The work is so rare and known in so few copies, that no-one has been able to establish exactly what was published. We know that part 1 is complete as it is here, with 12 leaves of text and 26 plates. Part 2, however, is even scarcer with only one other copy to compare with, and whether that is complete, is uncertain. In all, our copy has 49 plates, as does the other copy known of parts 1 and 2 together (that in the Lilly Library). 

The work contains beautiful hand coloured plates with floral designs and ornaments for both wool foot rugs and for embroidery on silk clothing, handkerchiefs ect. Grosch was fully aware that he was treading new ground with the present publication; in the introduction he states that no comparable work has been published before and that he therefore had to make all designs and colour decisions himself, with no historical references to lean on.

Grosch grew up in Lübeck. He moved to Copenhagen in 1790 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, in an environment best characterized by French classical ideals. Here, he particularly admired the neoclassical works of Bertel Thorvaldsen. Grosch received the academy's small silver medal in 1793, but never succeeded in becoming a member of the academy.

Heinrich August Grosch is considered an important forerunner of J. C. Dahl and Norwegian landscape painting in general. Through art, teaching, and educational writings, he made an important contribution to cultural life in Norway in the first half of the 19th century.
Grosch executed graphic works of various nature; in addition to prospectuses, portraits, and renderings of ancient ruins, he also published textbooks on drawing, calligraphy and embroidery – the present work being the rarest and most progressive.  

Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon 1814-56., p. 218 (mentions both parts).
Biblioteca Danica, Supplement 209 (part 1 only).
See altso Charlotte Paludan & Lone De Hemmer Egeberg: 98 mønsterbøger til broderi, knipling og strikning, 1991.