and nun of the Franciscan (Poor Clares) abbey of the Annunciation of St Mary, Bruisyard, Suffolk: the Felbrigge arms of a lion rampant gules on the painted edges; inscriptions 'ffelbrigg' (f. 1 verso); 'Iste liber est sororis anne ffelbrygge ad terminum vite post cuius decessum pertinebit conventui minorissarum de Brusyerde' (2v); obits of Anne's mother, Margaret, and father Simon in the calendar (ff. 3, 5v, 7v); the probable addition during her ownership of prayers (ff. 165-166v)."
