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Basketweave in metal thread embroidery refers to couching gold, silver or copper threads over rows of hard string padding. The couching stitches pull the metal thread down between the padding which creates a woven effect.  Many different patterns can be achieved by stitching over different numbers of string padding in different sequences.  The alternative name of gaufrure translates literally as embossing.

Basketweave has long been a feature of ecclesiastical embroidery.  Harvard art museums holds a 16th-17th century burse which features large areas of basketweave; Notre Dame church in Montreal has an altar frontal dating to the early 19th century which features this stitch.  A 19th century publication, Art Amateur, says that Spanish embroiderers were particularly known for basketweave and they did not confine the technique to churchwork.  The article also mentions an 1878 exhibition at the Royal School of Art-Needlework of an antique altar-hanging entirely worked in basketweave alongside a modern reproduction.

Basketweave was also popular on 18th century garments for both men and women where it was used with other metal threads and silk embroidery to form floral designs. Charles Germain de Saint-Aubin describes gaufrure with an accompanying diagram in his 1770 publication L’art du brodeur (The art of the embroiderer).