Lots of interlacing

Bain has drawn six different interlace designs of varying complexity on this poster. He is illustrating a few of the ways that single strands can be laid out. He then complicates matters by adding extra lines of interlace.

The note refers to how Bain thought interlace was drawn, as shown on a poster that we’ve named Single Strand Interlace. There, he uses the interlace on a mosaic from Verulamium (St Albans) as his source. He notes that if the number of loops along each edge of a square or rectangle are the same, then single strand interlace is not possible. But Bain then complicates things by drawing the red single strand interlace pattern that contradicts this.

George Bain’s published work on knotwork borders includes interlace designs from a wide range of sources. They’re not just from Roman Britain. They appear in the illuminated pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Kells and other early medieval manuscripts. They are also found as ancient embroidered designs from Africa, Persia and Turkey.