Textile Fabrics: A Descriptive Catalogue

1295

Tissue of Cotton Warp and Silk and Gold Woof; ground, now yellow; design, eagles in pairs, divided by rayed orbs, amid foliage all in gold. Sicilian, middle 14th century. 6½ inches by 5½ inches.

The eagles are about to take wing, and are pecking at the rays of, seemingly, the sun which separates them. The foliage is much like, in form, that which so often occurs on works from the looms of Palermo; and, in all likelihood, the ground, now yellow, was once of a fawn-colour. Though good in design, this stuff is made of poor materials, the silk in it is small, and the gold of such a base quality that it has become a dusky brown.

1296

Tissue of Flaxen Thread Warp and Silk and Gold Woof; ground, fawn-coloured; design, eagles in pairs affronted, with a pencil of sun-rays darting down upon their heads, and resting amid flowers all in gold. Sicilian, middle 14th century. 8 inches by 4¼ inches.

What we said of No. 1295 is equally applicable to this specimen, in which, however, may be seen, the corn-flower, centaurea, so often met with in Palermitan textures of the time.

1297

Silk Damask; ground, light green; design, within a heart-shaped figure, a large vine-leaf, at which two very small hoopoes, one at each side, are pecking; outside the ovals, from which large bunches of small-fruited grapes are hanging, runs a scroll with little vine-leaves, all now of a fawn-colour, but at first in a rosy crimson hue. Italian, late 14th century. 15 inches by 5¼ inches.

The design for this tasteful stuff was thrown off by an easy flowing hand; and Dr. Bock has given a good plate, in his “Dessinateur des Etoffes,” 3 Livraison, of a silk almost the very same, the differences being some very slight variations in parts of its colours.

1298, 1298a

Silk Damask; ground, purple; design, amid foliage and small geometrical figures, birds in pairs, all in rosy red, and beasts in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 9½ inches by 3¾ inches, and 4½ inches by 4 inches.

Putting these two pieces together we make out this beautiful, elaborate, though small pattern. What the birds may be is hard to guess, but the beasts seem lionesses, with bushy tails, and bold spirited griffins. Dr. Bock has figured this stuff in the before-mentioned large work.

1299

Damask, gold, silk, and thread; ground, dull purple; design, two broad horizontal bands, the first charged with a hound, green, collared, armed, and langued white, lying down with head upturned to a large swan in gold, with foliage all about them; on the second, a dog chasing a hart, both in gold, and between two cable ornaments in gold, and two scrolls of roving foliage, in light green pricked with white. Sicilian, late 14th century. 18 inches by 12 inches.

The beautiful and boldly-drawn pattern of these beasts and birds in pairs, and succeeding each other, is not duly honoured by the materials used in it; the quantity of thread is large, and the gold of the poorest sort.

1300

Silk Damask; ground, blue; design, in yellow, a net-work done in ovate geometrical scrolls, and the meshes filled in with geometrical lozenges, and others showing an ornamentation of singular occurrence, somewhat like the heraldic nebule. Lucca, early 15th century, 10½ inches by 7½ inches.

After a pattern that seldom is to be found on mediæval stuffs.

1301

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, bright crimson silk; design, in gold, fruit of the pomegranate, mingled with flowers and leaves of another plant. South of Spain, 15th century. 9 inches by 8¾ inches.

At a distance this stuff must have shown well, but its materials are not of the first class; though lively in tone, the silk is poor, and its gold made of that thin gilt parchment cut into flat shreds, like other examples here—Nos. 8590, 8601, 8639, &c.

1302

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, fawn-coloured faded from crimson, in silk; design, large eagles perched in pairs, with a radiating sun between them, and beneath the rays dogs in pairs, running with heads turned back and looking on the foliage separating them, all in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 17 inches by 8½ inches.

The fine and spirited pattern of this piece is now very indistinct, owing to the bad colour of the ground, which has so much faded, and the inferior quality of the gold upon the thread.

1303

Silk Damask; ground, a rose-coloured tint; pattern, in a dull tone of the same, broad strap-work, in reticulations enclosing a circular conventional floriation. Moresco-Spanish, 14th century. 6 inches by 5½ inches.

The tone of the colour has changed from its first brightness, and the stuff is of a very thin texture.

1304

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson silk much faded; design, harts collared and flying eagles amid foliage, all in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 2 feet 8 inches by 1 foot.

In this spirited pattern the running harts in the upper row have caught one of their hind-legs in the cord tied to their collar, and an eagle swoops down upon them; in the second row, the same animal has switched its tail into the last link of the chain fastened to its collar, and an eagle seems flying at its head, as it screams with gaping beak. The last use of this specimen of so magnificent a stuff appears to have been as part of a curtain (with its 15th century poor parti-coloured thread fringe) for hanging at the sides of an altar.

1305

Embroidered Lappet of a Mitre; ground, linen; design, beneath a tall niche, a female in various coloured silks and gold; and under her, within a lower-headed niche, a male figure after the same style. German, late 14th century. 17½ inches by 3 inches.

The high-peaked canopy, with its crocketing and finial well formed and once all covered with gold, holds a female figure, crowned like a queen, with the banner of the Resurrection in one hand and a chalice, having on it the sacred host, in the other, which may be taken for the person of the Church, while the majestic prophet beneath her seems to be Malachi holding a long unfolded scroll significative of those words of his relating to the sacrifice in the New Law. In the embroidery of the figures this piece very much resembles the style of needlework in the part of an orphrey, No. 1313. In his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 2 Lieferung, pl. xii. Dr. Bock has given figures of this curious lappet.

1306, 1306a

Silk Damask; ground, fawn-coloured; design, amid sunbeams, raindrops, and foliage, large birds clutching in their talons a scroll charged with a capital letter R thrice repeated, all in light green. Sicilian, late 14th century. 13 inches by 6½ inches; and 8 inches by 3¾ inches.

The design of this stuff is rather curious from the inscribed scroll, the letter R of which is very Italian.

1307

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, fawn-colour; design, amid a conventional foliation shooting out in places with large fan-like flowers in gold, braces of small birds on the wing and pairs of running dogs with two antelopes, couchant, biting a bough, both in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 12½ inches by 8½ inches.

A very good design well drawn, but unfortunately not quite perfect in the specimen, the golden parts of which are much tarnished.

1308

Silk Damask; ground, rosy fawn-coloured; design, within a wreath made up mostly of myrtle-leaves and trefoils, a lion’s head cabosed, above which is a bunch of vine-leaves shutting in a blue corn-flower, and at each side, in white, a word in imitated Arabic; excepting the blue centaurea and two white flowers in the wreath, all the rest is in light green. Sicilian, 14th century. 22 inches by 10¾ inches.

This well-varied pattern is nicely drawn, and shows the traditions of the Saracenic workmen who once flourished at Palermo.

1309

Embroidery of Thread upon Linen; design, in raised stitchery, the hunting of the unicorn. German, late 14th century. 26½ inches by 13½ inches.

This fine piece of needlework shows us a forest where a groom is holding three horses, on two of which the high-peaked saddles are well given; running towards him are two hunting dogs, collared. In the midst of the wood sits a virgin with her long hair falling down her back, and on her lap an unicorn is resting his fore-feet; behind this group is coming a man with a stick upon his shoulder, from which hangs, by its coupled hind-legs, a dead hare. Not only the lady, but the men wear shoes with remarkably long toes, and the gracefulness with which the foliage is everywhere twined speaks of the period as marked in the architectural decoration of the period here in England. In another number (8618) the same subject is noticed as significative of the Incarnation, and fully explained. No doubt, like the other piece of fine Rhenish needlework, this also formed but a part of a large cloth to hang behind an altar as a reredos. Those very long-toed shoes brought into fashion here by Ann of Bohemia, our Richard II.’s queen, were called “cracowes.”

1310

Maniple of Crimson and Gold Damask; ground, bright crimson; design, stags and sunbeams. Sicilian, late 14th century. 3 feet 7½ inches by 4 inches.

Under No. 8624 there is a specimen of silk damask, without gold in it, of a pattern so like this that, were the present piece perfect in its design, we might presume both had come from the same loom, and differed only in materials. In that, as in this, we have a couple of stags well attired, with their heads upturned to a large pencil of sunbeams darting down upon them amid a shower of raindrops.

1311

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, deep violet; design, St. Mary of Egypt, with her own hair falling all over her, as her only garment, on her knees before an altar on which stands a cross; behind her, a tree, upon which hovers a bird with a long bough in its beak; and high up over against her an arm coming from a cloud with the hand in benediction, and rays darting from the fingers, between two stars, one of eight, the other of six points, all mostly in gold. Venetian, 15th century. 12 inches by 11½ inches.

The materials and the weaving of this valuable tissue are both good, and figure a saint once in great repute in Oriental Christendom as well as among those Europeans who traded with the East, as an example of true repentance. A part of the design is, so to say, ante-dated, and to understand the whole of it we ought to know something of the life of this second Magdalen.

In the latter half of the fourth century St. Mary of Egypt, then a girl of twelve, fled to Alexandria, where she led an abandoned life.

It chanced that she went in a certain ship full of pilgrims to Jerusalem, where, on the feast of the Elevation of the Cross, she was hindered by a miracle from entering the church. Then, coming to herself, she made a vow of penance, and withdrew to the desert beyond the Jordan. There she lived unseen for forty years, till all her garments fell away and she had nothing wherewith to clothe herself but her own long hair.

On the stuff before us the anachronism of its design will be soon perceived from this rapid sketch of St. Mary’s life. Instead of being, as she must have been, arrayed in the female fashion of the time when she went to Jerusalem, the great penitent is represented so far quite naked that her own long tresses, falling all around her, are her only mantle—just as she used to be more than forty years afterwards. But yet the design well unfolds her story; the hand darting rays of light signifies the revelation given her from heaven, and the blessing that followed it; while the two stars tell of Jerusalem, as also does the elaborately-fashioned cross that is standing on the altar, the frontal to which, in the upper border, seems ornamented in purple, with an inscription, now unreadable, but the last letters of which look as if they are R L I. The bird, perhaps a dove, has no part in the saint’s history, but is a fancy of the artist. In Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 1 Lieferung, pl. xi. is a figure of this stuff.

1312

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; design, a complication of geometric lines and figures in yellow, blue, green and white. Moresque, 15th century. 22½ inches by 18½ inches.

Those who know the ornamentation on the burned clay tiles and the gilt plaster ceilings in the Alhambra at Granada will recognize the same feeling and style in this showy stuff, the silk of which is so good, and the colours, particularly the crimson, so warm.

1313

Part of an Orphrey; ground, deep crimson satin, edged with a narrow green band; design, three apostolic figures beneath Gothic canopies, all wrought in gold thread and coloured silks upon canvas and applied. German, early 15th century. 30 inches by 7¼ inches.

Each figure is nicely worked; and the first, beginning at the top, holding a sword erect in his right hand, is St. James the Greater; beneath him, with a halbert, St. Matthew; and last of all, holding in one hand a book, in the other a sword, St. Paul. The flowery crocketing running up the arches of the niches is particularly good.

1314

Silk Damask; ground, crimson (now faded); design, two golden lions with their fore-paws resting on a white scroll, looking down upon an orb darting straight down its rays upon the heads of two perched eagles, amid foliation, all in green. Italian, late 14th century. 26 inches by 9¾ inches.

A fine design, and sketched with great freedom; but the silk and gold employed in it are not of the best.

1315

Silk Taffeta; ground, brown; design, broad bands made up of eight red-edged orange stripes within two white ones. Egyptian, 10th century. 26 inches by 9¾ inches.

1316

Silk Taffeta; ground, purple; design, narrow stripes made up of white purple and green lines. Egyptian, 10th century. 24 inches by 3½ inches.

These scarce examples of Oriental ability in the production of very thin substances for personal adornment and dress, under such a sun as even the north of Africa has, were originally wrought for ordinary, not religious use. They were brought to Europe as precious stuffs, and given as such to the Church and used for casting over the tombs of the saints, as palls, or as linings for thicker silken vestments. That these or any of the following specimens of gauze or taffeta were ever put to the purpose of making stockings, or rather leggings like boots, still worn by bishops on solemn occasions during the celebrations of the liturgy, cannot for a moment be thought of. Such appliances are, and always were, made either of velvet or strong cloth of gold or silver.

1317

Silk Gauze; ground, light green; design, broad bands composed of white, black, and orange stripes. Egyptian, 10th century. 13 inches by 4 inches.

1318

Taffeta, Silk and Cotton; ground and design, broad stripes of crimson, green, crimson and orange, separated by narrow lines of white; the warp is of brown fine cotton. Egyptian, 10th century. 12 inches by 2½ inches.

Of such stuffs the Orientals make their girdles to this day; and for such a purpose we presume this taffeta was woven at Cairo and for Moslem use, as the green of the so-called prophet is one among its colours.

1319

Silk Gauze; ground, a light green. Egyptian, 10th century. 10 inches by 3½ inches.

Though without any pattern, such a specimen is very valuable for letting us see the delicate texture which the Saracens, like the ancient Egyptians, knew how to give to the works of the loom. This, like No. 1317, if ever used for church purposes, could only have been employed for spreading over shrines, or the lining of vestments; specimens like these are sometimes found between the leaves in illuminated MSS, to protect the paintings.

1320

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson (now faded) silk; design, lions in pairs addorsed, regardant, each with a swan swung upon its back, and held by the neck in its mouth, bounding from out a small space surrounded by a low circular paling, and amid two large conventional floriations; at the top of one of these are two squirrels sitting upright, or sejant, all in gold. Italian, late 14th century. 17½ inches by 10¾ inches.

Unfortunately this curious well-figured and interesting design is somewhat wasted upon materials so faded, as scarcely to show it now. The foliation is rather thick and heavy. In Dr. Bock’s work, “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 1 Lieferung, pl. xiv. may be found this stuff, nicely figured.

1321

Small Piece of Embroidery; background, canvas diapered with lozenges in brown thread; foreground, once partly strewed with streaks of gold; design, two men bearded and clad in long garments, seemingly personages of the Old Law, talking to each other. Florentine, 15th century.

With quite an Italian and Florentine character about them, these two figures, both worked in silk, have no great merit; though there are some good folds in the brown mantle, shot with green, of the hooded individual standing on the left-hand. That it has been cut away from some larger piece is evident, but what the original served for, whether a sacred or secular purpose, it is impossible now to say.

1322

Stole; ground, light blue silk; design, a thin bough roving along the stole’s whole length in an undulating line, and sprouting out into fan-like leaves, and small flowers, and in a white raised cord, narrowly edged with crimson silk and gold thread. At one expanded end is the Holy Lamb upon a golden ground; at the other, the dove, emblem of the Holy Ghost, alighting upon flowers. German, 15th century. 8 feet 6½ inches by 3¾ inches.

Though the work upon this stole is rather coarse, still from its raised style it must have been effective; but its chief value is from having been a liturgic ornament. The diapering at the end figured with the Holy Lamb, done upon a yellow canvas ground, with its thin golden threads worked into three circles, with their radiations not straight but wavy, is remarkable, and may be found upon another work wrought by a German needle in this collection. Not only the Lamb and the Dove, but the floriation, are thrown up into a sort of low relief.

1323

Embroidered Linen; design, barbed quatrefoils filled in with armorial birds and beasts, and the spaces between wrought with vine-leaves. German, 15th century. 16 inches by 11¾ inches.

This is but a piece of a much larger work, the pattern of which, in its entire form, can only be guessed at from a few remains. One quatrefoil is occupied by a pair of eagles (as they seem to be) addorsed regardant; and the two legs of another three-toed creature remaining near them prove that other things besides the eagles were figured. The whole is coarsely done in coarse materials, and, in workmanship, far below very many specimens here. It appears to have served for household not for church use.

1324

Embroidered Cushion for the missal at the altar; ground, crimson silk; design, our Infant Lord in the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with St. Joseph and four angels worshipping, on the upper side, in various-coloured silk; on the under side, a reticulation filled in with a pair of birds and a flowering plant alternately. German, late 13th century. 19 inches by 13 inches.

Such cushions, and of so remote a period, are great liturgical curiosities, and, fortunately, the present one is in very good preservation, and quite a work of art. Throned within a Gothic building, rather than beneath a canopy, sits the mother of the Divine Babe, who is outstretching His little hands towards the lily-branch which the approaching St. Joseph is holding in one hand, while in the other he carries a basket of doves. Outside, and on the green sward, are kneeling four angels robed as deacons, three of whom bear lily flowers, a fourth the liturgical fan; the whole is encircled by a garland of lilies. The under-side is worked with white doves in pairs, and a green tree blooming with red flowers; and though much of the needlework is gone, this cushion is a good example for such an appliance. Dr. Bock has figured it in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 2 Lieferung, p. xiii.

1325

Part of an Altar-cloth; ground, linen; design, amid foliage sparingly heightened with yellow silk, birds, and beasts, and one end figured with the gammadion. German, 14th century. 6 feet 4½ inches by 2 feet 2½ inches.

This altar-cloth, now shortened and without one of its ends figured with the gammadion, is made up of two different pieces, of which one showing two large-headed pheasants, put one above the other, amid foliage plentifully flowered with the fleur-de-lis and roses, is quite perfect in its pattern; but the other, marked with alternate griffins and lions, has been cut in two so as to give us but the hinder half of each animal, amid a foliage of oak-leaves. The whole design, however, is boldly drawn and spiritedly executed.

1326

Damask, silk and cotton; ground, green; design, large and small conventional artichokes, in gold and yellow silk, amid garlands in white silk. Italian, 15th century. 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 3¼ inches.

Though much cotton is mixed up with the silk, and its gold was of an inferior quality, still the crowded and elaborate design of its pattern makes this stuff very pleasing.

1327

Silk Net; green. Turkish, 16th century (?). 11½ inches by 4½ inches.

Such productions of the loom are used among the Moslem inhabitants of the East in various ways, for concealing their females when they go abroad in carriages, &c.

1328

Linen Diaper. Flemish, 15th century. 2¾ inches square.

Very likely from the looms of Yprès, then famous for its napery, and which gave its name, “d’ypres,” to this sort of wrought linen.

1329

Part of an Orphrey Web; ground, crimson silk; design, straight branches bearing flowers and boughs, in gold thread; and amid them St. Dorothy and St. Stephen. German, 15th century. 23 inches by 2¾ inches.

St. Dorothy is figured holding in her right hand a golden chalice-like cup filled with flowers, and in her left, a tall green branch blooming with white roses; St. Stephen carries a palm-branch, emblem of his martyrdom. Both saints are standing upon green turf sprinkled with crimson daisies, and beneath each is the saint’s name, written in gold. Though the persons of the saints are woven, the heads, hands, and emblems are wrought with the needle. The dalmatic of the proto-martyr is nicely shown, in light green, with its orphreys in gold. This piece is a favourable specimen of its kind, and very likely was produced at Cologne.

1330

Frontlet to an Altar-cloth; ground, diapered white linen; design, embroidery of two large flower-bearing trees, with an uncharged shield between them, and under them inscriptions. German, 16th century. 15¾ inches by 5 inches.

So very like the piece No. 8864 that it would seem to have been wrought by the same hand. To the left we read—“Spes unica, stabat mater;” to the right—“Mater dolorosa juxta crucem,” &c.

1331

Web for Orphreys; ground, crimson silk; design, two boughs with leaves and flowers twined in an oval form, all in gold thread. German, late 15th century. 10 inches by 4¼ inches.

Graceful in its design, but poor in both its silk and gold, the latter having become almost black.

1332

Piece of Raised Velvet, brocaded in gold; ground, dark blue; design, a diapering in cut velvet on the blue ground, and large leaves and small artichokes in gold. Italian, early 16th century. 16½ inches by 15¾ inches.

This nicely diapered velvet, of a good pile and sprinkled with a gold brocade, may have been wrought either at Lucca or Genoa. Unfortunately, the gold thread was of an inferior quality.

1333

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson silk; design, broad garlands twined into a net-work, the almost round meshes of which are filled in with a conventional artichoke wreathed with corn-flowers, all in pure good gold, upon a ground specked with gold. Spanish, late 15th century. 22½ inches by 9 inches.

This is a fine rich specimen of an article of the Spanish loom, very likely from Almeria; its crimson tone is fresh and warm, while its gold is as bright now as when first woven into its present graceful pattern.

1334

Web for Orphreys; ground, gold thread; design, two branches twined into large oval spaces, and bearing leaves and red and white flowers, having, in one space, the name Gumprecht and a shield, applied, or, a spread-eagle sable, langued and armed gules, (may be for Brandenburg); and under this, in the web itself, another shield or, a lion rampant gules, armed langued and crowned or, and double tailed, seemingly for Bohemia. German, 15th century. 16 inches by 5½ inches.

Though of poor materials, this piece is interesting from showing a name and armorial bearings.

1335

Web for Orphreys; ground, fawn-coloured silk; design, almost all in gold, sitting on a throne beneath a Gothic canopy the Blessed Virgin Mary, crowned and nimbed, with our Lord as a child upon her lap, alternating with a circle bearing within it the sacred monogram (worked the wrong way) done in blue silk, surrounded by golden rays. German, middle of 15th century. 11¼ inches by 4½ inches.

The design of this orphrey-web is good, but the gold so amalgamated with copper that it has become quite brown. Though the monogram is that usually seen in the hands of St. Bernardinus of Sienna, and the drawing of the group of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the sacred Child is somewhat Italian, this was not the work of any Italians loom; for in no part of Italy would the monogram have had given it letters of such a German type.

1336

Silk Damask; ground and pattern in rich crimson; design, eight-cusped ovals, each cusp tipped not with a flower, but tendrils; the ovals enclose a conventional artichoke purfled with flowers; and the spaces between the ovals are filled in with small artichokes in bloom. Spanish, 15th century. 20 inches by 14¾ inches.

This is a fine specimen both for the richness of its silk and the warm and mellow tint of its ground, upon which the pattern comes out in a duller tone. Further on we shall meet with another stuff, No. 1345, which must have proceeded from the same loom, and shows in its design many elements of the one in this. Either Granada or Almeria produced this fine piece, which affords us, in the brilliancy of its colour, an apt sample of our old poet Chaucer’s dress for one of his characters, of whom he tells us,—

“In sanguin and in perse he clad was alle;”

and helps us to understand Spenser’s allusion to the young maiden’s blushes:—

“How the red roses flush up in her cheekes
          ... with goodly vermill stayne,
Like crimson dyde in grayne.”

1337

Web for Orphreys; ground, crimson silk; design, in gold thread, a straight branch of a tree bearing pairs of boughs with flowers, alternating with other boughs with sprigs of leaves. German, early 16th century. 14½ inches by 2½ inches.

The warp of this web is thick linen thread, and where the woof of crimson silk is worn away, this thread, as if part of the design, shows itself; and, as the gold is poor and sparingly put on, the specimen now looks shabby. Like many other samples of the kind, woven, probably, at Cologne, this was intended as the narrow orphrey on liturgical garments.

1338

An Apparel to an Alb; ground, strong linen; design, within twining boughs bearing flowers and leaves, a dove and a lamb, all in various-coloured silks and outlined in narrow strips of leather. Spanish, early 15th century. 13 inches square.

That the last liturgic use of this piece was as an apparel to an alb there can be little doubt, though, in all likelihood, it may have been cut off a larger piece of needlework wrought for the front border of an altar-cloth. The outline in leather is rather singular; though now black, it was once gilt, like those strips we see cut into very narrow shreds, and worked up, instead of gold thread, into silken stuffs from the looms of Almeria or Granada, specimens of which are in this collection. As an art-production of the needle, this is but a poor one.

1339

Raised Gold Brocaded Velvet; ground, green silk; design, within an oval in crimson raised velvet of a floriated pattern, dotted with flowers and grapes in white, a large trefoil on raised crimson velvet, bearing inside an artichoke in green and gold, springing from a white flower. Italian, 16th century, 11¾ inches by 8 inches.

This tasteful and pleasing design is wrought in rich materials; and large state-chairs are yet to be seen in the palaces of Rome covered with such beautiful and costly velvets.

1340

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, blue silk; design, ogee arches, over the finial of each a large conventional flower, and within and without the arches a slip of the mulberry-leaf and fruit, all in bright gold. Lucca, 16th century. 3 feet 5 inches by 2 feet 4 inches.

This fine rich stuff must have been most effective for wall-hangings. The blue silk ground is tastefully diapered in bright and dull shades of the silk itself; and in the fine gold design the artichoke is judiciously brought in upon the ogee arches. When nicely managed, nothing is better than a ground in one shade and a design in a deeper tone of the same colour.

1341

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, fawn-coloured silk; design, pomegranates piled together in threes, all gold, and flowers in silk alternately crimson and green. Spanish, 16th century. 16¼ inches by 12 inches.

The rich ground of this fine stuff has a well-designed and rather raised diapering of geometrical scroll-work; the pomegranates are wrought in pure gold thread, and the tones of the flowers are bright.

1342

Worsted Work; ground, black; design, flowers. German, 16th century. 21¼ inches square.

Very likely this was part of a carpet, embroidered by hand, for covering the top of the higher step at the altar, called by some a pede-cloth; the ground is of a black worsted warp, with a woof of thick brown thread. The flowers are mostly crimson-shaded pink, some are, or were, partly white, and seem to be made for sorts of the pentstemon, digitalis, and fritillaria; a butterfly, too, is not forgotten.

1343

Cradle-quilt, linen, embroidered in coloured silks with flowers and names. German, late 15th century. 3 feet 4¼ inches by 1 foot 8¼ inches.

At each of its four corners, as well as in the middle, is wrought a large bunch of our “meadow pink;” between the flowers are worked these names,—“Jhesus, Maria, Johanes, Jaspar, Baltasar, Maria, Melchior, Johanes.” From the names assigned to the three wise men, whose relics are enshrined in the cathedral at Cologne, being so conspicuously wrought upon this piece, we may presume that the needlework was done in that great German city. By wear, the greens of the leaves have turned brown, and the pink of the flowers become pale. Those pieces of printed linen with which the holes in two places are mended will not be without an interest for those who are curious in tracing out the origin of such manufactures. Other examples of these cradle-quilts are in this collection.

1344

Cradle-quilt, linen, embroidered in coloured silks; design, within a broad border of scroll-work in simple lines, the emblems of the four Evangelists, one at each corner; of the Crucifixion, with the Blessed Virgin Mary on the right, and St. John to the left, only a small part of the young apostle’s figure is to be found at present. German, early 16th century, 2 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 2 inches.

Though in mere outline, the whole design was well drawn, and the emblems at the corners have great freedom about them. On the popular use of the evangelists’ emblems upon such baby’s furniture, some observations are given on another good sample, No. 4644, in this collection. A cradle-quilt like the present one occurs at No. 4459.

1345

Silk Damask; ground and pattern in reddish crimson; design, eight-cusped ovals,—each cusp tipped with a flower, ending in a fleur-de-lis above a crown, at top, and enclosing a conventional artichoke purfled with flowers. Spanish, 15th century. 14 inches by 13 inches.

From its present shape, this piece was evidently last in use as the hood to a liturgical cope.

1346

Part of an Embroidered Orphrey; ground (now faded), crimson silk; design, a green silk bough so twined as to end in a long pinnatified leaf or flower, now white but once gold, with little rounds of gold sprouting from parts of the outside branches. German, 16th century. 16¾ inches by 3 inches.

A specimen as meagre in design as it is poor in materials.

1347

Part of an Embroidered Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; design, a green silk bough, &c. German, 16th century. 17½ inches by 5 inches.

In all likelihood a part of the broader orphrey wrought for the same vestment as the one just before mentioned.

1348

Web for Orphreys; ground, gold thread; design, the fleur-de-lis composed into a geometric pattern, outlined in dark brown silk. German, late 15th century. 14½ inches by 4¼ inches.

Both the brown colour and the design are somewhat rare, as found upon ecclesiastical appliances. Here, as elsewhere, the gold is so poor that it is hardly discernible. Under the canvas lining is a piece of parchment, on which is written some theological matter.

1349

Web for Orphreys; ground, cloth of gold pricked with crimson; design, the names—“Jhesus,” “Maria,” done in blue silk, between two trees, one bearing heads of crimson fruit, the other lilies, parti-coloured white with crimson; and the green sward, from which both spring, covered with full-blown daisies in one instance, with unexpanded daisies in the other. German, late 15th century. 17½ inches by 4½ inches.

Like several other specimens in the collection, and most probably woven to be the orphreys sewed, before and behind, in a horizontal stripe, upon the dalmatics and tunicles for high mass. The student of symbolism will not fail to see in the tree to the right hand the mystic vine, bearing bunches of crimson grapes; while, to the left, the tree covered with parti-coloured lilies—white for purity, red for a bleeding-heart—is referrible to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose heart, as she stood at the foot of the cross, underwent all the pains of martyrdom foretold her by Simeon when he said,—“And thine own soul a sword shall pierce,” Luke ii. 35.

1350

Web for Orphreys; ground, narrow blue spaces alternating with wider crimson ones; design, the name of “Jhesus,” in gold upon the blue, between two borders checkered crimson blue and yellow, the crimson spaces charged with a floriation, alternately gold and yellow; the next blue space inscribed with the name “Maria” in gold. In the names, as well as the floriation, the metal has become tarnished so as to look a dull brown. German, late 15th century. 19 inches by 2¼ inches.

Of such webs there are several specimens in the collection; and their use was to ornament liturgical vestments, in those long perpendicular lines found upon tunicles and dalmatics.

1351

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, crimson; design, a conventional artichoke, wreathed with small flowers in green and yellow within a garland of the same colours. Italian, 16th century. 11½ inches by 11 inches.

1351a

Piece of Raised Velvet. A part of the same stuff. Italian, 16th century. 9¾ inches by 1¾ by inches.

1351b

Piece of Raised Velvet. A part of the same stuff. Italian, 16th century. 12½ inches by 1¾ inches.

These three pieces are portions of a material made of excellent rich silk, and of good tones in colour.

1352

Piece of Raised Velvet, brocaded in gold; ground, crimson; design, an oval with cusps inside and enclosing a large artichoke, the whole wreathed with a garland, and in gold. Italian, 16th century. 2 feet 3¾ inches by 8¼ inches.

This magnificent stuff is rendered still more valuable, as a specimen, from having much of its design of that rare kind of velvet upon velvet, or one pile put over, in design, another but lower pile. The state-rooms of a palace could alone have been hung with such sumptuous wall-coverings. Perhaps church vestments and hangings about the altar may have been sometimes made of such a heavy material.

1352a

Piece of Raised Velvet, brocaded in gold; ground, crimson; design, a cusped oval enclosing a conventional artichoke, and the whole wreathed with a broad garland, all in gold. Italian, 16th century. 18 inches by 7 inches.

This differs both in design and quality from the former, having no pile upon pile in it.

1352b

Piece of Raised Velvet, brocaded in gold; ground, crimson; design, not very clear: though, from what can be observed, it is the same with No. 1352.

1353

Web for Orphreys; ground, crimson silk; design, in yellow silk and gold thread, between two floriated borders, a series of foliated scrolls, with the open round spaces filled in with the Blessed Virgin holding our Lord as a naked child in her arms, and a saint-bishop wearing his mitre and cope, giving his blessing with one hand, and holding his pastoral staff in the other. Venetian, 16th century. 25 inches by 8¼ inches.

The materials are good, excepting the gold thread, which has turned black, though the large quantity of rich yellow silk used along with it somewhat hides its tarnish. In gearing his loom the weaver has made the mistake of showing the bishop as bestowing his benediction with his left, instead of his right hand.

1354

Embroidered Linen; ground, very fine linen; design, separated by a saltire or St. Andrew’s cross, lozenges filled in with a Greek cross, and half lozenges, the whole ornamented with circles enclosing other small crosses. Italian, 16th century. 10¾ inches by 3½ inches.

This elaborate design is as delicately worked as it is beautiful in pattern.

1355

Silk Damask; ground, sea-green; design, in the same tint, a conventional foliation of the pomegranate, surrounding a wide broad-banded oval filled in with a large fruit of the same kind. Spanish, early 16th century. 33 inches by 12½ inches.

In the beauty of its design, the rich softness of its silk, and its grateful tone, this is a pleasing specimen of the loom from the south of Spain.

1356

Piece of Raised Velvet; black; design, foliated branches joined at intervals by royal crowns alternating with vases, and large artichokes in the intervening spaces. Italian, late 15th century. 25½ inches by 21¾ inches.

This truly beautiful velvet was, no doubt, meant for personal attire.

1357

Raised Velvet; ground, olive-green silk; design, slips with flowers and leaves of a somewhat deeper tone, and outlined in a lighter coloured raised velvet. Lucca, 16th century. 8-⅞ inches by 8¾ inches.

This nicely-wrought stuff of pleasing pattern must have been made for personal attire.

1358

Linen Crochet Work; design, saltires, between crosses formed of leaves, and a modification of the Greek meander. Flemish, 16th century. 21 inches by 7½ inches.

The convents in France, but more particularly in Flanders, were at all times famous for this kind of work; hence it is often called nun’s lace, because wrought by them for trimming altar-cloths and albs. The present one is a good specimen of a geometrical pattern, and the two borders are neatly done by the needle upon linen. In all likelihood this piece was the hem of an altar-cloth.

1359

Linen Damask; design, scrolls and foliage, with a deep border showing ducal coronets, armorial shields, and the letters L and K. Flemish, early 17th century. 28¼ inches by 11½ inches.

An elaborate specimen of the way they geared their looms in Flanders, and more especially at Yprès, where most likely, this fine damask was woven. The shield is party per pale, 1st, two chevronels embattled; 2nd, three turreted towers, two and one. Seemingly this piece of Flemish napery was made for some nobleman whose wife was, or claimed to be, of the ancient blood of the royal house of Castile.

1360

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; design, bunches of flowers, artichokes, and pomegranates, in yellow. Spanish, 16th century. 20 inches by 11¼ inches.

A rich stuff, whether colour or material be considered; and quite agreeing with other specimens in the love of the southern Spanish loom for the pomegranate, the emblem of Granada, where probably it was wrought.

1361

Silk Damask; ground, dull violet; design, within reticulated squares, a conventional bunch of flowers much in the honeysuckle shape, in white and yellow. Italian, 16th century. 6 inches by 7½ inches.

Though the silk is good, the weaving is rather coarse and rough.

1362

Silk Damask; ground, bright crimson; design, a conventional floriation in various-coloured silks. North Italian, 16th century. 9¼ inches by 6¾ inches.

So thick is this somewhat showy stuff, that it must have been meant for furniture purposes.

1363

Silk Damask; ground, reddish purple; design, slips of three kinds of flower-bearing plants, one of which is the pomegranate. Spanish, late 15th century. 10¾ inches by 6-⅞ inches.

From the south of Spain, and bearing a token, if not of the city, at least of the kingdom of Granada.

1364

Damask, linen woof, silken warp; ground, yellow; design, a conventional floriation, showing a strong likeness to the whole plant of the artichoke, in white linen. Italian, 16th century. 10 inches by 9¾ inches.

A poor stuff in respect to materials, colour, and design; which latter is the best element in it. Intended for household decorative purposes.

1365

Damask, silk woof, linen warp; ground, light red, now faded; design, vases filled with flowers, in yellow silk. Italian, late 16th century. 24 inches by 22 inches.

No doubt this stuff was meant for hangings in a palace or dwelling-house; and among the flowers may be seen the bignonia or trumpet-flower, and the pomegranate opening and about to shed its seed.

1366

Linen Diaper; design, square made out of four leaves. Flemish, late 16th century. 20 inches by 9 inches.

The pattern, though so simple, is very pleasing, and the stuff itself speaks of Yprès as being the place of its origin.

1367

Silk Taffeta; ground, purple; design, amid boughs, a pair of birds, with an artichoke between them, all in orange-yellow. Sicilian, 14th century. 9¾ inches square.

This light thin stuff, quiet in its tones and simple in its pattern, must have been wrought for lining robes of rich stuffs.

1368

Silk Damask; ground, white satin; design, amid flowers, among which the chrysanthemum is very conspicuous, a group, consisting of a man inside a low fence looking upwards upon a blue lion and a golden tiger, seemingly at play, side by side, one of which is about to be struck by a long spear held by a man standing above, within a walled building. Just over him stands another man with a short mace in one hand, in the other a small bottle, out of which comes a large bough of the pomegranate tree in leaf, flower, and fruit. Chinese, 16th century. 2 feet 6¾ inches by 10¾ inches.

For the soft warm tints of its several coloured flos-silks, the pureness of the gold thread upon the human faces, the animals and the flowers, the correctness of the drawing, and the well-arranged freedom of the whole pattern, there are few pieces that come up to this in the whole collection. In all likelihood it was brought from China, perhaps made up as a liturgical chasuble, by some Portuguese missionary priest, in the latter portion of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century.

1369

Dalmatic; ground, blue silk; design, narrow bands charged with circles enclosing a word in imitated Arabic, and conventional flowers separating two hounds couchant, gardant, each within his own circle, all in gold, and a large conventional floriation, at the foot of which are two cheetahs collared, courant, face to face, all in white silk, slightly specked with crimson, and between this group two eagles, in white silk, flying down upon two small hounds, sejant, gardant, both in gold. The orphreys, broad and narrow, are embroidered with heraldic shields set upon a golden ground. Sicilian, 14th century. 3 feet 5½ inches by (across the sleeves) 4 feet 2¾ inches.

Some ruthless hand has cut away from the back a large square piece of this vestment; and, to adopt it to modern fashion, its sleeves have been slit up at the under side. The armorial bearings are, on one shield, a chief or, gules, three stars, two, and one argent; on the other, purpure, two arrows in saltire or.

The cheetahs are well marked by the round spots upon them; and when new, this stuff, with its pattern so boldly figured, must have been pleasing.

1370

Piece of Cut-work, for wall-hanging; ground, square of blue and red, with the upper border blue, the side one red; design, at top, knights and ladies talking, and each within a separate arch; in the body of the piece, the history of some dragon-slayer, figured in two horizontal rows of compartments, every one of which is contained within an archway with a head composed of three trefoil arches in a straight line, and resting on trefoil-brackets, and having, all through, birds and flowers in the spandrils. French, late 14th century. 7 feet 11 inches by 3 feet 4 inches.

Though now so rough and tattered this almost unique piece of “cut-work” (which French people would call appliqué, but better described by the English words), of so large a size, is valuable for its use in showing how, with cheap materials and a little knowledge of drawing, a very pleasing, not to say useful, article of decoration may be made, either for church appliance or household furniture.

Unfortunately the heads of the personages in the upper row are all cut away, but lower down we plainly see the history meant to be represented. Upon the first pane, to the left, we have a regal throne, upon which are sitting, evidently in earnest talk, a king, crowned and sceptred, and a knight, each belted with a splendid military girdle falling low down around the hips. Behind the knight stands his ’squire. In the next pane the enthroned king is giving his orders to the standing knight, toward whom his ’squire is bringing his sword, his shield, (argent a fess azure, surmounted by a demi-ox azure,) and a bascinet mantled and crested with the head of the same demi-ox or aurochs and its tall horns. After this we behold the knight with lance and shield, and his ’squire on horseback riding forth from the castle, at the gate of which stands the king, outstretching his hand and bidding farewell to the knight, who is turning about to acknowledge the good-bye. Going first upon the road, the knight, followed by the ’squire, seems asking the way to the dragon’s lair, from a gentleman whom they meet. The monster is then found in a wood, and the knight is tilting his spear into its fire-red maw. The next pane carrying on the romance is the first to the left in the second or lower series. Here the knight is unhorsed, and his good grey steed is lying on the field; but the knight himself, wielding his sword in both hands, is about to smite the dragon breathing long flames of fire towards him. Afterwards he catches hold of his fiery tongue, and is cutting it off. It would look as if the dragon, though wounded to the loss of its tongue, had not been worsted; for in the following compartment we behold the same knight all unarmed, but well mounted, galloping forth from a castle gate with a hound and some sort of bird, both with strings to them, by his horse’s side, and having found the dragon again, appears holding an argument with the beast that, for answer, shows the fiery stump of his tongue in his gaping mouth. But the dragon will not give himself up and be led away captive. Now, however, comes the grand fight. In a forest, with a bird perched on high upon one of the trees, the knight, dismounted from his horse, cuts off the head of the dragon, which, to the last, is careful to show his much shortened yet still fiery tongue to his victor. Now have we the last passage but one in the story. Upon his bended knee the triumphant knight is presenting the open-mouthed, tongueless, cut-off dragon’s head to the king and queen, both throned and royally arrayed, the princess, their daughter, standing by her mother’s side. The young maiden, no doubt, is the victor’s prize; but now—and it is the last chapter—the knight and lady, dressed in the weeds of daily life and walking forth upon the flowery turf, seem happy with one another as man and wife. The two panes at this part, and serving as a border, seem out of place, and neither has a connection with the other; in the first, just outside a castle wall, rides a crowned king followed by a horseman, evidently of low degree; and a column separates him from a large bed, lying upon which we observe the upper part of a female figure, the head resting upon a rich cushion; next to this, but put in anglewise to fill up the space, we have a crowned lady and a girdled knight, sitting beneath a tree, each with a little dog beside them.

The costume of both men and women in this curious piece of cut-work is that of the end of the 14th century. The parti-coloured dress of the men, their long pointed shoes, and the broad girdles, worn so low upon their hips by the king and knight, as well as the bascinet and helmet of the latter, with the horses’ trappings, all speak of that period; nor should we forget the sort of peaked head-dress, as well as the way in which the front hair of the ladies is thrown up into thick short curls. All the human figures, all the beasts, as well as the architecture, are outlined in thin leather or parchment once gilt, but now turned quite black. With the same leather, too, were studded the belts of the king and knight, and the spangles and golden enrichments of the ladies’ dress were of the same material. Saving here and there a few stitches of silk, everything else was of worsted, and that none of the finest texture. With such small means a good art-work was produced, as we see before us. The way in which each figure over the whole of this curious piece of cut-work is outlined by the leather edging strongly reminds us of the leadings in stained glass; in fact, both the one and the other are wrought after the same manner, and the principal difference between the window and the woollen hanging is the employment of an opaque instead of a transparent material. If the personages are dressed sometimes in blue, at others in crimson, it will be found that these colours alternate with the alternating tints of the panes upon which they are sewed.

So often do the passages in the romance here figured correspond with certain parts in the wild legend of our own far-famed “Sir Guy of Warwick,” that, at first sight, one might be led to think that as his renowned story was carried all through Christendom, we had before us his mighty feats and triumph over the dragon in Northumberland, set forth in this handiwork of some lady-reader of his story.

1371

Worsted Work; ground, green; design, conventional flowers in yellow, with, at one end, a border of foliated boughs, the leaves of which are partly green, partly red, and an edging of a band made up of white, green, yellow, scarlet straight lines on the inner side; on three sides there is a narrow listing of bluish-green lace. German, 15th century. 4 feet 3¼ inches by 1 foot 10 inches.

In all probability this was intended and used as a carpet for some small altar-step. It is worked upon coarse canvas.

1372

Piece of Needlework; pattern, upon bell-shaped spaces of silver thread, flowers mostly white and shaded yellow, divided by a sort of imperial high-peaked cap of blue shaded white, arising out of a royal crown. 17th century. 12½ inches by 7½ inches.

1372a

Border to an Altar-cloth, embroidered; ground, crimson silk; design, animals and birds amid branching foliage and fleurs-de-lis, well raised in white and gold; the upper part linen, wrought into lozenges alternately crimson and yellow, braced together by a fret, and filled in with narrow bars saltire wise. German, 15th century. 3 feet 10¼ inches by 11½ inches.

Among the animals is the symbolic lamb and flag, with a chalice underneath its head. From the exact similarity of style in the ornamentation and needlework, there can be no doubt but the same hand which wrought the stole, No. 1322, worked this piece, and probably both formed a portion of the same set of ornaments for the chantry chapel of some small family.

1373

Cope; ground, green raised-velvet; design, amid leaves of a heart-shape or cordate, freckled with a kind of check, large conventional artichokes. The orphreys are of web, figured, on a golden ground, with saints, inscription, and flower-bearing trees; the hood is ornamented with applied cut-work and needle embroidery, and the morse is of plain velvet. The raised velvet is Italian, 16th century; the orphrey web, German, 16th century; the embroidery of the hood, 16th century. 9 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 11¼ inches.

The raised velvet, though now so torn and stitched together, is of a very fine pile, and pleasing elaborate design. The hood is figured with the Annunciation, and the faces are applied pieces of white silk with the features and hair brought out by the needle in coloured silks; the other parts of the embroidery are coarse but effective. On the orphreys are shown, on one side, St. Peter and St. Katherine, on the other, St. Paul and St. Barbara. The ground for the name of the last saint looks very bright and fresh in its gold; but the gold is, so to say, a fraud. It is put, by the common gilding process, upon the web after being woven, and not twined about the thread itself. The fringe all round the lower part is rather unusual.

1374

Applied Embroidery; ground, green silk; pattern, a flower-vase between two horns of plenty with flowers coming out of them, and separated by a conventional floral ornament, mostly done in amber-coloured cord. French, late 17th century. 2 feet 3 inches by 6½ inches.

Tame in its design, and easy in its execution.

1374a. ’64

Chasuble of Silk Damask; ground, purple; design, a quatrefoil within another charged with a cross-like floriation, having a square white-lined centre, surmounted by two eagles with wings displayed and upholding in their beaks a royal crown, all in green. Italian, early 15th century. 4 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 7 inches.

By some unfeeling hand a large piece was, not long ago, cut out from the front of this fine old ample chasuble; and, very likely, the specimen of the same stuff, No. 7057, is that very portion.

1375. ’64

Chasuble; ground, very rich velvet; design, in the middle of a large five-petaled flower, a pomegranate, and another pomegranate in the spaces between these flowers. The orphreys are, before and behind, of rich diapered cloth of gold, the one behind of the Y form, figured in embroidery with the Crucifixion; the one before on a piece of velvet of a different diapering from the back, with the Blessed Virgin Mary and our Lord, as a child, in her arms; and below, the figure of Religion. Spanish, late 15th century. 3 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 4¾ inches.

This chasuble must have been truly grand and majestic when new, and seen in all its sumptuous fulness, for it has been sadly cut away about the shoulders. It must, originally, have measured, on that part, at least some inches beyond four feet. The Y cross orphrey on the back is figured with the crucifixion, done after a large and effective manner, for the person of our Redeemer measures more than 1 foot 9 inches in length, and His, as well as all the other faces are thrown up in low relief. At the ends of the transom of the cross are four winged angels—two at each side, of whom one is catching, in a golden chalice, the sacred blood spirting from the wounds in the hands, the other flying down in sorrow from the clouds. High above the cross are two angels with peacock-feather wings, swinging two golden thuribles, which are in low relief; and between these angelic spirits, a golden eagle in high relief, with wings displayed, armed and beaked gules and holding in his once crimson talons a scroll which, from the letters observable, may have been inscribed with the motto, “(Respice) in fi(nem).” The front of the chasuble is made of a piece of velvet of another and much broader design—a large flower of five petals and two stipulæ—but equally remarkable for its deep mellow ruby tone and soft deep pile. Its orphrey of fine diapered gold-thread embroidery, but much worn away through being long rubbed by its wearers against the altar, is worked with the Blessed Virgin Mary carrying in her arms our Saviour, as a naked child, caressing His mother’s face; and, lower down, with a female figure crowned and nimbed, bearing in her right hand a golden chalice, at the top of which is a large eucharistic particle marked with a cross-crosslet; this is the emblem of the Church. Both figures are large and of a telling effect; and, like the other figures, have more of a naturalistic than ideal type of beauty about them.

1376

Chasuble; ground, raised crimson velvet with concentric circles in cloth of gold, within garlands of which the leaves are green, the flowers gold. The orphreys are woven in coloured silks on cloth of gold, with inscriptions. The velvet, Florentine, late 15th century; the orphrey web, German, late 15th century. 3 feet 10¾ inches by 2 feet 10¼ inches.

The very rich stuff of this vestment far surpasses in splendour the orphreys, which ought to have been better. On the one behind, we have the Crucifixion with the words below, in blue silk, “O Crux Ave.” Further down an angel is holding a sheet figured with all the instruments of the Passion. After the word Maria, a second angel is shown with another sheet falling from his hands and figured with the Holy Lamb, having, beneath it, the words “Ecce Agnus Dei;” then a third angel, with the word, but belonging to another piece, “Johan.” On the orphrey in front a fourth angel is displaying a chalice surmounted by a cross and standing within a fenced garden, and beneath the sheet the word “Maria.” Lower down a fifth angel is showing the column and two bundles of rods, with “Jhesus.” Last of all there is an angel with a napkin marked with the crown of green thorns and two reeds placed saltire-wise, and the word “Maria.”

1375

Saddle-bag of Persian carpeting; ground, deep crimson; pattern, stripes in various colours running up the warp. Persian. 3 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 5 inches.

The warp and weft are of a strong coarse texture, and not only at the corners but upon each pouch there are tassels.

1376

Travelling-bag, of the same stuff, but varying in pattern. Persian. 1 foot 8 inches by 1 foot 7 inches.

1378

Bag of woven worsted; ground, deep crimson; pattern, narrow stripes figured with diversified squares in different colours. Persian. 1 foot 3¾ inches by 1 foot 2¼ inches.

From the string of worsted lace attached to the side it would seem that this bag was meant to be slung across the person of the wearer. None of these three articles are very old.

1379

Bag of woven silk and worsted; ground, deep crimson worsted; pattern, horizontal bands in silk figured, in places, with four-legged beasts, white, yellow, red, and green, and with vertical bands figured with a green net-work filled in with what look like birds, crimson, separated by a tree. Persian. 11¾ inches by 10 inches.

Most Persian in look is this bag, which, from the thick cord attached to it, seems to have been for carrying in the hand. It is lined with brown linen, and has two strings for drawing the mouth close up. The two birds repeated so often on the lower part, and separated by what looks like a tree, may be an ornament traditionally handed down from the times when the Persian sacred “hom” was usual in the patterns of that country. No great antiquity can be claimed by the textile before us.

1547, 1548

Two Escutcheons of the Arms of France, surmounted by a royal crown, and encircled with the collars of two orders—one St. Michael, the other the Holy Ghost—embroidered upon a black ground, in gold and silver, and the proper blazon colours. French, 17th century.

All well and heraldically done.

1622

Piece of Printed Chintz. Old English, presented by F. Fellingham, Esq.

2864a

Frame for enamels; ground, purple velvet; pattern, scrolls in raised gold embroidery. French, late 17th century. 8 inches by 7 inches.

The velvet is put on pasteboard. In the centre, left uncovered, a larger enamel must have been let in; upon the four small circular and unembroidered spaces of the velvet, lesser enamels, or precious stones, were sewed.

2865

Frame for enamels; ground, crimson velvet; pattern, scrolls in raised gold embroidery. French, late 17th century. 8 inches by 7 inches.

Though differing in its colour, this is evidently the fellow to the one just mentioned.

4015

Mitre; crimson and gold velvet. Florentine, 15th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 11 inches.

This liturgical curiosity is of that low graceful shape which we find in most mitres before the 16th century; in all probability this one was made not for real episcopal use, but to be employed in the service of the so-called boy-bishop who used, for centuries, to be chosen every year from among the boys who served in the cathedral, or the great churches of towns, at Christmas-tide, as well in England as all over Christendom; (see “Church of our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 215). As the rubrical colour for episcopal mitres is white, or of cloth of gold, a crimson mitre is of great rarity. The one before us is made of those rich stuffs for which Florence was so famous, as may be instanced in the gorgeous vestments given to Westminster Abbey by our Henry VII. The mitre itself is of crimson velvet, freckled with gold threads, raised in a rich pile upon a golden ground, with green fringed lappets; but the “titulus,” or upright stripe before and behind, along with the “corona,” or circular band, are all of a kind of lace or woven texture of raised velvet, green, white, and crimson, after a pretty design, upon a golden ground. The mitre is lined throughout with light-blue silk.

4016

Bed-quilt; ground, cherry-coloured satin; pattern, birds amid flowers and foliage, in the centre a double-headed eagle, displayed. East Indian (?), early 17th century. 8 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 10 inches.

The satin is poor, and its colour faded; but the embroidery, with which it is plentifully overspread, is of a rich, though not tasty, kind. Birds of extraordinary, and, no doubt, fanciful plumage are everywhere flitting about it, among flowers as unusual as themselves; but the glowing tones of the many-coloured silks in which they are wrought must strike every one’s eye. From the double-headed eagle, done in gold, with wings blue, yellow, and green, displayed, it would appear that this quilt was wrought for some (perhaps imperial) house in Europe.

4018

State-cap, of crimson velvet turned up with white satin, which is faced with crimson velvet, and all embroidered in gold and silver threads. German (?), late 17th century. 14½ inches by 10 inches.

By a very modern hand the words “King Charles” are written upon the green silk lining; what Charles, however, is not mentioned. There is much about the shape of the cap itself, and especially in the design of its embroidery, to induce the belief that it was wrought and fashioned by a German hand, and for German and not English use. In a piece of tapestry once belonging to the famous Bayard, and now in the Imperial Library at Paris, the same form of high-crowned crimson velvet cap is worn by Pyrrhus while he is being knighted, as may be seen, plate 42, in Shaw’s “Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages,” t. ii, borrowed from Jubinal’s fine work on “Early Tapestries.”

4024

Altar-frontal; ground, crimson satin; subjects, five apostles, each under a Gothic canopy, with bunches of flowers between them wrought in coloured silks and gold thread. Italian, late 15th century. 7 feet 3 inches by 2 feet.

Beginning at the left-hand we have St. Paul holding a sword, then St. James the Greater with the pilgrim-staff; in the middle, St. Thomas holding in one hand a spear, and giving his blessing with the right, St. Andrew with a cross of large size leaning against his shoulder; and, last of all, St. John with an eagle at his feet. The figures are better done than the niches about them, which are very heavy and bad in taste, as are the bunches of flowers. The whole is applied, and upon a more modern piece of crimson satin. The back is lined with leaves of a printed book relating to the Abbey of Vallombrosa, near Florence.

Hanging behind this frontal, and put together as a background to it, are Numbers:—

4513-4516

Fringed Panels of Domestic Furniture; ground, deep maroon velvet; pattern, a small arabesque within a square of the same design, in cloth of gold edged with gold cord. Italian, 16th century. Nos. 4513 and 4515, each 4 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 4 inches; Nos. 4514 and 4516, each 3 feet 7 inches by 1 foot 4 inches.

Bedsteads in Italy are so large that these pieces look far too small to have ever been applied to such a purpose as bed-furniture. They were, probably, the hangings for the head of a canopy in the throne-room of a palace during the year of mourning for the death of its prince.

4045

Chasuble; the ground, tawny-coloured velvet; pattern, angels and flowers in coloured flos-silks and gold thread, the orphreys before and behind figured with saints. English, 15th century. 7 feet by 3 feet.

Though the needlework upon this chasuble is effective at a distance, like much of the embroidery of the time, both in this country and abroad, it is found to be very rude and coarse when seen near. The style of the whole ornamentation is so very English that there is no mistaking it. The back orphrey is in the shape of a cross; and on it, and figured at top, Melchisedek with three loaves in his hand; beneath him, the prophet Malachi, on the left of whom we have Abraham with a large broad sacrificial knife in his hand, on the right, King David and his harp; these three form the transom of the cross. Going downward, we see St. John the Evangelist with the chalice; below this apostle, David again; and, last of all, half the person of some saint. On the front orphrey are given St. James the Greater, and two prophets of the Old Law. This chasuble, with its stole and maniple, is said to have been found at Bath, hidden behind the wainscot of a house there. Certain it is that the chasuble has been much cut down. The original size was far larger.

4046, 4046a

Stole and Maniple; ground, tawny-coloured velvet, embroidered with flowers in gold and coloured silks. English, 15th century. Stole, 8 feet 6 inches by 2¾ inches; maniple, 3 feet 3 inches by 2¾ inches.

The embroidery is quite of the style of the period, and in character with that usually found upon the commoner class of English vestments, done in flos-silk and gold thread, after a large design. The velvet is Italian, and this tone of colour seems to have been then in favour.

4059

Piece of Woven Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; subject, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in yellow silk. Florentine, 15th century. 2 feet 9 inches by 8¾ inches.

This favourite subject of all art-schools in the mediæval period is treated here much after other examples in this collection, as No. 8977, &c., but with some variations, and better design and drawing. The Eternal Father, with glory round Him, and two cherubim, is putting a crown upon the head of St. Mary, who is seated upon sunbeams surrounded by angels, while she drops her girdle to St. Thomas as he kneels at her late grave, now filled with new-blown lilies, and bearing on its front the words “Assunta est.” “Assunta” for “Assumpta” is the weaver’s own blunder. Dr. Bock gives a plate of it in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 2 Lieferung, pl. xvi.

4061

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, pale yellow silk; pattern, in raised velvet, a large oblong square, having within a border of corn-flowers a large star-like inflorescence, and each square separated by a border or band charged with liliaceous flowers, in crimson raised velvet, in part upon a silver ground, now blackened, surrounded by an ornament in amber-streaked green in raised velvet. Italian, late 16th century. 4 feet by 1 foot 1 inch.

Another of the several specimens of the rich raised velvet for furnishing purposes.

4062

Purse in Green Velvet, embroidered with gold and silver threads, and at bottom emblazoned with a ducal crown and two shields of arms. French, 18th century. 4½ inches in diameter, 3 inches high.

Though so small, this little purse is tastefully and richly wrought, and has nicely worked double strings, with gold-covered knobs at their ends for drawing its mouth close, and two other like knobs for opening it. At bottom it is very richly ornamented with a golden mantle, upon which are two shields, the one on the man’s side is azure two lions passant gardant, royally crowned or; that on the woman’s side, azure a chevron or, between two four-petaled and barbed flowers, in chief, and a double transomed cross in base argent; over both shields is a ducal coronet. No doubt this purse, which is lined with white kid-leather, was one of those still used by ladies in France, and held in their hands as they stand at the doors or go about the church at service-time to collect the alms of the congregation, for the poor or other pious purposes; this one may have belonged to an heiress married to a duke.

4068

Strip of Raised Velvet; ground, silver and white silk; pattern, a large crimson and green flower seeded gold, alternating with a floriation having flowers of crimson, tawny, and purple on green stems. North Italy, 16th century.

This fine specimen of raised velvet is of a deep pile and rich mellow colouring. The silver threads of the ground have become quite dimmed, while the gold in the flower is fresh and glowing. Seemingly, this piece last served as the hanging of a bed.

4069

Piece of Raised Velvet on a gold ground; pattern, large conventional flowers and ears of corn issuing out of a ducal coronet. Genoese, early 17th century. 8 feet by 4 feet.

The gold of the ground is now so tarnished, and was, at first, so sparingly used that now it is almost invisible; but the pile of the velvet is deep and the pattern bold. Doubtless this stuff was for household decoration.

4070

Piece of Silk Brocade; purple; pattern, in gold and silver, a large vase out of which spring two ramifications and two eagles, one on each side, alternating with a floriation bearing at top a pomegranate seeded; in the narrow border at top and bottom the fleur-de-lis is the chief ornament, while the tasseled fringe, designed at bottom, shows that this texture must have been intended as a hanging for a frieze. Lyons, late 16th century. 12 feet by 1 foot 10 inches.

The occurrence of birds or animals of any sort in stuffs of the period is unusual; and, in all likelihood, the last use of this piece was as a hanging in some large hall.

4209, 4210

Pieces of White Brocaded Silk. Lyons, 18th century, 1 foot 4 inches by 11 inches.

The manufacture of this stuff is rather remarkable, not so much for that satin look, produced by flos-silk, in some parts of its design of flower-bearing branches, as by the way in which portions of it are thrown up in little seed-pearls.

4216

Piece of Needlework figured with a female saint at her prayers before a picture of our Saviour, and a crowd of men standing behind her near a belfry, in which are swinging two bells. Italian, early 15th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 11½ inches.

By the costume this work would seem to have been done in Tuscany, and it shows the bed-room of some saintly noble dame, wimpled and clad in a crimson mantle embroidered with gold. At the foot of her bed there is, wrought and diapered in gold, a praying desk on which lies open a book in silver having a large M in red marked on its first page; above is a picture of our Redeemer, known by His crossed glory, in the act of giving His blessing, before whom the saint is praying. At her knees are two green snakes, and above her two angels are carrying her soul, under her human form, up to heaven. Behind her, and close to a belfry, where the bells are swinging and the ropes of which are hanging down, is a group of men, one a tonsured cleric, seemingly, from his dalmatic, a deacon, with both hands upraised in surprise; near him other clerics tonsured, two of whom are reading with amazement out of a book held by a noble layman. This work contains allusions to several events in the life of St. Frances, widow, known in Italy, as Santa Francesca Romana; but a very remarkable one is here especially sketched forth. She is said to have often beheld the presence of her guardian angel, clothed as a deacon, watching over her. Such was the obedience and condescension yielded by her to her husband that, though wrapped in prayer, or busied in any spiritual exercise, if called by him or anywise needed by the lowliest servant in her family, she hastened to obey at the moment. It is told of her, that one day, being asked for as many as four times in succession, just as she was, each time, beginning the same verse again, of a psalm in the Office of the Blessed Virgin, on coming back for the fifth time she found that verse written all in gold. Here then we have the loving husband showing this prayer-book, with its golden letters, to a crowd of friends, among whom is his wife’s angel hidden under a deacon’s dalmatic; while the saint herself is at her devotions, foreseeing in vision the evils that are to befall Italy, through civil strife, shown by those serpents and the swinging bells betokening alarm and fright.

4456

Table-cover; ground, coarse canvas; design, armorial bearings, symbolical subjects, fruits, and animals, besides five long inscriptions in German, dated A.D. 1585. German. 6 feet by 6 feet 6 inches.

The whole of this large undertaking was worked by some well-born German mother as an heirloom to her offspring. At the right hand corner, done upon a separate piece of finer canvas and afterwards applied to the ground, is a shield of arms, sable, three lions rampant or armed and langued gules two and one between a fess argent; at another corner, but worked upon the canvas ground itself, a shield, gules three bars dancetté argent; upon a third shield, argent, a fess dancetté sable; on the last corner shield, quarterly or and gules, a fess argent; upon a smaller shield in the middle of the border, sable a pair of wings expanded argent; on the border opposite, party per fess sable and or, two crescents argent; in the centre of the next border, gules two bars (perhaps) sable charged, the upper one with three, the lower with one, bezants or plates; and last of all, upon the other border, or, a lion rampant, gules with chief vair, sable, and or. Repeated at various places are a vase surmounted by a cross with two birds, half-serpent, half-dove, sipping out of the vessel; and below this group another, consisting of two stags well “attired,” each with one hoof upon the brim of a fountain out of which they are about to drink. This latter symbol is evidently a reference to the Psalmist’s hart that panteth after the fountains of water, while the former one is a representation of the union of the serpent’s wisdom with the simplicity of the dove. In many ancient monuments the upper half of the bird is that of a dove, the lower ends in a snake-like shape with an eye shown at the extremity of the tail. There are five long rhythmical inscriptions on this cloth, in German, one at every corner, and the longest of all in the middle; considering the period at which they were written, these doggerel verses are very poor, and run nearly as follows:—

“ALS. mAn. ZALT. FunFZEHN. HunDERT. JAHR.
DARZu. nOCH. ACHTZiG. unD. FunF. ZWAR.
HAT. DER. EDEL. unD. VEST. HEinRiCH.
vOn. GEiSPiTZHEim. DiE. TuGEnTREiCH.
AnnA. BLiCKin. Zum. GmAL. ERKORn.
WELCHE. vOn. LiGTEnBERG. GEBORn.
BEiD. ALTES. ADELiCHS. GESCHLECHT.
ZuSAmmEn. SiCH. VERmEHLT. RECHT.
DAmiT. nuHn. in. iHREm. EHESTAnDT.
VLEiSiG. HAuSHALTunG. WuRDT. ERKAnDT.
HAT. SiE. iHREm. TunCKERn. Zu. EHRn.
DEn. HAuSRAHT. WOLLEn. ZiRn. unD. mEHRn.
DARumB. miT. iHRER. EiGnEN. HAnDT.
DiES. unD. nOCH. ViEL. ZiERLiCHS. GEWANDT.
Zu. iHRER. GEDACHTniS. GEmACHT.
miT. BEiDER. nECHSTEn. AnGHEn. ACHT.
miT. GOTT. iHRH. TunCKERn. D. KinDER. ZART.
AuCH. SiE. ERHALTE. BEi. WOHLFAHRTH.
DARnEBEn. VERLEiHEn. GEDuLT.
DAS. WiR. BEZAHLn. DER. nATuR. SCHuLT.
nACH. VOLLPRACHTEm. LANGEn. LEBEn.

unS. ALLEn. DiE. EWiG. FREuD. GEBEn.
          AmEn.
OBGmELTER. HEinRiCH. DiCHTET. miCH.

“When one wrote the year Fifteen hundred and Eighty five, the noble and true Henry von Geispitzheim had chosen for his spouse the virtuous Anna Blickin von Lichtenberg. Both of them were of ancient noble descent. And she, to honour the esquire, her husband, wished to adorn and increase the house furniture, and there has worked with her own hand this and still many other pretty cloths, to her memory. Praying that God may preserve the esquire, and the tender children, and herself also, and that they may pay the debt of nature at the end of a long life, and eternal joy may be granted them.

Amen.

The aforesaid Henry has composed me (i.e. the doggerel verses).”

“nun. FOLGET. AuCH. BEi. DiE. ZEiT. unD. JAHR.
DARin. iCH. ZuR. WELT. GEPOHREN. WAR.
DES. WEn. mEin. DREi. DOCHTERLEin.
AuCH. SOnn. ZuR. WELT. GEPOHREN. SEin.
ALS. mAn. ZALTT. FuNFF. ZEHEn. HunDERT. Lii.
ERFREuWET. mEin. muTTER. mEin. GESCHREi.
An. DEm. JAR. ACHTZiG. FunFF. HER. nACH.
iCH. mEinEm. JunCKERn. Ein. DOCHTER. PRACHT.
EmiLiA. CATHARiEnA. iST. iHR. nAHm.
vOn. JUGEnT. GERECHT. unD. LOBESAm.
ZWEi. JHAR. DAR. nACH. im. JAnnER. HART.
miCH. GOT. WiEDERum. ERFREuET. HAT.
miT. EinER. DOCHTER. ZART. unD. FEin.
SiE. DRinCKT. WASER. unD. KEinEn. WEin.
mAGDALEnA. ELiSABETH. GEnnAnT.
JHREm. VATER. WERTH. GAR. WOHL. BEKAnnT.
nACH. GEHEnTS. JAHR. ACHTZIG. ACHT.
mEinEn. SON. REiCHART. An. DAS. LiCHT. GEPRACHT
DAS. WAR. DEm. VATER. GROSSE. FREuWDT.
  GOT. SEi. GELOBT. in. EWiGKEiT.
DAS. VOLGT. JAHR. ACHTZiG. unD. nEun.
BRACHT. iCH. ZUR. WELT. DiE. ZWiLinG. mEin.
HAnS. CASPARn. ERST. DRAuFF. EmiCHEn. BALDT.
DAS. SICH. ERFREUDT. DER. VATER. ALT.
DAS. GESCHACH. DEn. iZ. HORnunGS. DAG.
GOTS. ALLmACHT. nOCH. ViEL. mEHR. VERmAG.
zu. LETZ. im. JAHR. nEunTZIG. unD. DREi.
AnnA. mARGARETHA. KAm. AuCH. HERBEi.
DEn. ZWOLFFTEn. FEBRuARiuS.
DAMiT. iCH. DiSSE. SACH. BESCHLUSZ.
O. iHR. HERTZ. LiEBE. KinDTER. mEIn.
iCH. LASZ. EuCH. miR. BEFOHLEn. sEin.
BEHTET. ALLEns. mORGENS. OHn. unDER. LASZ.
in. FROLiGKEiT. HALT. GnAE. mASZ.
ACH. iHR. HERTZ. LiEBE. KinDTER. mEin.
mACHT. EUCH. miT. GOTTES. WORT. GEmEin.
SO. WiRT. EUCH. GOT. DER. HER. ERHALTEn.
DAS. iHR. EWEREm. VATER. nOCH. miT. EHRn. [some letters wanting]
DiSEN. SPRUCH. mERCKT. EBEn.
SO. WiRT. EUCH. GOT. GLiCK. unD. SGEn. GEBn.

“Now follows here my own birthday. When one wrote 1552 my mother’s heart was gladdened by my first cry. In the year 1585 I gave birth myself to a daughter. Her name is Emilia Catharina, and she has been a proper and praiseworthy child. Two years later, in a cold January, has God again gratified me with a daughter tender and fine, she drinks water and no wine, her name is Magdalena Elizabeth. In 1588 my son Richard came into this world, whose birth gave great pleasure to his father. In the following year, in February, I gave birth to my twins, Hans Caspar and Emich (Erich?). At last, in 1593, on the 12th of February, my daughter Anna Margaretha was born.—O you truly beloved children, I commend myself to your memory. Do not forget your prayers in the morning. And be temperate in your pleasures. And make yourselves acquainted with the Word of God. Then God will preserve you, and will grant you happiness and bliss.”

“DiSZ. HAB. iCH. EuCH. LiEBE. KinDER. mEin.
in. REimEn. BRinGEn. LASZEn. FEiN.
AuFF. DAS. iR. WuST. EuWERS. ALTERS. ZEiT.
DuRCH. DiESE. MEiNER. HAnDT. ARBEiT.
WELCHS. iCH. EuCH. ZuR. GEDECHTniS. LAS.
unD. BiTT. EUCH. FREunDLiCH. ALLER. mASS.
SEiDT. uFFRiCHTiG. in. ALLEn. SACHEn.
DAS. WiRT. EUCH. GOSZ. unD. HERLiCH. MACHn.
THuT. iEDEm. EHR. nACH. SEinEm. STAnDT.

DAS. WiRT. EuCH. RumLiCH. mACHEn. BEKAnDT.
unD. iHR. HERTZ. LiEBE. SOnE. mEin.
WOLT. EuCH. HuTEn. VOR. VERiGEm (Feurigem). WEin.
DRinCKT. DEn. WEin. miT. BESCHEiDEnHEiT.
DA. SiCHS. GEBuRTT. DAS. PEHuT. VOR. LEiDT.
unD. iHR. HERTZ. LiEBE. DOCHTER. mEin.
LAST. EuCH. ALLE. TuGEnT. BETOLEn. SEin.
BEWART. EuHER. EHR. HAPT. EuHR. GuT. ACHT.
BEDEnCKT. Zu. VOR. JDE. SACH.
DAn. VOR. GETHAn. unD. nACH. BEDRACHT.
HAT. mAnCHEn. WEiT. ZuRuCK. GEBRACHT.
DAS. miTELL. DiS. ALLES. Zu. GEPEn.
iST. DiE. FORCHT. GOTTES. mERCKT. miCH. EBEN.
GOTTS. FORCHT. BRinGT. WEiSHEiT. unD. VERSTANT.
DAR. DORCH. GESEGnET. WiRDT. DAS. LANDT.
GOTS. FORCHT. mACHT. REICH. BRinGT. FRED. u. muHT.
ERFRiSCHT. DAS. LEBEn. unD. DAS. BLuT.
GOTES. FORCHT. BEHuTT. VOR. ALLEm. LEiDT.
unD. iST. Ein. WEG. ZuR. SELiGKEiT.
GOTTES. FORCHT. iST. DAS. RECHT. FunDAmEnT.
DARuFF. DES. mEnSCHEn. GLiCK. BEWEnDT.
unD. iST. Ein. HAuPTmiTTEL. ALLER. DuGEnT.
WER. SiCH. DER. AnimPT. in. DER. JuGEnT.
DEm. GEHT. SEin. ALTER. An. miT. EHREn.
unD. SEin. GLiCK. WiRD. SiCH. TAGLiCH. mEHREn.
DAR. DuRCH. DER. mEnSCH. Zum. SELiG. EnDT.
LETZLiCH. GELAnGT. ACH. HER. unS. SEnDT.
DEin. HEiLiGER. GEiST. DER. unS. THuT. EinFREn.
Zu. SOLCHER. FORCHT. DiE. WOL. EuCH. RiHREn.
EWER. HERTZ. unD. Sin. iHR. SOLiCH. FORCHT.
ERGREiFFEn. KOnT. unD. GOT. GEHRCHT.
AmEn. DAS. WERDT. WARH. G. GOTT. DiE. ERH.

“This, O my dear children, has at my wish been put into rhymes, in order that you may know your age by this work of my own hand, which I leave to you as a memorial. I beseech you to be sincere in all matters; that will make you great and glorious. Honour everybody according to his station; it will make you honourably known. You, my truly beloved sons, beware of fiery wine, and drink with moderation; that will preserve you from evil. And you, my truly beloved daughters, let me recommend you to be virtuous. Preserve and guard your honour; and reflect before you do anything; for many have been led into evil by acting first and reflecting afterwards. The way to get to this end is the fear of God, mark me well! The fear of God brings wisdom and understanding. The fear of God makes rich, and gives joy and courage, refreshes life and blood. The fear of God protects us from all evil; and is the way to the state of bliss. The fear of God is the foundation on which the happiness of man rests; and is the chief way to all virtues. He who seeks it in his youth will live with honour till his old age; and his happiness will daily increase.

“Amen. Give to God all honour.”

“ALS. mAn. ZALT. FuFZEHn. HunDERT. JAHR.
unD. nEunTZiG. nEun. DARZu. JST. WAR.
DEn. ERSTEn. APRiL. nACH. miTnACHT.
GLEiCH. umB. Ein. uHR. OFFT. iCHS. BETRACHT.
DER. ALLERLiEBSTE. JunCKER. mEin.
GEnAnDT. HEiNRiCH. VOn. GEiSPiTZHEim.
ZU. DiR. O. GOTT. AUS. DiESER. WELT.
ERFORDERT. WiRT. ALS. DiRS. GEFELLT.
SEiN. ALTER. WAR. SECHZiG. unD. ACHT.
DiE. WASSER. SUCHT. iHn. umGEPRACHT.
DEn. WOLLEST. O. GOTT. GnED. GEBEn.
SEin. PFLEGEn. nACH. DEm. WiLLEN. DEin.
JCH. SEin. BETRuEBTE. nACHGELASSEn. Ann.
BLiCKin. VOn. LiECHTEnPERG. GEnAnDT.
HAB. miT. niCHT. unDER. LASSEn. WOLLEn.
SOnDERn. Ein. SOLiCHES. HiE. mELDEn. SOLLEn.
in. DiESEm. TuCH. miT. mEinER. HAnDT.
DAmiT. ES. WERD. mEinEn. KinDERn. BEKAnDT.
DiESES. mEin. GROSSES. LEiD.
WELCHES. miR. VOn. GOTT. WARD. BEREiT.

“When one wrote the year Fifteen hundred and ninety-nine, on the first of April after midnight, just at one o’clock—often I think of it—my truly beloved husband, the Squire Henry von Geispitzheim, was called to Thee, O God! from this world, according to Thy will. His age was sixty and eight years. The dropsy has killed him. To him grant, O God! Thy mercy, after Thy will. I, his afflicted Anna Blickin von Liechtenperg who was left behind, have related it with my hand in this cloth, that it might be known to my children—this my great sorrow, which God has sent me.”

“DEn. FunFFTEn. AuGuST. BALDT. HERNACH.
WiEDERum. SiCH. FUGT. EiN. LEiDiG. SACH.
mEin. JUnGSTER. SOn. EimCH. Ein. ZWiLLinG.
VOn. DiESER. WELT. ABSCHiEDT. GAB. GEHLinGS.
DARDuRCH. WARDT. miR. mEin. LEiD. GEmERT.
unD. ALLE. HOFFNUNG. umBGEKERTH.
ACH. GOTT. LAS. DiCHS. miEnER. ERBARmEn.
unD. KOm. ZU. TROST. unD. HiLFF. miR. ARmEn.
HiLF. TREuWER. GOT. unD. STEH. BEi. miCH.
TROST. miCH. miT. DEinEm. GEiST. GnEDiGGLiCH.
unD. BEHuT. miR. mEin. LiEBE. KinDT.
SO. BiSZ. nOCH. GESunD. uEBRiG. SinT.
unD. SCHAFF. O. GOT. DAS. WiR. ZuGLiCH.
DiCH. SCHAu. DEn. im. HimmEL. EWiGLiCH.
DARZu. HiLFF. unS. GnEDiGKLiCH.
ACH. HER. VER. GiEB. ALL. unSER. SCHuLT.
HiLFF. DAS. WARTEn. miT. GEDuLT.
BiES. unSER. STunTLin. nACHT. HERBEi.
AuCH. unSER. GLAuBE. STETZ. WACKER. SEi.
DEin. WORT. Zu. DRAuWEn. TESTiGKLiCH.
BiS. WiR. EnDT. SCHLAFFEn. SELiGKLiCH.

“On the fifth of August soon afterwards another sorrowful event happened. My youngest son Eimah (Erich?), one of my twins, suddenly departed from this world; and therefore my sorrow was increased, and all hope overthrown. O God! have mercy upon me, and come to comfort and help me, poor one. Help, true God! and assist me, comfort me with Thy Spirit, and protect me and my dear children who are still left in good health. And grant, O God! that we then may behold Thee in Heaven eternally. O Lord! forgive us our trespasses, help that we may wait with patience until our last hour may come; and also that our faith may be true, to believe in Thy Word steadfastly until we sink into the slumber of death.”

4457

Table-cover of white linen, figured in thread, with the “Agnus Dei,” or “Holy Lamb,” in the middle, and the symbolic animals of the four Evangelists, one at each corner. German, late 16th century. 6 feet 3 inches by 5 feet 8 inches.

For its sort and time there is nothing superior to this fine piece of needlework. About the evangelic emblems, as well as the Lamb in the centre, there is a freedom and boldness of design only equalled by the beauty and nicety of execution, making the piece altogether quite an art-work. The little dogs chasing the young harts, as well as the rampant unicorns, but especially the bird of the stork-kind preening its feathers, and the stag looking back at the hound behind, all so admirably placed amid the branches so gracefully twining over the whole field, show a master’s spirited hand in their design. Unfortunately, however, none of its beauty can be seen unless, like a piece of stained glass, it be hung up to the light. Its use was most likely liturgic, and occasions for it not unfrequently occur in the year’s ritual round; and on Candlemas-day and Palm Sunday it might becomingly have been spread over the temporary table on the south side of the altar, upon which were put, for the especial occasion, the tapers for the one service, and the palm-branches for the other, during the ceremony of blessing them before their distribution.

4458

Linen Napkin; the four corners embroidered in crimson thread. German, 17th century. 3 feet by 2 feet 6½ inches.

The design consists of a stag at rest couchant, and an imaginary figure, half a winged human form, half a two-legged serpent, separated by a flower of the centaurea kind. This is repeated on the other side of the square, up the middle of which runs an ornamentation made out of a love-knot, surmounted by a heart, sprouting out of which is a stalk bearing a four-petaled flower, and then a stem with the usual corn-flower at the end of it. To all appearance, this linen napkin was for household use.

4459

Linen Cradle-Coverlet; ground, fine white linen; pattern, the Crucifixion, with Saints and the Evangelists’ emblems, all outlined in various-coloured silk thread; dated 1590. German. 6 feet by 6 feet 6 inches.

This piece of needlework is figured with the Crucifixion in the middle, and shows us, on one side, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Christopher; on the other, St. John and the Blessed Virgin Mary holding our Lord in her arms, and, at her feet, a youthful virgin-saint, most likely St. Catherine of Sienna. From the cross itself flowers are in some places sprouting out, and three angels are catching, in chalices, the sacred blood that is gushing from the wounds on the body of our Lord. At each corner is an evangelist’s symbol, and the whole is framed in a broad border in crimson and white silk, edged by crochet-work, and at the corners are the letters A. H. A. R. Though the figures are in mere outline they are well designed, but poorly, feebly executed by the needle. Another specimen of a cradle-quilt, much like this, is No. 1344, and under No. 4644 notice is taken of feeling for the employment of the four Evangelists’ symbols at the corners of this nursery furniture.

4460

Linen Napkin; embroidered at one end with two wreaths of flowers above a narrow floral border; it is edged with lace, and bears the date 1672, and the initials A. M. W. German, 3 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 6 inches.

Probably meant to hang in the sacristy for the priest to wipe his fingers on after washing the tips of them, before vesting for mass.

4461

Linen Table-Cover; pattern, a wide floriation done in white and yellow threads; in the centre, a flag couchant within a wreath. German, late 16th century. 5 feet 4 inches by 4 inches.

Free in design and easy of execution.

4462

Embroidery on Silk Net; ground, crimson; pattern, branches twined into ovals, and bearing flowers and foliage, in various-coloured silks, and heightened, in places, with gold and silver thread. Italian, late 17th century. 2 feet 8 inches by 9 inches.

A very pleasing and exceedingly well-wrought specimen of its style. Like in manner, but much better done than the examples at Nos. 623, 624. No doubt it was meant for female adornment.

4522

Altar-frontal; embroidered in the middle with nine representations of the birth, &c. of our Lord; and four passages from the Saints’ lives on each side, all in gold and various-coloured silks, upon fine linen. Italian, 14th century. 4 feet 3 inches by 1 foot 8 inches.

This frontal is said to have been brought from Orvieto; but in it there is nothing about the celebrated relic kept in the very beautiful and splendid shrine in that fine cathedral. So very worn is this piece of embroidery, that several panels of it are quite indistinct. It may be, however, distinguished into three parts—the centre and the two sides. In the first we have, in nine compartments, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the coming of the Wise Men, the Blessed Virgin Mary, with St. Joseph, going to the temple and carrying in a basket her pair of turtle-doves, which she is giving to Simeon; the Last Supper; our Lord being taken in the garden; the Crucifixion; the burial; the Resurrection of our Saviour; on the right side, the legend of St. Christopher, mixed up with that of St. Julian Hospitaler; on the left are passages from the life of St. Ubaldo, bishop of Gubbio in the middle of the 12th century. In the first square is the saint mildly forgiving the master-mason who carried the new walls of the city across a vineyard belonging to St. Ubaldo, and, when reproved about the wrong thus done to private property, knocked down the saint; in the second we behold the saint at the bedside of a converted sinner, whose soul, just breathed forth, an angel is about to waft to heaven; in the third we have before us the saint himself, upon his dying bed, surrounded by friends, one of whom—a lady—is throwing up both her arms in great affright at the sudden appearance of a possessed man who has cast himself upon his knees at the bedfoot, and, with one hand outstretched upon the bed, is freed from the evil spirit, which is flying off over head in shape of a devil-imp; in the last the saint is being drawn in an open bier, by two oxen, to church for burial, followed by a crowd, among whom is his deacon.

From the subjects on this much-decayed frontal, figured, as it is, with the life of St. Ubaldo, known for his love of the poor, his kindness to wayfarers and pilgrims, and his healing of the sick, as well as with the legends of St. Julian and St. Christopher, remarkable for the same virtues, we may infer that this ecclesiastical appliance hung at the altar of some poor house or hospital, in by-gone days, at Orvieto.

4643

Band of Gimp Openwork, crimson and gold thread. German (?), 18th century. 1 foot 10 inches by 1 inch.

Evidently for ladies’ use, but how employed is not so clear; from a little steel ring sewed to it, perhaps it may have been worn hanging from the hair behind the neck.

4644

Cradle-quilt; ground, green satin, embroidered with armorial bearings, the four Evangelists, and flowers, all in coloured silks, and dated 1612. German. 2 feet 5 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

Within a narrow wreath of leaves and flowers there are two shields, of which the first bears gules a wheel or, surmounted by a closed helmet, having its mantlings of or and gules, and on a wreath gules a wheel or as a crest; the second, azure, a cross couped argent between a faced crescent and a ducal coronet, both or, and all placed in pile, surmounted by a closed helmet having its mantlings of or and azure, and on a wreath or, a demy bear proper with a cross argent on its breast, crowned with a ducal coronet or, and holding in its paws a faced crescent or. At each of the four corners is the emblem of an evangelist with his name, and shown as a human personage nimbed and coming out of a flower, with his appropriate emblem upholding an open volume which he has in his hands, thus calling to mind those nursery rhymes:—

“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Guard the bed I lie upon,” &c.;

which seem to be as well known in Germany as they were, and yet are, in England. See “Church of Our Fathers,” t. iii. p. 230.

4645

Cradle-quilt; centre, crimson silk, embroidered with flowers in coloured silk, mostly outlined with gold thread, and here and there sprinkled with gold ornamentations, and surrounded by a broad satin quilting edged with a gold lace-like border. German, late 17th century. 2 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 2 inches.

The cradle-cloths, or quilts, are of common occurrence, and afford occasions for much elegance of design.

4646

Cradle-quilt; ground, brown silk; pattern, a wreath of green leaves encircling two armorial shields, and filled in with flowers outside the spandrils; the whole surrounded by a border of flowers, all in various-coloured flos-silk. German, late 16th century. 3 feet by 2 feet 5 inches.

Of the two shields the first is party per fess azure and sable, a griffin rampant or holding three ears of wheat; the shield itself surmounted by a helmet closed, having green mantlings and crested with a ducal coronet out of which issues a demi-griffin rampant holding three ears of wheat or. The second shield is party per fess sable and or, a lion rampant or noued, and langued gules, counterchanged or and sable, surmounted by a closed helmet with green mantlings, and crested with a demy-lion rampant or, langued gules issuing from a wreath sable and or (now faded). By means of a long slit with hooks and eyes to it a blanket might be introduced to make this coverlet warmer.

4647

Satin Bed-quilt; the middle a silk brocade diapered with a large floriation within a broad wreath-like band, all bright amber upon a crimson ground; the broad border is of crimson satin, quilted, after an elaborate pattern shown by a cording of blue and gold. French, 17th century. 6 feet by 5 feet 6 inches.

4648

Satin Bed-quilt; the middle, silk brocade diapered with a somewhat small floriation, in bright amber and white upon a crimson ground. The wide border, in crimson satin of rich material and brilliant tone, is quilted after an agreeable design with yellow cord. French, 17th century. 7 feet 10 inches by 5 feet 4 inches.

4649

Liturgical Scarf; ground, white silk; pattern, bunches of leaves and flowers, in various-coloured silk thread. French, 18th century. 11 feet 5 inches by 1 foot 4 inches.

Such scarves are used for throwing on the lectern, and to be worn by the sub-deacon at high mass; and, from its appearance, this one must have seen much service. All its flowers, as well as its two edgings, are worked in braid, nicely sewed on and admirably done.

4661

Long Piece of Silk Brocade; ground, light maroon; pattern, creamy white scrolls, dotted with blue flowerets, and placed so as to form a wavy line all up the warp amid bunches of red and blue flowers and leaves. Lyons, late 17th century. 8 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 7 inches.

The colours are faded somewhat, and though showy, this stuff is not so glaring in its design as were the silks that came, at a later period, from the same looms.

If used in the liturgy, it must have been for covering the moveable lectern for holding the Book of the Gospels, out of which the deacon at high mass chants the gospel of the day. It might, too, have served as a veil for the sub-deacon for muffling his hands while he held the paten after the offertory.

4665

Pair of Lady’s Gloves of kid leather, with richly embroidered cuffs. French, late 17th century. 13 inches by 7½ inches.

The hands are of a light olive tone, and embroidered on the under seams in gold; the cuffs are deep, and embroidered in gold and silver after a rich design upon crimson silk, and are united by the novelty of a gusset formed of three pieces of broad crimson ribbon.

4666

Purse in gold tissue, embroidered with flowers in pots, and bound with ribbons in silver and colours. French, 18th century. 5 inches by 4½ inches.

Some of the flowers are springing up from silver baskets; others are tied up with silver ribbons, and the whole pleasingly done.

4667

Purse in gold and silver embroidery, with gilt clasp. English, 19th century. 4½ inches by 4 inches.

The design of this is pretty, and consists of small gold and silver disks wrought in thread, and linked together by a strong green silk netting.

4894

Velvet Hanging; ground, black; pattern, a frieze made up of a flower-bearing vase between two broad horns of plenty, full of fruits, and two imaginary heraldic monsters, one on each side, like supporters, fashioned as red-tongued eagles, with wings displayed in the head, but having a tailless haunch, and cloven-footed legs of an ox; the fimbriations are edged with green fringe, and the spaces filled with a conventional floriation; and the greater parts done in yellow satin, smaller parts in other coloured satins, all edged with gold cording and silver thread, and applied to the ground of black velvet. French, early 17th century. 25 inches by 12 inches.

The whole of this curious piece is designed with great boldness and spirit, and most accurately wrought.

5662

Four Pieces of Raised Velvet, sewed into one large square; ground, yellow and crimson silk; pattern, a bold floriation in raised crimson velvet. Genoese, 16th century.

A fine specimen of the Genoese loom, showing a well-managed design composed of a modification of the artichoke, mixed with pomegranates, ears of corn (rather an unusual ornament), roses, and large liliacious flowers. Not unlikely this stuff was ordered by some Spanish nobleman for hangings in the state halls of his palace. Such stuffs are sometimes to be seen on the canopy in the throne-room of some Roman princely house, whose owners have the old feudal right to the cloth of estate.

5663

Set of Bed Hangings complete, in green cut velvet raised upon a yellow satin ground, diapered in gold. Genoese, 16th century.

The foliated scroll pattern of this truly rich stuff is executed in a bold and telling manner; and the amber satin ground is marked with a small but pleasing kind of diaper, which is done in gold thread. To give a greater effect to the velvet, which is deep in its pile, a cord of green and gold stands stitched to it as an edging.

5664, 5664a

Two Pieces of Embroidery; ground, light purple, thin net lined with blue canvas; pattern, nosegays of white and red flowers and large green branches tied up in bunches, with white and with yellow ribbons alternately; the narrow borders, which are slightly scolloped, are figured with sprigs of roses; and the whole is done in bright-coloured untwisted silks, and has throughout a lining of thin white silk. French, late 16th century. 10 feet 9½ inches by 2 feet 9¾ inches.

Each piece consists of two lengths of the same embroidery sewed together all along the middle; and served for some household decoration.

5665

Embroidered Table-cover; ground, green cloth; pattern, within a large garland of fruits and flowers, separated into four parts by as many cherubic heads, two armorial shields and a scroll bearing the date 1598, and the four sides bordered with an entablature filled in with animals, fruits, flowers, and architectural tablets having about them ornaments of the strap-like form, and each charged with a female face. South Germany, 16th century. 5 feet 7 inches by 5 feet 3 inches.

The design of the embroidery, done in various-coloured worsteds, is admirable, and quite in accordance with the best types of that period; nor ought we to overlook the artistic manner in which the colours are everywhere about it so well contrasted. The animals are several, not forgetting the unicorn and monkey; though, from the frequency of the Alpine deer kind, it looks as if this fine piece of work had been sketched and executed by those familiar with the Alps. The shields are, first, barry of six argent and azure, with mantlings about a helmet closed and crested with a demi-bloodhound collared and langued, and, from the neck downward, barry like the shield; second, quarterly 1 and 4 or charged with a pair of pincers sable; 2 and 3 sable, a lion rampant or, and mantlings about a helmet closed and crested with a demi-lion rampant or, upon a wreath sable and argent. The silver has now become quite black.

5666

Table-cover; ground, dark green serge; pattern, embroidered in silk and thread, the four seasons and their occupations, &c., and in the centre the Annunciation. German, early 17th century. 5 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 6 inches.

This piece, though much resembling the foregoing, No. 5665, is far below it as an art-work, and, by its style, betrays itself as the production of another period. Within a wreath, the Annunciation is figured, after the usual manner, but without gracefulness, in the middle of the cloth; at one corner Winter is shown, by men in a yard chopping up and stacking wood; then, by the inside of a room where a woman is warming herself before one of those large blind stoves still found in Germany, and a bearded man, seated in a large chair, doing the same at a brazier near his feet, while outside the house a couple are riding on a sledge drawn by a gaily caparisoned horse. At the corner opposite we have Spring—a farm-house, with its beehives, and a dame coming out with a jug of milk to a woman who is churning, near whom is a hedger at his work, and other men pruning, grafting, and sowing. For Summer, two gentlemen are snaring birds with a net; a woman and a man, each with a sickle in hand, are in a cornfield; two people are bathing in a duck-pond before a farm-house, on the roof of which is a nest with two storks sitting, one of which has caught a snake; and in a meadow hard by a man is mowing and a woman making hay. For Autumn, we see a vineyard where one man is gathering grapes and another carrying them in a long basket on his shoulders; and near, a man with a nimb, or glory, about his head, and lying on the ground with one leg outstretched, which a dog is licking above the thigh—perhaps the shepherd St. Rock, and, while a gentleman is walking past behind him, a girl, with a basket of fruit upon her head, is coming towards the spot. Between the seasons, and within circular garlands, are subjects akin to these parts of the year; in a boat, upon the water, a young couple are beginning the voyage of life together; a lady on a grey horse is, with hawk on hand, disporting herself in the flowery fields; a young lady is caressing a lamb with one hand and carries a basket of young birds in the other; last of all, another lady is kneeling at her prayers, with a book open before her on a table over-spread with a nicely worked cloth. A deep gold fringe runs all round the four sides of this table-cover.

5670-5676

Seven Chair-seat Covers; ground, yellow satin; pattern, birds, flowers, and a mask of an animal, all embroidered in various-coloured flos-silk. French, late 17th century. 2 feet 6 inches by 2 feet.

The satin is rich, and all the embroideries done in a bold effective manner; in some of these pieces the beak of each green parrot holds a strawberry or arbutus-fruit; and the lily and fleur-de-lis here and there betray a French feeling. It should be noticed, too, that much botanical knowledge is shown in the figuration of the flowers, which are more pleasing and effective from being thus done correctly.

5677

Two Pieces of Raised Silk Brocade; ground, yellow; pattern, the artichoke amid strap-work ornamentation, all of a large bold character, in raised crimson. Italian, 16th century. 10 feet 1 inch by 4 feet 2 inches.

A rich stuff, and made up for household decoration, perhaps for the throne-room of some palace.

5678

Cradle-coverlet, green silk, brocaded in gold and silver; pattern, imitation of Oriental design in gold and silver flowers, after a large form, lined in red. French, 18th century. 3 feet 6 inches square.

A specimen of a rich and telling, though not artistic, stuff.

5723

Piece of Raised Velvet; green, on a light amber-coloured ground. Genoese, late 16th century. 7 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 8 inches.

The pattern, rich in its texture and pleasing in its colours, consists of large stalks of flowers springing out of royal open crowns, all in a fine pile of green velvet, and, no doubt, was meant for palatial furniture.

5728

A Missal-Cushion; ground, white satin; pattern, flowers and fruit embroidered in coloured silks, amid an ornamentation of net-work, partly in gold; it has four tassels of green silk and gold thread. French, 17th century. 1 foot 5 inches by 10 inches.

One of those cushions once so generally used for supporting the Missal at the altar. It is figured only on the upper side, and underneath is lined with a silk diapered in a pleasing pattern, in amber-colour. Its tassels are rather large and made of several coloured silk threads and gold.

5788

A figure of St. Mark, seated; embroidered, in part by the hand, in part woven. Florentine, early 16th century. 1 foot 3 inches by 8½ inches.

Beneath a circular-headed niche, with all its accessories in the style of the revival of classic architecture, sits St. Mark, known as such by the lions at his side. Within his right arm the Evangelist holds a large cross; and on his lap lies an open book, both pages of which are written with the words:—“Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in tēa.” Much of the architecture, as well as of the drapery of this personage, is loom-wrought, assisted in places by needle-embroidery. The head, the hands, the feet, are all done by the needle; but the head, neck, and beard are worked upon very fine linen by themselves, and afterwards applied, and in such a manner that the long white beard overlaps the tunic. His chair, instead of legs, is upheld upon the backs of two lions lying on the ground. The head is done with all the fineness and delicacy of a miniature on ivory, and the way in which the massive folds of his full wide garments are thrown over his knees is noteworthy and majestic.

5900

Silk Damask Orphrey Web; ground, crimson; pattern, the Resurrection. Venetian, 16th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 8¾ inches.

One of those numerous examples of woven orphrey-work for vestments such as copes and chasubles. Our Lord is figured as uprising from the grave, treading upon clouds, giving, with His right hand, a blessing to the world, and holding the triumphal banner in the left. Glory streams from His person, and a wreath of Cherubim surrounds Him; while, from the top part of this piece, we know that two Roman soldiers were sitting on the ground by the side of the sepulchre, which they were charged to guard.

5958

Box for keeping the linen corporals used at mass, in the vestry. It is covered with fine linen, of a creamy brown tint, embroidered with crimson silk and gold. Inside it is lined, in part green, on the lid crimson, where a very rude print of the Crucifixion, daubed with colour, has been let in. German, 17th century. 8½ inches by 7½ inches, 1¾ inches deep.

Such boxes seem to have been much used, at one time, throughout Germany, for keeping, after service, the blessed pieces of square fine linen called corporals, and upon which, at mass, the host and chalice are placed.

Before being employed all the year round as the daily repository for laying up the corporals after the morning’s masses, this sacred appliance, overlaid with such rich embroidery, and fitly ornamented with the illumination of the Crucifixion inside its lid, would seem to have been originally made and especially set aside for an use assigned it by those ancient rubrics, which we have noticed in our Introduction, § 5. As such, it is, like No. 8327 further on, a great liturgical rarity, now seldom to be found anywhere, and merits a place among other such curious objects which give a value to this collection.

At the mass on Maundy Thursday, besides the host received by the officiating priest, another host is and always has been consecrated by him for the morrow’s (Good Friday’s) celebration; and because no consecration of the Holy Eucharist, either in the Latin or in the Greek part of the Church, ever did nor does take place on Good Friday, the service on that day is by the West called the “Mass of the Pre-sanctified,” by the East, “Λειτουργία τῶν προηγιασμενῶν.”

Folded up in a corporal (a square piece of fine linen), the additional host consecrated on Maunday Thursday was put into this receptacle or “capsula corporalium” of the old rubrics, and afterwards carried in solemn procession to its temporary resting-place, known in England as the sepulchre, and there, amid many lights, flowers, and costly hangings of silk and palls of gold and silver tissue, was watched by the people the rest of that afternoon, and all the following night, till the morning of the next day, when, with another solemn procession, it was borne back to the high altar for the Good Friday’s celebration.

6998

Piece of Green Satin; pattern, an arabesque stenciled in light yellow, and finished by touches done by hand. Italian, very late 18th century. 3 feet 1½ inches by 1 foot 6½ inches. (Presented by Mr. J. Webb).

This piece may have been part of a frieze, round the head of a bed; and have had a good effect at that height, though, in a manner, an artistic cheat, pretending to be either wrought in the loom or done by the needle. The design, in its imitative classicism, is bold and free, and the touches of the pencil effective. To this day stencil ornamentation upon house-walls is very much employed in Italy, where papering for rooms is seldom used even as yet, and not long ago was in many places almost unknown.

7004

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, wheat-ears, flowers, and conventional foliage in gold, shaded white. Italian, late 16th century. 11 inches by 10¾ inches.

A pleasing design, but the gold is very scant.

7005

Woollen and Thread Stuff; ground, white; pattern, sprigs of artichokes and pomegranates. Spanish, 16th century. 11 inches by 7½ inches.

The warp is white linen thread, rather fine; and the weft of thick blue wool; and, altogether, it is a pleasing production, and the design nicely managed.

7006

Satin Brocade; ground, bright green satin; pattern, sprigs of gold flowers. Genoese, late 16th century. 7½ inches by 6½ inches.

The flowers upon this rich and showy stuff are the lily, the pomegranate, and the artichoke in sprigs, each after a conventional form; and the gold in the thread is of the best, as it shows as bright now as almost on the first day of its being woven in the satin, which so seldom happens.

7007

Silk Diaper; ground, creamy white; pattern, small bunches of leaves, flowers, and fruit, in white, green, and brown silk. Spanish, 16th century. 4¾ inches by 3½ inches.

Though the warp is woollen, the silk in the weft is rich and the pattern after a pretty design, where the pomegranate comes in often.

7008

Piece of Silk Damask of the very lightest olive-green; pattern, a diaper of large sprigs of flowers. Italian, late 16th century. 1 foot 2¼ inches by 9¼ inches.

Pleasing in its quiet tone, and good design.

7009

Damasked Silk; ground, light red, with lines of gold; pattern, leaves and flowers in deeper red. Sicilian, late 14th century. 10 inches by 6½ inches.

Very like several other specimens in this collection from the looms of Sicily, Palermo especially, in the pattern of its diapering, usually in green upon a tawny ground.

7010

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, bunches of flowers of the pink and lily kinds, mingled with slips of the pomegranate. Spanish, 15th century. 12 inches by 10 inches.

The colour has much faded; but the design of the pattern, which is a crowded one, is very pretty; and the stuff seems to have been for personal wear.

7011

Satin Damask; ground, green; pattern, an acorn and an artichoke united upon one small sprig, in yellow silk. Genoese, 16th century. 8 inches by 3½ inches.

Though small, this is a pretty design; and, perhaps, the great family of Della Rovere belonging to the Genoese republic may have suggested the acorn, “rovere” being the Italian word for one of the kinds of oak.

7012

Satin Damask; the diapering is a sprig fashioned like the artichoke, and, in all likelihood, was outlined in pale pink. Italian, late 16th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 9¼ inches.

A texture for personal attire which must have looked well.

7013

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, a large artichoke flower bearing, in the middle, a fleur-de-lis. Genoese, late 16th century.

The design in the pattern is rather singular; and may have been meant for some noble, if not royal French family, connected with a house of the same pretensions in Spain.

7014

Silk Brocade; ground, dull purple silk; pattern, flowers in gold, partially relieved in white silk. Spanish, late 16th century. 10 inches by 6 inches.

The flowers are mostly after a conventional form, though traces of the pomegranate may be seen; the gold thread is thin and scantily employed, and always along with broad yellow silk. With somewhat poor materials, a stuff rather effective in design is brought out.

7015

Silk Web, on linen warp; ground, deep crimson; pattern, a quatrefoil with flowers at the tips of the barbs or angles at the corners, in gold thread, and filled in with a four-petaled flower in gold upon a green ground. German, 15th century. 14½ inches by 4½ inches.

Intended as orphreys of a narrow form; but made of poor materials, for the gold is so scant that it has almost entirely disappeared.

7016

End of a Maniple; pattern, lozenges, green charged with a yellow cross, and red charged with a white cross of web; the end, linen embroidered with a saint holding a scroll, and fringed with long strips of flos-silk, green blue white and crimson. German, early 15th century. 15½ inches by 3 inches.

As this piece is put the wrong side out in the frame, the figure of the saint cannot be identified, nor the word on the scroll read.

7017

Linen Web; ground, crimson and green; pattern, on the crimson square, a device in white; on the green, two narrow bands chequered crimson, white, and green, with an inscription (now illegible) between them. German, 15th century. 16 inches by 2½ inches.

Poor in every respect, and the small band of gold is almost black.

7018

Orphrey Web; ground, gold; pattern, a flower-bearing tree in green, red, and white; and the sacred Name in blue silk. German, 15th century. 13½ inches by 3¾ inches.

The same stuff occurs at other numbers in this collection.

7019

Orphrey Band; ground, gold thread; pattern, flowers in various-coloured silks. Flemish, 16th century. 19¾ inches by 2¾ inches.

The whole of this pretty piece is done with the needle, upon coarse canvas, and, no doubt, ornamented either a chasuble, dalmatic, or some liturgical vestment.

7020

Crimson and Gold Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, a diaper of animals in gold. Italian, 15th century. 14¾ inches by 4 inches.

Exactly like another piece in this collection; a winged gaping serpent, with a royal crown just above but not upon its head, occupies the lowest part of the design; over it is the heraldic nebulée or clouds darting forth rays all about them, and above all, a hart, collared, and with head regardant lies lodged within a palisade or paled park.

7021

Narrow Orphrey of Web; ground, red and gold diapered; pattern, armorial shields with words between them. German, 15th century. 1 foot 10 inches by 2 inches.

One of the shields is azure, two arrows argent in saltire; the other shield is argent, three estoils, two and one, azure; and on a chief or, two animals (indiscernible) sable: the words between the shields are so worn away as not to be readable.

7022

Linen, block-printed; ground, white; pattern, two eagles or hawks crested, amid floriations of the artichoke form, and a border of roving foliage; all in deep dull purple. Flemish, late 14th century. 1 foot 8 inches by 6¾ inches.

The design is good, and evidently suggested by the patterns on silks from the south of Europe. Further on, we have another piece, No. 8303.

7023

Orphrey of Web; ground, red and gold, figured with a bishop-saint. German, 15th century. 5 inches by 4½ inches.

The spaces for the head and hands are left uncovered by the loom, so that they may be, as they are here, filled in by the needle. In one hand the bishop, who wears a red mitre—an anomaly—and a cope with a quatrefoil morse to it, holds a church, in the other a pastoral staff.

7024

Embroidery, in coloured silks upon fine linen damask. Flemish, 16th century. 10 inches by 2½ inches.

The fine linen upon which the embroidery is done, is diapered with a lozenge pattern: on one side of a large flower-bearing tree are the words:—“Jhesu Xpi,” and the other, “O crux Ave,” on each side of the tree is a shield unemblazoned but surrounded by a garland of flowers. Most likely this piece served to cover the top of the devotional table in a lady’s bed-room.

7025

Embroidery, in coloured silks upon white linen; pattern, symbols of the Passion, flowers, and birds, with saints’ names. German, 17th century. 20½ inches by 6 inches.

Within a green circle, overshadowed on four sides by stems bearing flowers, stands a low column with ropes about it and a scourge at one side, and divided by it is the word Martinus, in red silk; amid the flower-bearing wide-spread branches of a tree are the names Ursula, Augustinus; within another circle like the first we see the cross with the sponge at the end of a reed, and the lance, having the name of Barbara in blue and crimson; and, last of all, another tree with the names Laurentius—Katerina. It is edged with a border of roses and daisies, and has a parti-coloured silk fringe. No doubt this piece served as the ornament of a lady’s praying-desk in her private room, and bore the names of those for whom she wished more especially to pray.

7026

Orphrey of Web; ground, gold; pattern, two stems intertwined and bearing leaves and flowers, in crimson silk. German, 15th century. 9 inches by 2½ inches.

7027

Linen, block-printed; ground, white; pattern, crested birds and foliage, just like another piece, No. 8615, in this collection. Flemish, late 14th century. 14 inches by 2¾ inches.

7028

Small Piece of Orphrey; ground, yellow silk stitchery upon canvas, embroidered, within barbed quatrefoils in cords of gold, and upon a gold diapered ground, with the busts of two Evangelists in coloured silks, and the whole bordered by an edging of gold stalks, with trefoils. Italian, the middle of the 15th century. 10 inches by 5½ inches.

The quatrefoils are linked together by a kind of fretty knot, as well as the lengths in the two narrow edgings on the border by a less intricate one, all of which looks very like Florentine work. Most likely this orphrey served for the side of a cope.

7029

Piece of a Liturgical Cloth, embroidered in white thread, very slightly shaded here and there in crimson silk, upon linen, with a quatrefoil at top enclosing the Annunciation and four angels, one at each corner swinging a thurible, and lower down, with St. Peter and St. Paul, St. James the Less and St. Matthias, St. James the Greater and St. Andrew; amid the leaf-bearing boughs, roving all over the cloth, may be seen an occasional lion’s head cabossed and langued gules. German, late 14th century. 2 feet 9½ inches by 1 foot 10½ inches.

This is but a small piece of one of those long coverings or veils for the lectern, of which such fine examples are in this collection.

The lion’s head cabossed would seem to be an armorial ensign of the family to which the lady who worked the cloth belonged, although such an ornament does sometimes appear, without any heraldic meaning, upon monuments of the period. In the execution of its stitchery the specimen before us is far below others of the same class.

7030

Piece of a Stole or Maniple; ground, crimson silk (much faded); and embroidered with green stems twining up and bearing small round flowers in gold, and large oak leaves in white. Italian, 16th century. 13¾ inches by 3 inches.

The leaves, now so white, were originally of gold, but of so poor a quality that the metal is almost worn off the threads.

7031

Silk Ribbon; ground, green and gold; pattern, squares and lozenges on one bar, spiral narrow bands on another, the bars alternating. Italian, early 17th century. 8 inches by 8¼ inches.

Both silk and gold are good in this simple pattern.

7032

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, a square enclosing a floriation; both in bright yellow. Spanish, 15th century. 8 inches by 4½ inches.

Designed on Moorish principles, and coarse in its workmanship.

7033

Silk Texture; ground, yellow; pattern, net-work, with flowers and mullets, all in dark blue. Sicilian, late 14th century. 10 inches by 3½ inches.

Of a simple design and poor in texture, and probably meant as the lining for a richer kind of stuff.

7034

Silk Damask; ground, crimson silk; pattern, in gold thread, two very large lions, and two pairs, one of very small birds, the other of equally small dragons, and an ornament like a hand looking-glass. Oriental, 14th century. 2 feet 4 inches by 2 feet.

The large lions, which strongly resemble, in their fore-legs, the Nineveh ones in the British Museum, are placed addorsed regardant and looking upon two very small birds, while between their heads stands what seems like a looking-glass, upon a stem or handle; at the feet of these huge beasts are two little long-tailed, open-mouthed, two-legged dragons. The whole of this design now appears to be in coarse yellow thread, which once was covered with gold, but so sparingly and with such poor metal that not a speck of it can now be detected anywhere in this large specimen. The probability is that this stuff was wrought in some part of Syria, for the European market; at the lions’ necks are broad collars bearing two lines or sentences in imitated Arabic characters. Copes and chasubles for church use during the Middle Ages were often made of silks like this. Dr. Bock has figured this very piece in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” t. i. pl. iv.

7035

Silk and Linen Texture; ground, crimson; pattern, star-like flowers. Spanish, 15th century. 5¾ inches by 2½ inches.

Poor in design as well as material.

7036

Silk Diapered, with a man wrestling with a lion repeated; ground, crimson, the diaper in various colours, and the waving borders in creamy white, edged black, and charged with crimson squares, and fruits crimson and deep green. Byzantine, 12th century. 15¾ inches by 12½ inches.

This is one among the known early productions of the loom, and therefore very valuable. The lion and man seem to be meant for Samson’s victory over that animal, though, for the sake of a pattern, the same two figures are repeated in such a way that they are in pairs and confronted. Samson’s dress is after the classic form, and he wears sandals, while a long narrow green scarf, fringed yellow, flutters from off his shoulder behind him; and the tawny lion’s mane is shown to fall in white and black locks, but in such a way that, at first sight, the black shading might be mistaken for the letters of some word. This stuff is figured by Dr. Bock in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” t. i. pl. ii.

7037

Silk and Linen Damask; ground, pale dull yellow-coloured linen; pattern, circles enclosing tawny foliation, in the midst of which is a purple cinquefoil, and the spandrils outside filled in with other foliations in the same tawny tone. Byzantine, 14th century. 13½ inches by 13 inches.

Of poor stuff, but of a rather pleasing design.

7038

Silk Texture; ground, crimson; pattern, geometrical figures, mostly in bright yellow, filled in with smaller like figures in blue, green, and white. Moorish, 15th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 1 foot 2¼ inches.

Most likely this garish and rather staring silk was woven either at Tangier or Tetuan, and found its way to Europe through some of the ports on the southern coast of Spain.

7039

Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, lozenges, with so-called love-knots, one on each side, enclosing a flower and a lozenge chequered with Greek crosses alternately, all in yellow. Byzantine, 14th century. 8½ inches by 4 inches.

Though poor in material this silk is so far interesting as it gives a link in that long chain of traditional feeling for showing the cross about stuffs, meant, as most likely this was, for ritual uses, and known among both the Latins and the Greeks as “stauracina.” To this day the same custom is followed in the East of having the cross marked upon the textiles employed in liturgical garments.

7040

White Linen, diapered with a small lozenge pattern, and a border of one broad and two narrow bands in black thread. Flemish, 15th century. 12 inches by 11½ inches.

A good example of Flemish napery with the diaper well shown.

7041

Silk and Linen Texture; ground, blue; pattern, a large petaled flower within a park fencing, upon the palings of which are perched two birds, and another somewhat like flower enclosed in the same way with two quadrupeds rampant on the palings. Italian, 15th century. 16 inches by 12¾ inches.

The birds seem to be meant for doves; and the animals for dogs. In design, but not in richness of material, this specimen is much like No. 7020.

7042

Silk Damask; ground, deep blue; pattern, floriated lozenges, enclosing chequered lozenges in deep yellow. South of Spain, 14th century. 12 inches by 7¾ inches.

A tissue showing a Saracenic feeling.

7043

Silk Damask; ground, tawny; pattern, a cone-shaped floriation amid foliage and flowers. Sicilian, 15th century. 13½ inches by 13 inches.

Both around the cone, as well as athwart the flowers, there are attempts at Arabic sentences, but in letters so badly done as easily to show the attempted cheat.

7044

Silk Damask; ground, deep blue; pattern, six-sided panels filled in with conventional floriations, all in orange yellow. Spanish moresque, 15th century. 7 inches by 3½ inches.

If not designed and wrought by Moorish hands, its Spanish weaver worked after Saracenic feelings in the forms of its ornamentation.

7045

Silk Damask; ground, amber, diapered in small lozenges; pattern, parrots in pairs outlined in blue and crimson, both which colours are almost faded, and having a border consisting of narrow parallel lines, some dark blue with white scrolls, others of gold thread, with deep blue scrolls. Oriental, late 12th century. 9 inches by 5¾ inches.

7045a

Silk Border, torn off from the foregoing number. Both the one and the other are valuable proofs of the care taken by the Greek weavers, in the Greek islands, Greece proper, and in Syria, to give an elaborate design to the grounds of their silks.

7046

Silk Brocade; ground, deep crimson; pattern, a diapering, in the same colour, of heart-shaped shields charged with a fanciful floriation, amid wavy scrolls bearing flowers upon them. South of Spain, 14th century. 6½ inches by 4¼ inches.

The fine rich tone of colour, so fixed that it is yet unfaded, is remarkable.

7047

Silk Crape, deep crimson, thickly diapered with leaves upon the items. Syrian. 8¾ inches by 5¾ inches.

Not only the mellow tone, but the pretty though small pattern is very pleasing.

7048

Silk and Cotton Texture; ground, white cotton; pattern, lozenges filled up with a broken fret of T-shaped lines and dots, and a cross in the middle; and with similar markings in the intervening spaces. Byzantine, 14th century. 14 inches by 5 inches.

Though of such poor materials this specimen is rather interesting from its design where the narrow-lined lozenges with their T’s and short intervening lines are all in green silk, now much faded; and the cross, known as of the Greek form, with those little dots are in crimson silk. Most likely it was woven in one of the islands of the Archipelago, and for liturgical use, such as the broad flat girdle still employed in the Oriental rituals.

7049

Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; design, parrots and giraffes in pairs amid floriated ornamentation, all, excepting the portions done in gold, of the same tint with the ground. Sicilian, 13th century. 15 inches by 8 inches.

Like the specimen under No. 1274, where it is fully described.

7050

Silk Damask; all creamy white; pattern, net-work, the oval meshes of which show floriations in thin lines upon a satiny ground. Syrian, 13th century. 11½ inches by 6 inches.

This fine rich textile is, in all probability, the production of a Saracenic loom, and from the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

7051

Silk Tissue; ground, amber; pattern, a reticulation, each six-sided mesh filled in with alternate flowers and leaves, with here and there a circle enclosing a pair of parrots, addorsed, regardant; and between them a lace sort of column having, at top, a crescent all in dark blue. Oriental, late 12th century. 12½ inches by 6½ inches.

A good specimen, when fresh and new, of the eastern loom.

7052

White Silk Damask, diapered with a chequer charged with lozenges, bearing the Greek gammadion, and sprinkled with larger flowers. Oriental, 14th century. 7½ inches by 5½ inches.

The pattern of this curious stuff is very small; and from the presence of the gammadion upon it, we may presume it was originally wrought for Greek liturgical use, somewhere on the coast of Syria.

7053

Silk Damask; green; the pattern, an oval, enclosing an artichoke, and the spaces between filled in with foliations and pomegranates. Spanish, 16th century. 23 inches by 12½ inches.

Beautiful in tone of colour, and of a pleasing design, well shown by a shining satiny look of the silk; this is a specimen of a rich stuff.

7054

Diapered Silk; ground, yellow; pattern, a large conventional foliation, in rows, alternating with rows of armorial shields, all in blue. Spanish, early 17th century. 20 inches by 17 inches.

A very effective design for household use: the shield is a pale, the crest a barred closed helmet topped by a demy wyvern.

7055

Silk Diaper; ground, gold; pattern, flowers and fruits in crimson, slightly shaded in blue and green silk. Spanish, 16th century. 12½ inches by 8½ inches.

Though the gold on the ground be so sparingly put in, this stuff has a rich look, and the occurrence of the pomegranate points to Granada as the place of manufacture of this and other tissues of such patterns.

7056

Silk Tissue, now deep amber, once bright crimson, diapered with a modification of the meander, and over that sprigs of flowers. Oriental, 13th century. 8 inches by 4½ inches.

To see the raised diapering of this piece requires a near inspection, but when detected, it is found to be of a pleasing type.

7057

Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, a quatrefoil, within another, charged with a cross-like floriation, with a square white centre, surmounted by two eagles with wings displayed, upholding in their beaks a royal crown, all in green. Italian, early 15th century. 14 inches by 11½ inches.

Though the silk be poor the design is in good character, and the stuff would seem to have been wrought either at Florence or Lucca, for some princely German house.

7058

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red and gold; pattern, a pair of ostrich feathers, springing from a conventional flower, and drooping over an artichoke-like floriation, of a tint once light green, and shaded dull white. Spanish, 15th century. 14¾ inches by 7½ inches.

A curious mixture of silk, wool, linen thread and gold very sparingly employed. The ostrich feather is so unusual an element of ornamental design, especially in woven stuffs, that we may deem it a kind of remembrance of the Black Prince who fought for a Spanish king, Don Pedro the Cruel, at the battle of Navaretta, or Najarra, if not having a significance of the marriage of Catherine of Arragon, first with our Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII, and after his death, with his younger brother, Henry VIII, each of whom was in his time Prince of Wales, whose badge became one or more ostrich feathers. In old English church inventories drawn up towards the middle and the end of the 15th century, mention is often found of vestments made of a Flemish stuff, called Dorneck, from the name in Flanders for the city of Tournay, where it was made, but spelt in English various ways, as Darnec, Darnak, Darnick, and even Darnep. Such an inferior kind of tissue woven of thin silk mixed with wool and linen thread, was in great demand, for every-day wear in poor churches in this country. Though not wrought at Tournay, the present specimen affords a good example of that sort of stuff called Dorneck, which, very probably, was introduced into Flanders from Spain. Besides the present textile, another, figured in the “Mélanges d’Archéologie,” t. iii. pt. xxxiii, furnishes an additional instance in which the ostrich feather is brought into the design.

7059

Green Silk Damask; pattern, floriations and short lengths of narrow bands arranged zig-zag. Italian, 17th century. 8 inches by 6½ inches.

An extraordinary but not pleasing pattern.

7060

Silk and Linen Damask; ground, creamy white; pattern, in light brown, once pink, a conventional artichoke. Italian, 16th century. 1 foot 5 inches by 9½ inches.

The warp is thread, but still the texture looks well.

7061

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, light green silk; pattern, large vine-leaves and stars, with a border of griffins and fleur-de-lis, in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 10¼ inches square.

This beautiful stuff was, in all likelihood, woven at the royal manufactory at Palermo, and meant as a gift to some high personage who came from the blood royal of France. The griffins, affronted or combatant, are drawn with much freedom and spirit, and though the gold be dull, the pattern still looks rich.

7062

Gold Web, diapered with animals in green silk. French, late 13th century. 14¼ inches by 2¼ inches.

Probably wrought in a small frame, at home, by some young woman, and for personal adornment. So much is it worn away, that the green beardless lion, with a circle of crimson, can be well seen only in one instance. A narrow short piece of edging lace, of the same make and time, but of a simple interlacing strap-pattern, is pinned to this specimen.

7063

Green and Fawn-coloured Silk Diaper; pattern, squares, green, filled in with leaves fawn-coloured, and beasts and birds, green. Sicilian, late 13th century. 8 inches by 3¼ inches.

Another of those specimens, perhaps of the Palermitan loom: all the animals look heraldic, and are lions, griffins, wyverns, and parrots. The stuff itself is not of the richest.

7064

Gold Lace, so worn by use that the floriation on the oblong diaper is obliterated. French, 13th century. 9 inches by 1¼ inches.

7064a

Gold Lace; pattern, interlacing strap-work. French, 13th century. 7 inches by 1½ inches.

Equally serviceable for personal or ecclesiastical use.

7065

Black Silk Damask; figured with a tower surrounded by water, over which are two bridges; in the lower court are two men, each with an eagle perched upon his hand; from out the third story of the tower springs a tree, bearing artichoke floriations. Italian, 15th century. 11 inches by 8 inches.

Another piece of this identical damask occurs at No. 8612, but there the design is by no means so clear as in the piece before us.

7066

Green Silk; pattern, a lozenge reticulation, each mesh filled in with four very small voided lozenges placed crosswise, in pale yellow. Oriental, 14th century. 5¼ inches by 4-⅝ inches.

7067

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, green silk; pattern, conventional floriation, with a circular form of the artichoke. Spanish, early 15th century. 1 foot 3¾ inches by 4 inches.

One of those samples of that poor texture which came from the Spanish loom, with the sham gold, which we have before observed in other examples, of thin parchment gilt with a much debased gold.

7068

Silk Damask; straw-colour; pattern, lozenge-shaped net-work, each mesh enclosing a flower. Spanish, 15th century. 13¾ inches by 12 inches.

So worn is this piece that it is with difficulty that its simple design can be made out.

7069

Silk Damask; straw-colour; pattern, an imaginary eagle-like bird, enclosed by a garland full of ivy leaves. Sicilian, 14th century. 7¾ inches by 6 inches.

The ground is completely filled in with the well-designed and pretty diapering; but damp has sadly spoiled the specimen.

7070

Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, heraldic figures, birds, and oval floriations, in gold thread. Oriental, 14th century. 16 inches by 9 inches.

On an oval, floriated all round, and enclosing two lionesses addorsed rampant regardant, are two wyvern-like eagles with curious feathered tails, regardant; below, are two cockatoos addorsed regardant, all in gold. The oval floriation is outlined with green. When new, this stuff must have had a brave appearance, and shows a Persian tradition about it.

7071

Linen, embroidered in silk; ground, fine linen; pattern, a zigzag, alternating in light blue and brown. German, 15th century. 14 inches by 3½ inches.

The zigzag may be termed dancette, and all over is parted into lozenges, each lozenge charged with a cross made of mascles, and the spaces between the brown and the blue zigzags, filled in with others of a light brown coloured diapering.

7072

Silk Damask; ground, violet or deep purple; pattern, angels with thuribles, and emblems of the Passion, in yellow and white. Florentine, late 14th century. 18¼ inches by 15¾ inches.

This truly artistic and well-executed stuff displays a row of angels in girded albs, all flying one way, as with the left hand they swing thuribles, and another row kneeling, each with a crown of thorns in his hands, alternating, with a second set of angels, in another row, each bearing before him a cross. All the angels are done in yellow, but with face and hands white, and the whole ground is strewed with stars. It is likely that this fine stuff was woven expressly for the purple vestments worn in Passion time, at the end of Lent.

7073

Crimson Silk and Gold Brocade; ground, a diaper of crimson; pattern, an oval reticulation, in the meshes of which is an artichoke flower, all in gold. Genoese, 16th century. 16¾ inches by 9 inches.

The design of this rich stuff is well managed, and the diapering in dull silk upon a satin ground throws out the gold brocading admirably; the meshes which enclose the flowers are themselves formed of garlands.

7074

Raised Crimson Velvet, damasked in gold; pattern, the artichoke and small floriations in gold. Genoese, 16th century. 15¾ inches by 11½ inches.

A specimen of what, in its prime, must have been a fine stuff for household decoration, though of such a nature as to have freely allowed it to be employed for ecclesiastical purposes. It has seen rough service, so that its pile is in places thread-bare, and its gold almost worn away.

7075

Raised Velvet on Gold Ground; pattern, a very large rose with broad border in raised crimson velvet, filled in with a bush of pomegranates, in very thin lines of raised crimson velvet; the rest of the ground is diapered all over with the pomegranate tree in very thin outline. Genoese, early 16th century. 2 feet 9 inches by 2 feet.

The gold thread was so poor that the precious metal has almost entirely disappeared; but when all was new, this stuff must have looked particularly grand. The large red rose, and the pomegranate, make it seem as if it had been wrought, in the first instance, for either our Henry the Seventh, or Henry the Eighth, after the English marriage of Catherine of Arragon.

7076

Raised Velvet and Gold; pattern, conventional flowers in gold, upon tawny-coloured velvet. Genoese, late 15th century. 12 inches by 8 inches.

The gold of the design is, in parts, nicely diapered; and the gold thread itself thin, and now rather tarnished.

7077

Raised Crimson Velvet; pattern, an artichoke amid flowers. Genoese, late 15th century. 16½ inches by 11½ inches.

The pile is rich; and when it is borne in mind how the Emperor Charles V. honoured Andrea Dorea, it is not surprising that his countrymen had a partiality for the Spanish emblem of their great captain’s admirer.

7078

Raised Blue Velvet; ground, deep blue; pattern, within an outlined seven-petaled floriation in silk, an artichoke, with sprigs of flowers shooting out of it. Genoese, late 15th century. 17½ inches by 10¼ inches.

Though much worn by hard usage, this stuff is of a pleasing effect, owing to its agreeable design, which not unfrequently occurs perfect, and consists of a kind of circle in narrow lines, somewhat in the shape of a flower, but having at the tips of its prominent feathering cusps of florets.

7079

Figured Blue Velvet; embroidered in gold thread, with cinquefoils, enclosing a floriation of the artichoke form, with smaller ones around it. Spanish, 15th century. 15 inches by 9½ inches.

By the shape of this piece it must have been cut off from the end of a chasuble. Though the velvet is rich, the embroidery is poor, done as it is in thin outline, but still of a good form.

7080

Orphrey Web, silk and gold; ground, crimson; pattern, on a gold diapering, conventional floriations and scrolls, in one of which is the bust of St. Peter, with his key in one hand and a book in the other. Florentine, late 15th century. 21 inches by 8 inches.

Like many other samples, this rich web of crimson silk and fine gold thread was wrought for those kinds of broad orphreys needed for chasubles and copes; and sometimes worked up into altar-frontals.

7081

Silk Damask; ground, yellow; pattern, net-work, the meshes, which are looped to each other, filled in with a conventional floriated ornament, all in green. Italian, 16th century. 16½ inches by 10¾ inches.

Intended for household adornment. This stuff must have had an agreeable effect, though the green has somewhat faded.

7082

Silk Damask; ground, yellowish pale green; pattern, a diapering of very small leaves and flowers. Oriental, 13th century. 6½ inches by 5¾ inches.

Just like No. 7056, and needing the same near inspection to find out its small but well-managed delicate design.

7083

Silk and Linen Texture; ground, yellow; pattern, amid foliage, two cheetahs, face to face, all blue, but spotted yellow. Syrian, 14th century. 7¼ inches by 6½ inches.

At the same time that the warp is of linen, the woof of silk is thin; and a bold design is almost wasted upon poor materials. The specimen, however, is so far valuable, as it shows us how, for ages, a Persian feeling went along with the workmen on the eastern shores of the Levant.

7084

Silk Damask; ground, tawny; pattern, birds, flowers, and heart-shaped figures, encircled with imitated Arabic letters, all mostly in green, very partially shaded white. Sicilian, 14th century. 19½ inches by 5½ inches.

Above a heart-shaped ornament, bordered by a sham inscription in Arabic, and surrounded by a wreath, are two birds of the hoopoe kind, and beneath, two other birds, like eagles; and this design is placed amid the oval spaces made by garlands of flowers. All the component elements of the pattern are in small, though well-drawn figures.

7085

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, tawny; pattern, fruit, beasts, and birds. Sicilian, 14th century. 22¼ inches by 10 inches.

This rich stuff has an elaborate pattern, consisting of three pieces of fruit, like oranges or apples, with a small pencil of sun-rays darting from them above, out of which springs a little bunch of trefoils, which separate two lions, in gold, that are looking down, and with open langued mouths; below is another and larger pencil of beams, shining upon two perched eagles, with wings half spread out for flight. Between such groups is a large flower like an artichoke, with two blue flowers, like the centaurea, at the stalk itself; above which is, as it were, the feathering of an arch with a bunch of three white flowers, for its cusp. With the exception of the lions and flowers, the rest of the pattern is in green.

7086

Silk and Gold Brocade; ground, dark purple; pattern, all in gold, floriations, birds and beasts. Oriental, 13th century. 18¼ inches by 7 inches.

When new, this rich stuff must have been very effective, either for liturgical use or personal wear. There is a broad border, formed by the shallow sections of circles, inscribed with imitated Arabic characters. Out of the points or featherings made by the junctions of the circular sections spring forth bunches of wheat-ears, separating two collared cheetahs with heads reversed; and from other featherings, a large oval well-filled floriation, upon the branches of which are perched two crested birds, may be hoopoes, at which the cheetahs seem to be gazing. Over the wheat-ears, drops are falling from a pencil of sunbeams above them; below are two flowers in silk, once crimson.

7087

Silk Damask; ground, blue; pattern, birds, animals, and flowers, in gold, and different coloured silks. Oriental, late 13th century. 17½ inches by 7½ inches.

So fragmentary is this specimen, that it is rather hard to find out the whole of the design, which was seemingly composed of white cheetahs collared red, in pairs; above which sit two little dogs, in gold, looking at one another; and just over them a pair of white eagles, small too, on the wing, and holding a white flower between them. Running across the pattern was a band, in gold, charged with circles enclosing a sitting dog, a rosette, a circle having an imitated Arabic sentence over it.

7088

Part of a Stole, or of a Maniple; silk brocade; ground, light crimson; pattern, floriations in green, with lions rampant in gold. Sicilian, late 14th century. 20½ inches by 3 inches.

The parti-coloured fringe to this liturgical appliance is of poor linen thread not corresponding to the richness of the stuff.

7089

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, gold; pattern, branches of foliation, in yellow silk. Oriental, 15th century. 17½ inches by 3½ inches.

Though rather rich in material, the design is so obscure as hardly to be observable.

7090

Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, a diaper of parrots, and floriations, in bright greenish yellow. Oriental, 14th century. 11 inches by 4½ inches.

Though of a poor silk, the design is pretty, and tells of the coast of Syria, where many of the looms were kept at work for European use.

7091

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, purple; pattern, fleurs-de-lis in gold. Sicilian, late 14th century. 4 inches square.

Done, as was often the case, for French royalty, or some one of French princely blood, at Palermo, and sent to France. The stuff is rich, and well sprinkled with the royal golden flower.

7092

Silk Damask; ground, amber (once crimson); pattern, a diaper of flowers and leaves, in yellow. Sicilian, late 14th century. 9 inches by 5¼ inches broad.

Of a quiet and pleasing kind of design, showing something like a couple of letters in the hearts of two of its flowers.

7093

Embroidery in silk upon linen; pattern, men blue, women white, standing in a row hand in hand; the spaces filled up with lozenges in white. The women upon a green, the men upon a white ground. German, 16th century. 8¾ inches by 6½ inches.

So very worn away is the needlework, that it is very hard to see the design, which, when discovered, looks to be very stiff, poor, and angular.

7094

Silk Damask; ground, straw-colour; pattern, net-work of lozenges and quatrefoils, filled in each with a cross pommée, amid which are large circles containing a pair of parrots, all in raised satin. Oriental, 13th century. 8¾ inches by 7¾ inches.

This fine textile was, in all likelihood, woven by Christian hands somewhere upon the Syrian coast, and while a religious character was given it both by the crosses and the emblematic parrots, a Persian influence by the use of the olden traditionary tree between the parrots, or the Persians’ sacred “hom,” was allowed to remain upon the designer’s mind without his own knowledge of its being there, or of its symbolic meaning in reference to Persia’s ancient heathen worship.

7095

Blue Linen, wrought with gilt thin parchment; pattern, an oval, filled in with another oval, surrounded by six-petaled flowers, all in outline; this piece is put upon another of a different design, of which the pattern is an eagle on the wing. Spanish, 14th century. 7½ inches by 4-⅝ inches.

This is another specimen of gilt parchment being used instead of gold thread.

7099

Foot-cloth; ground, green worsted; pattern, birds and flowers. German, 16th century. 4 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 7 inches.

In all likelihood, this piece of needlework served the purpose of a rug or foot-cloth, or, may be, as the cloth covering for the seat of a carriage. It is worked in thick worsted upon a wide-meshed thread net, and after a somewhat stiff design.

7218

Table-cover, in green silk, with wide border of Italian point lace. Venetian, late 16th century. 5 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 2 inches.

The pattern of the lace is very bold and well executed, and consists of a large foliage-scroll of the classic type, ending in a lion’s head, so cherished by the Venetians, as the emblem of the Republic’s patron-saint, St. Mark. The poor thin silk is not worthy of its fine trimming.

7219

Table-cover, in light blue silk, with wide border of Italian point lace. Venetian, late 16th century. 6 feet 5 inches by 4 feet.

The pattern of the lace, like the foregoing specimen, is after a classic form, consisting of two horns of plenty amid foliage and scroll-work; in both pieces we see the effect of that school which brought forth a Palladio.

7468

A Lectern Veil of silk and gold cut-work; ground, crimson silk; design, of cut-work in cloth of gold and white and blue silk, ramifications ending in bunches of white grapes, horns of plenty holding fruit, and ears of wheat. French, 17th century. 9 feet by 1 foot 9¾ inches.

Such veils are thrown over a light moveable stand upon which the book of the Gospels and Epistles is put at high mass, for the deacon’s use as he sings the Gospel of the day. The cut-work is well-designed, and sewed on with an edging of blue cord in some places, of yellow in others. The cloth of gold was so poor that now it looks at a short distance like mere yellow silk.

7674

Missal Cushion; ground, red silk; pattern, two angels standing face to face and holding between them a cross, all in gold, excepting the angels’ faces and hands, which are white; there are four tassels, one at each corner, crimson and gold. Florentine, early 15th century. 1 foot 3 inches by 1 foot.

The covering for this cushion is made of orphrey web, the gold of which is very much faded; and, like other specimens from the same looms, shows the nudes of the figures in a pinkish white. The use of such cushions for upholding the missal upon the altar is even now kept up in some places. According to the rubric of the Roman Missal, wherein, at the beginning among the “rubricæ generales,” cap. xx. it is directed that there should be “in cornu epistolæ (altaris) cussinus supponendus missali.”

7788

Chasuble, in crimson velvet, with orphreys embroidered in gold and coloured silks. Florentine, 15th century. 4 feet long by 2 feet 5 inches broad.

This garment has been much cut down, and so worn that, in parts, its rich and curious orphreys are so damaged as to be unintelligible. Over the breast and on the front orphrey is embroidered the Crucifixion, but after a somewhat unusual manner, inasmuch as, besides our Lord on the Cross, with His mother and St. John the Evangelist standing by; two other saints are introduced, St. Jerome on one side, St. Lucy on the other, kneeling on the ground at the foot of the Cross, possibly the patrons, one of the lady, the other of the gentleman, at whose cost this vestment was wrought. Under this is St. Christina defending Christianity against the heathens; her arraignment, for her belief, before one of Dioclesian’s officials; her body bound naked, and scourged at a pillar. On the back orphrey, the same martyr on her knees by the side of another governor, her own pagan father, and praying that the idol, held to her for worship by him, may be broken; the saint maintaining her faith to those who came to argue with her before the window of the prison, wherein she is shut up naked in a cauldron, with flames under it, and praying with one of the men who are feeding the fire with bundles of wood, on his knees, as if converted by her words; then, the saint standing at a table, around which are three men; and below all, a piece so worn and cut, as to be unintelligible. Upon the last square but one is a shield argent, a bend azure, charged with a crescent or, two stars or, and another crescent or, probably the blazon of the Pandolfini family, to whose domestic chapel at Florence this vestment is said to have belonged.

7789, 7790

Dalmatic, and Tunicle, in crimson velvet, with apparels of woven stuff in gold and crimson silk, figured with cherubic heads. Florentine, 15th century.

The velvet is of a rich pile, and the tone of colour warm. The orphreys, or rather apparels, are all of the same texture, woven of a red ground, and figured in gold with cherubic heads, having white faces; the lace also is red, and gold; but in both the gold is quite faded. The sleeves are somewhat short, but the garment itself is full and majestic. Doubtless the dalmatic and tunicle formed a part of a full set of vestments, to which the fine and curiously embroidered chasuble, No. 7788, belonged; and their apparels, or square orphreys, above and below, before and behind, are in design and execution alike to several others from the looms of Florence, which we have found among various other remains of liturgic garments in this collection.

7791

Piece of Woven Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; design, in gold, an altar, with an angel on each side clasping a column, and above, other two angels worshipping; and upon the step leading to the altar, the words “sanctus, sanctus.” Florentine, early 16th century. 9 feet 7 inches by 9 inches.

The design is evidently meant to express the tabernacle at the altar, where the blessed sacrament is kept in church, for administration to the sick, &c., and, like all similar textiles, was made of such a length as to be applicable to copes, chasubles, and other ritual uses.

7792

Veil for the subdeacon, of raised velvet and gold; ground, gold; pattern, a broad scroll, showing, amid foliation, a conventional artichoke in raised crimson velvet. Florentine, late 16th century. 14 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 10 inches.

The bright yellow ground is more of silk than gold thread, and the velvet design, deep in its rich pile and glowing in its ruby tint, is dotted with the usual gold thread loops; at each end is a golden fringe; both edges are bordered with poor gold open lace; and still attached to it are the two short yellow silk strings for tying it in front, when put about the shoulders of the subdeacon at the offertory, when the paten is given him to hold at high mass.

7793

Hood of a Cope; ground, mostly gold, and a small part, silver; figured with two adoring angels; the centre piece gone, and in its place a saint standing, and done in woven work. Flemish, 15th century; the inserted saint, Florentine, 15th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 1 foot 4½ inches.

The figures of the angels in worship are nicely done in flos-silk; and perhaps the original lost figure was that of our Lord, or of the B. V. Mary. The lay saint now inserted, bare-headed, and leaning on his sword, wearing a green tunic, and a blue mantle sprinkled with trefoils in red and gold, perhaps meant for fleurs-de-lis, seems to be intended for St. Louis of France. The broad green silk fringe, and the pointed shape of the hood will not escape notice; and behind may yet be seen the eyes by which this hood was hung upon the cope. The poor shabby silver tinsel round this king is an addition quite modern.

7794

Burse for Corporals; ground, crimson satin; pattern, foliations and flowers in coloured silks and gold, with a phœnix rising from the flames in the middle. German, late 17th century. 11 inches by 10¼ inches.

7795

Burse for Corporals; ground, crimson velvet; pattern, velvet upon velvet, lined at back with silk; ground, amber, figured with a modification of the artichoke, in deep crimson. Italian, 16th century. 10¾ inches by 10 inches.

Though probably this burse, like the one above, may have come from a church in Germany, its beautiful materials are of Italian manufacture; the fine deep piled velvet upon velvet, from Genoa, the well-designed and pleasing silk at back, from Lucca, and many years, may be a half century, older than the velvet, make this small liturgical article very noteworthy on account of its materials.

7799

Veil of raised crimson velvet; ground, yellow silk and gold thread; pattern, large floriations all in crimson velvet, freckled with little golden loops. Florentine, 17th century. 11 feet 2½ inches by 1 foot 10 inches.

One of those magnificent textures of cut velvet, with a fine rich pile, sent forth by the looms of Tuscany. Its use may have been both for a veil to the lectern for the Gospel, and to be worn by the subdeacon at high mass; the two strings, attached to it still, evidently show its application to the latter purpose. A heavy gold fringe borders its two ends, the scolloped shape of which is rather unusual.

7813

Front Orphrey of a Chasuble, embroidered with figures in niches. Italian, late 15th century. 3 feet 1 inch by 7 inches; at the cross, 1¾ inches.

The first figure is that of our Lord giving His blessing, and of a very youthful countenance; next, seemingly the figure of St. Peter; then St. John the Evangelist. All these are done in coloured silks, upon a ground of gold, and within niches; but are sadly worn. The two angels at our Lord’s head are the best in preservation; but the whole is rather poor in execution. As a border, there are two strips figured with silver crosses upon grounds of different coloured silks.

7813a

Part of an Orphrey, embroidered with figures of the Apostles. Italian, late 15th century. 4 feet by 7½ inches.

Of the five personages, only the second, St. Paul, can be identified by his symbol of a sword. All are wrought upon a golden diaper, and standing within niches; but though the features are strongly marked in brown silk lines, as a specimen it is not remarkably good; and, most likely, served as the orphrey to some vestment, a chasuble, the orphrey of which for the front was the piece numbered 7813.

7833

Piece of Applied Embroidery, upon silk of a creamy white, an ornamentation in crimson velvet and cloth of gold, scolloped and tasseled. Italian, early 17th century.

Rich of its kind, and probably a part of household furniture.

7900

Silk Damask; ground, blue; pattern, diaper of stalks, bearing a broad foliation in whitish blue, and lions, and birds like hoopoes, all in gold, between horizontal bands inscribed with imitated Saracenic letters. Sicilian, 14th century, 10¾ inches square.

A beautiful design; and in the bands, at each end of the imitated word in Saracenic characters, are those knots that are found on Italian textiles. So poor was the gold on the thread, that it is sadly tarnished.

8128

Apparels to an Alb; figured with the birth of the B. V. Mary, in the upper one; and in the lower, the birth of our Lord; with two armorial shields alternating between the spandrils of the canopies. English needlework, on crimson velvet, and in coloured silks and gold thread, done in the latter half of the 14th century. Each piece 2 feet 8½ inches by 10½ inches. Presented by Ralf Oakden, Esq.

In many respects these two apparels, seemingly for the lower adornment of the liturgical alb, one before, the other behind, are very valuable; besides the subjects they represent, they afford illustrations of the style of needlework, architecture, costume, and heraldry of their time.

In the upper apparel, we have the birth and childhood of the mother of our Lord, as it is found in one of the apocryphal books of the New Testament, entitled,—“Evangelium de Nativitate S. Mariae,” which the Latins got from the Greeks, as early, it would seem, as the second or third age of the Church. Though of no authority, this book was in especial favour with our countrymen, and it was not unfrequently noticed in their writings; hence, no doubt, the upper apparel was suggested by that pseudo-gospel. In its first compartment, we behold a middle-aged lady, richly clad, having a mantle of gold, lined with vair or costly fur, about her shoulders, seated on a cushioned stool with a lectern, or reading-desk before her, and upon it an open book of the Psalms, with the beginning of the fiftieth written on its silver pages,—“Miserere mei, Deus,” &c., and outstretching her hands towards an angel coming down from the clouds, and as he hails her with one hand, holds, unrolled, before her eyes, a scroll bearing these words:—“Occurre viro ad portam.” This female is Ann, wife of Joachim, and mother of Mary; and the whole is thus set forth in the Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti; where the angel, who appeared to her while she was at prayer, is said to have spoken these words:—“Ne timeas, Anna, neque phantasma esse putes.... Itaque surge, ascende Hierusalem, et cum perveneris ad portam quæ aurea, pro eo quod deaurata est, vocatur, ibi pro signo virum tuum obvium habebis,” &c.—Evangelium de Nativitate S. Mariae, c. iv. in Cod. Apocry. ed. Thilo, pp. 324, 325. This passage is thus rendered in that rare old English black-letter book of sermons called “The Festival,” which was so often printed by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and other early printers in London:—“Anne was sory and prayed to God and sayde, Lorde, that me is woo. I am bareyne, and I may have noo frute... and I knowe not whyther he (Joachim my husband) is gone. Lorde have mercy on me. Whene as she prayed thus an angell come downe and comforted her, and sayd: Anne, be of gode comfort, for thou shalt have a childe in thyne olde age, there was never none lyke, ne never shall be... and whan he (Joachim) come nye home, the angell come to Anne, and bade her goo to the gate that was called the golden gate, and abide her husbonde there tyll he come. Thene was she glad... and went to the gate and there she mete with Joachim, and sayd, Lord, I thanke thee, for I was a wedow and now I am a wyfe, I was bareyne and now I shall bear a childe... and whan she (the child) was borne, she was called Mary.”—The Festival, fol. lxvi. In the second compartment we have a further illustration of the foregoing text in the representation of the golden gate at Jerusalem, and Anna and Joachim greeting one another as they meet there. In the third, there is the lying-in of Anna, who from her own bed is swathing her new-born child, whom the Almighty’s right hand coming from heaven is blessing. In the fourth is Anna bringing her little girl Mary, when three years old, as an offering to God, in the temple, before the High Priest. In the fifth and last compartment of this upper row of niches, we see Anna teaching her daughter, the B. V. Mary, to read the Psalter. In the first compartment in the lower apparel, or on the second row, the angel Gabriel, winged and barefoot, is represented standing before the B. V. Mary, whom with his right he is blessing, while in his left he holds out before her a scroll on which are the words:—“Ave Maria gracia.” She outstretches her hands, and gently bending her head forwards, seems to bow assent; between them is the lily-pot, and, as it should, holds but one flower-stem, with three, and only three, full-blown lilies (“Church of our Fathers,” t. iii. p. 247); above, is the Holy Ghost, figured as a white dove, coming down upon the Virgin. To this follows St. Elizabeth’s visit to the B. V. Mary, or the Salutation, as it is often called in this country. Then we have the Nativity, after the usual manner, with the ox and ass worshipping at the crib wherein our Lord is lying in swaddling clothes; and St. Joseph is figured wearing gloves. Filling the next niche, we behold the angel coming from the skies, with a scroll in his hands inscribed,—“Gloria in excelsis Deo,” to the shepherds, one of whom is playing on a bag-pipe with one hand, as with the other he is ringing a bell, which draws the attention of his dog that sits before him with upturned head and gaping mouth. In the last compartment we have the three wise men, clothed and crowned as kings, going to Bethlehem with their gifts, but none of them is a negro. Of the two shields hung alternately between every spandril, one is,—barry of ten argent and gules, which was the blazon of Thornell de Suffolk; and the other,—azure three cinque-foils argent, that of the family of Fitton, according to a MS. ordinary of arms, drawn up by Robert Glover, some time Somerset herald. In the subject of the shepherds, the ground is so plentifully sprinkled with growing daisies, that it seems as if it were done on purpose to tell us that she whose hands had wrought the work was called Margaret; as the flower was in French designated “La Marguerite,” it became the symbol of that saint’s name, and not unfrequently was the chosen emblem of the females who bore it.

8226

Gold Embroidery on purple silk over a white cotton ground, with figures of our Saviour and of the apostles St. Peter, St. Simon, and St. Philip. Sicilian work, done about the end of the 12th century. 14½ inches by 7 inches.

This piece of needlework with its figures, as well as its architectural accessories, wrought in gold thread, though rude in its execution, is not without an interest. In it the liturgical student will find the half of an apparel (for it has been unfeelingly cut in half at some remote time) for the lower hem in front of the linen garment known as the alb. Originally it must have consisted of seven figures; one of our Lord, in the middle, sitting upon a throne in majesty with the Α on the one side and the Ω on the other side of His nimbed head, and His right hand uplifted in the act of bestowing His benediction. To the left must have been three apostles; to the right are still to be seen the other three, nearest our Saviour, St. Peter, holding in his left hand a double-warded key, next to him St. Simon, with his right hand in the act of blessing, and holding in his left a saw fashioned not like ours, but as that instrument is still made in Italy, and last of all St. Philip, but without any symbol. What look like half-moons with a little dot in the inside, and having a cross between them, are nothing more than the word “Sanctus,” thus contracted with the letter S written as the Greek sigma formed like our C, a common practice in Italy during the middle ages, as may be seen in the inscriptions given by writers on Palæography.

Our Lord is seated within an elongated trefoil, and, at each corner at the outward sides, is shown one of His emblems, better known as the Evangelists’ symbols hinted at by the prophet Ezekiel, i. 10: of these, two are very discernible, the winged human bust, commonly called St. Matthew’s emblem, at top, and the nimbed and winged horned ox or calf for St. Luke. The Apostles all stand within round-headed arches, the spandrils of which are filled in with a kind of diaper ornamentation.

8227

Piece of Crimson Silk, with pattern woven in gold thread. Sicilian, early 13th century. 10½ inches by 7 inches.

This rich sample of the looms of Palermo betrays the architectural influences, which acted upon the designers of such stuffs, by the introduction of that ramified ornamentation with its graceful bendings, that is so marked a character in the buildings of England and France at the close of the 12th and opening of the 13th century. The fleur-de-lis is rather an accidental than intentional adaptation, years before the French occupation of Sicily.

8228

Piece of Purple Silk Embroidery in gold and silver; pattern of interlaced dragons, human figures, and birds. North German, 12th century. 8½ inches by 7¼ inches.

This small sample of needlework is as remarkable for the way in which it is wrought, as for the wild Scandinavian mythology which is figured on it.

The usual process for the application of gold and silver in textiles and embroidery is to twine the precious metal about cotton thread, and thus weave it in with the shuttle or stitch it on by the needle. Here, however, the silver, in part white in its original condition, in part gilt, is laid on in the form of a very thin but solid wire, unmixed with cotton, and the effect is very rich and brilliant.

In the middle of this piece are shown two monsters interlacing one another; within the upper coil which they make with their snake-like lengths, stands a human figure which, from its dress, looks that of a man who with each outstretched hand, seems fondling the serpent-heads of these two monsters; that at the other end terminates in the upper portion of an imaginary dragon with wings on its shoulders, its paws well armed with claws, and a wolfish head largely horned, and jaws widely yawning, as eager to swallow its prey. To our thinking, we have shown to us here the Scandinavian personification of evil in the human figure of the bad god Loki (the embroidery of whose face is worn away) and his wicked offspring, the Midgard serpent, the wolf Fenrir, and Hela or Death, who may be identified in that female figure seated within the smaller lower coil made by the twining serpents. Amid some leaf-bearing branches to the right is perceived a man as if running away affrighted; to the left we behold Thor himself, mallet in hand, about to deal a heavy blow upon the scaly length of this Midgard serpent. About the same time this embroidery was worked the bishop’s crozier began to end in the serpent’s head. A good figure of this piece is given by Dr. Bock, in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 2 Lieferung, pt. vi.

8229

Piece of Crimson Silk, with interlacing pattern woven in gold; the centre occupied with representations of flat-shaped fish, and, as we learn from Dr. Bock, like to an imperial robe at Vienna, made A.D. 1133. Oriental. 11 inches by 5 inches.

Though of a very tame design and rather striking for the sparing way in which the dim gold is rolled about its thread, still it is not fair to judge of what this stuff might have once been when new, fresh from the loom and unfaded. If, in the first half of the 12th century, silks so wrought with the representation of fishes were deemed worthy of being put into use for state garments of a German Emperor; a short hundred years later, they were for their symbolism thought even more fitting to be employed for making the chasubles and copes worn at divine service in the cathedral of London. From the inventory drawn up, A.D. 1295, of the altar vestments belonging to old St Paul’s, we learn that among them there were:—“Capa magistri Johannis de S. Claro, de quodam panno Tarsico, viridis coloris, cum plurimis piscibus et rosis de aurifilo, contextis.” Dugdale’s “History of St. Paul’s,” new ed. p. 318. “Item casula de panno Tarsico indici coloris cum pisculis et rosulis aureis, &c.” Ib. p. 323. In all likelihood, the fish here shown was meant for what we oddly call “John Dory,” a corruption of the Italian “Gianitore,” or gate-keeper, the name of this fish in some parts of Italy, in reference to St. Peter, who is deemed to have found the tribute-money in the mouth of this fish, hence denominated St. Peter’s fish.

8230

Piece of so-called Bissus, of a yellowish white, with squares formed by intersecting bars of dark brown. 11¼ inches by 8½ inches.

Though so unattractive to the eye, this fragment of one of the most delicate sorts of textile manufacture is one among the most curious and interesting specimens of this valuable collection. Unfortunately, Dr. Bock does not furnish us with any clue to its history, nor tell us where he found it. The large whitish squares measure 4¼ inches by 3¾ inches, and those deep brown bars that enclose them are a quarter of an inch broad, and meant evidently to have not a straight but wavy form. Another piece of this curious textile may be seen under No. 1238.

8231

Piece of Yellow Silk, with a diapering of an artichoke shape marked with lines like letters. Moresco-Spanish, 14th century. 6 inches by 3 inches.

The texture of this silk is rather thick; and though resembling Arabic letters, the marks in the diapering are not alphabetical characters, but attempts to imitate them.

8231a

Piece of Dark Blue Purple Stuff, partly silk, partly cotton, double-dyed, with a diapering of small hexagons. Oriental. 5 inches by 2½ inches.

This somewhat strong texture seems to have come from Syria and to be of the 14th century.

8232

Piece of Silk and Gold Embroidery. German, 8½ inches by 3 inches.

It is said that an imperial tunic, now kept in the Maximilian Museum at Munich, once belonged to the Emperor Henry II., and was spoken of as such in a list of the treasures of Bamberg Cathedral in the 12th century. From the border of this tunic the piece before us is reported to have been cut off.

That in the 12th century Bamberg Cathedral had the imperial (probably the coronation) tunic of its builder and great benefactor, and as such reckoned it among its precious things, was but natural; it, however, by no means follows that this is the garment now at Munich and brought from Bamberg six hundred years after its reputed owner’s death, and put into the museum in his palace by the Elector Maximilian, A.D. 1607. Keeping in mind that the Emperor Henry II. was crowned at the very beginning of the 11th century, about the year 1002, and seeing in the piece before us the style of the end of the 12th century—with thus a period of almost two hundred years between the two epochs—we cannot recognize this specimen to have ever formed a portion of the real tunic of the above-named German emperor. Besides its style, its materials forbid us to accept it as such. Its design is set forth in cording of a coarse thread roughly put together; the spaces between are filled in with shreds of red silken gold tissue, and of gold stuff sewed on to very coarse canvas. That, in this condition, it had been much used, and needed mending through long wear, is evident from other pieces of a gold and velvet texture of the 14th century being let in here and there over the frayed portions, thus showing a second example of what is called “applied.” Like Germany, England, too, has made its mistakes on such matters, for we are told that “as the kings of England are invested with the crown of St. Edward, their queens are crowned with that of St. Edgitha, which is named in honour of the Confessor’s consort.”—Taylor’s “Glory of Regality,” p. 63. In the inventory, drawn up in the year 1649, “of that part of the Regalia which are now removed from Westminster to the Tower Jewel House,” we find entered “Queen Edith’s crowne, King Alfred’s crowne,” &c.—Taylor’s “Glory of Regality,” p. 313. The likelihood is that, in the 17th century, these supposed Anglo-Saxon crowns were not 200 years old.

8233

Piece of White Silk, with rich pattern of circles enclosing leopards and griffins, and a diaper of scrolls and birds. Oriental, 13th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 9 inches.

Like the piece immediately preceding, this too comes to us with an account that it once formed a part of the white silk imperial tunic belonging to the same holy Emperor Henry II., and was cut off from that garment now preserved in the Maximilian Museum in the royal palace at Munich. That it could have been wrought so early as the beginning of the 11th century, that is, about the year 1002, we are hindered from believing by the style of the ornamentation of this very rich stuff. As a specimen of the Arabic loom in the 13th century it is most valuable, and looks as if its designer had in his mind Persian traditions controlled by Arabic ideas while he drew its pattern. A remembrance of the celebrated Persian Hom, or sacred tree, which separates both the griffins, the leopards, and the birds—seemingly peacocks in one place, long-tailed parrots in another—was clearly before him. The griffins are addorsed regardant and sketched with spirit; so too are the leopards, which are collared, and like the “papyonns,” or present East Indian “cheetahs,” of which mention is made at No. 8288. Altogether this pattern, which is thrown off with so much freedom, is among the most pleasing and effective in the collection, and the thickness of its silken texture renders it remarkable.

8234

Piece of Purple Silk, double-dyed, the pattern formed of squares filled in with a Greek cross amid conventional ornaments. Sicilian, 12th century. 7½ inches by 9 inches.

The warp is of linen thread, the woof of silk, and as the two materials have not taken the dye in the same degree, the ground is of quite another tone from the pattern, which is, in a manner, fortunate, as thus a better effect is produced.

Not for a moment can we look upon this piece as a specimen of real imperial purple wrought at Byzantium for royal use, and so highly spoken of by Anastasius Bibliothecarius, and called by him “blatthin,” with the distinguishing adjunct of “holosericus,” or made entirely of silk, and sometimes noticing it as “porphyreticum,” while enumerating the gifts of rich silks bestowed upon the churches at Rome by pontifical and imperial benefactors.

8235

Piece of Yellow Silk, with pattern of circles enclosing griffins, the interspaces filled in with hawks. Byzantine, 11th century. 12 inches by 10½ inches.

This well woven and thickly bodied stuff shows its Byzantine origin in that style of ornamentation seen in the circles so characteristic of a Greek hand, as may be found in the Byzantine MSS. of the period. What makes this specimen somewhat remarkable, is the rare occurrence of finding the birds and animals figured in lines of silver thread. Dr. Bock tells us that the chasuble of Bishop Bernward, who died in the 11th century, is decorated with a similar design.

8236

Piece of Silk, Tyrian purple, diapered with palmette pattern. Oriental, 11th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 8½ inches.

The hundreds of years that have passed over this remnant of the Eastern looms have stolen from it that brightness of tone which once, no doubt, shone about its surface.

8237

Portion of Silk Border, crimson wrought in gold, with circles containing grotesque animals. Italian (?), middle of the 13th century. 1 foot 5½ inches by 3½ inches.

This well filled piece contains birds and beasts, among the latter two dogs addorsed, embroidered with circles, upon plain red silk. By the ornamentation, the embroidery must be about the middle of the 13th century, and is of that general character which hinders national identification, though there can be no doubt it must have been wrought by some hand in Western Europe.

8238

Three Pieces of Silk, discoloured to dull olive, diapered with a closely foliated pattern. Sicilian, 13th century. Respectively 6 inches by 4 inches, 4½ inches by 4 inches, and 6 inches by 3 inches.

The design of the pattern is very elaborate and worthy of attention for the tasteful way in which it is arranged.

8238a

Piece of Silk, with lilac pattern, enclosing grotesque animals. Sicilian, 13th century. 3¾ inches by 1¾ inches.

There is no reason for assuming that this piece of woven stuff formed the orphrey of a stole or any other liturgical ornament. It is, however, a fine specimen in its kind, and is one of the very many proofs to be found among the textiles and embroideries in the Museum, of the influence exercised by heraldry upon the looms of Western Europe. The beasts and birds are evidently heraldic, and are heraldically placed, especially the beasts, which are statant regardant.

8239

Maniple in Crimson Silk, embroidered in colours and gold with emblematical animals. The ends contain within circles, one the lion, symbolical of Christ, the other the initial M, but of much later work. The silk, Oriental; the embroidery, German, early 14th century. 3 feet 8 inches by 7 inches.

This valuable specimen of mediæval church-embroidery is very curious, inasmuch as it contains three distinct periods of work; the middle part of the earliest portion of the 14th century, embroidered with so many fantastic figures; the lion passant with the human head, at the left end, of the beginning of the 13th; and the green letter M, poorly worked on the red garment laid bare at the right end by the loss of the circular piece of embroidery once sewed on there, no doubt in the style and of the same period of the human-faced lion, of the latter part of the 15th century.

The whole of the middle piece is of needlework, and figured with sixteen figures, four-legged beasts in the body, and human in the heads, all of which are seen, by the hair, to be female. All are statant gardant or standing and looking full in the face of the spectator. Eight of them are playing musical instruments, most of which are stringed and harp-shaped, one a clarionet-like pipe, another castanets, and two cymbals, and are human down to the waist; the other eight seem meant for queens wearing crowns, and having the hair very full, but reaching no further than the shoulders, while the minstrel females show a long braid of dark brown hair falling all down the back. The queens have wings, and are human only in head and neck; the musical figures are wingless, and human as far as the waist. All these monsters display large tails, which end in an open-mouthed head like that of a fox, and are all noued. Each of these figures stands within a square, which is studded at each corner with the curious four-pointed love-knot, and in the ornamentation of its sides the crescent is very conspicuous; besides which, upon the bodies of these figures themselves numerous ring-like spots are studiously marked, as if to show that the four-legged animal was a leopard. Grotesques like those in this curious piece of embroidery abound in the MSS. of the 14th century; and those cut in stone on the north and south walls outside Adderbury Church, Oxon, bear a strong likeness to them. These fictitious creatures, made up of a woman, a leopard—the beast of prey, a fox—the emblem of craftiness and sly cunning, wielding too the power of wealth and authority, shown in those regal heads, and bringing those siren influences of music, love, and revelry into action, lead to the belief that under such imagery there was once hidden a symbolic meaning, which still remains to be found out, and this embroidery may yield some help in such an interesting study.

All the figures are wrought on fine canvas in gold thread, and shaded with silk thread in various colours, the ground being filled in, in short stitch, with a bright-toned crimson silk that has kept its colour admirably. The narrow tape with a gold ornament upon a crimson ground, that encloses the square at each end of this liturgical appliance, is very good, and perhaps of the 13th century, as well as the many-coloured fringe of the 15th. There is no doubt this maniple, for such it is, was made out of scraps of secular adornments of various dates; and gives us remarkable examples of embroidery and weaving at various periods. One end of it is figured in Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 2 Lieferung, part vi.

8240, 8240a

Two Pieces of Silk Border; red purple, embroidered with monsters, birds, and scroll patterns. To No. 8240 is attached a portion of edging, embroidered in gold, with the rude figure of a saint, on a blue-purple ground. Sicilian, 13th century. 8240, 1 foot 3¼ inches by 5 inches; 8240A, 1 foot 11 inches by 2 inches.

Among the animals figured on these pieces may be discerned a wolf passant, the fabulous heraldic wyvern, an eagle displayed, and a stag. The figure, however, of the saint, done in gold now much faded, is of the 12th century.

8241

Piece of Tapestry, the warp cotton, the woof partly wool, partly silk; in the centre, a grotesque mask, connecting scroll-patterns in blue, bordered with Tyrian purple. Sicilian, late 12th century. 1 foot 2¾ inches by 6 inches.

This is a rare as well as valuable specimen of its kind, and deserves attention, not only for the graceful twinings of its foliage, but the happy contrast of its colours.

8242

Portion of Gold Embroidery, on red-purple silk, over a dark blue cotton ground, figure of St. Andrew within an arch. German work, 12th century. 9¾ inches by 5¼ inches.

8243

Piece of Silk, dark Tyrian purple ground, with dark olive pattern of angular figures, and circles enclosing crosses, composed of four heart-shaped ornaments. Byzantine, beginning of the 12th century. 6 inches by 6 inches.

8243a

Piece of Silk Border, ground alternately lilac, purple, and yellowish, with figures of animals within the spaces of the patterns; edging, green. Sicilian, 13th century. 3¼ inches by 1 inch.

Though small, this is a beautiful sample of textile excellence; on it various animals are figured, of which one is the heraldic wyvern.

8244, 8244a

Two Pieces of Crimson, embroidered, in gold, with a scroll-pattern. Sicilian, 13th century. 8244, 6½ inches by 2½ inches; 8244A, 6¼ inches by 2½ inches.

8245

Piece of Silk Tissue; the ground of pale purple, woven in a diaper with stripes of yellow and blue; the pattern formed of parrots perched in pairs. Sicilian, 12th century. 1 foot 6½ inches by 10 inches.

It is said that St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, when his grave was opened, was found vested in a chasuble made of a stuff much like this.

8245a

Piece of Tissue, like the foregoing (No. 8245), with a centre stripe woven with gold thread and dark blue, and two side-stripes with figures of parrots. Sicilian, early 13th century.

Though seemingly so slight and insignificant, these two pieces will richly repay a close examination, exhibiting, as they do, great beauty of design.

8246

Piece of Border, of silk and gold thread, pale purple ground, with pattern of animals and flower (?) ornament. Sicilian (?). 10½ inches by 1¼ inches.

From age, the design of the pattern is so very indistinct that it becomes almost a puzzle to make it out.

8247

Three Pieces of Silk, orange-red ground, with yellow pattern, apparently composed in part of grotesque animals. Oriental, 13th century. 6 inches by 4½ inches; 3 inches by 2½ inches; 4½ inches by 2 inches.

This last piece shows signs of having been waxed, and probably is the fragment of a cere-cloth for the altar, to be placed immediately on the stone table, and under the linen cloths.

8248

Piece of Tissue, woven of silk and linen; ground, Tyrian purple, with a Romanesque pattern in white. Moresco-Spanish, 13th century.

The design of this specimen is very effective; and, as the materials of this stuff are poor and somewhat coarse, we may perceive that, even upon things meant for ordinary use, the mediæval artisans bestowed much care in the arrangement and sketching of their patterns.

8249

Piece of Silk; purple ground, and yellowish pattern in lozenge forms, intersected by interlaced knots. Byzantine, end of the 12th century. 6½ inches by 5 inches.

The knots in this piece are somewhat like those to be found upon Anglo-Saxon work, in stone, and in silver and other metals; and the lozenges powdered with Greek crosses, and stopped at each of the four corners of the lozenge by a three-petaled flower ornament—not, however, a fleur-de-lis,—make this piece of stuff remarkable.

8250

Piece of Broad Border of Gold Tissue, portion of a vestment. Sicilian, 13th century. 6 inches by 5 inches.

This was once part of the orphrey of some liturgical garment, and is figured with lions rampant combatant, and foliage in which a cross flory may be discovered.

8250a

Piece of Silk; green ground, with a stripe diapered in silver. Byzantine, end of 12th century. 4¾ inches by 2 inches.

The design of the stripe not only shows the St. Andrew’s cross, or saltire, but, in its variety of combination, displays other forms of the cross, that make this stuff one of the kind known among Greek writers as “stauracinus” and “polystauria,” and spoken of as such by Anastasius Bibliothecarius in very many parts of his valuable work.

8251

Portion of a Maniple, linen web with an interlaced diamond-shaped diapering, in silk. 12th century. Byzantine. 1 foot 9 inches by 2¾ inches.

This curious remnant of textiles, wrought on purpose for liturgical use, shows in places another combination of lines, or rather of a digamma, so as to form a sort of cross: and stuffs so diapered were called by Greek, and after them by Latin, Christian writers, “gammadia.” It was a pattern taken up by the Sicilian and South Italian looms, whence it spread so far north as England, where it may be found marked amid the ornaments designed upon church vestments figured in many graven brasses. From us it got the new name of “filfod” through the idea of “full foot,” which by some English mediæval writers was looked upon as an heraldic charge, and is now called “cramponnée.” During the 13th century, in this country, ribbon-like textiles, for the express purpose of making stoles and maniples to be worn at the altar, were extensively wrought, and constituted one of the articles of trade in London, for a distinguished citizen of hers, John de Garlandia, or Garland, tells us:—“De textis vero fiunt cingula, et crinalia divitum mulierum et stole(ae) sacerdotum.” These “priests’ stoles,” in all likelihood, were figured with the gammadion or filfod pattern; and, perhaps, many of them which are to be found in foreign sacristies to this day came from London.

The piece before us is figured in Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pt. iii. fig. 3.

8252

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue, lilac-purple with fleur-de-lis diapering in gold. South Italian, end of 14th century. 5 inches by 4½ inches.

This stuff seems to have been made expressly for French royalty, perhaps some member of the house of Anjou.

8253

Piece of Dark Blue Silk, with pattern in yellow, consisting of centre ornaments surrounded by four crowned birds like parrots. South Italian, 14th century. 9 inches by 7 inches.

8254

Piece of Silk Net, embroidered with crosslets and triangular ornaments charged with chevrons in lilac and green. North Italian, 14th century. 7 inches by 5 inches.

This is a good specimen of a kind of cobweb weaving, or “opus araneum,” for which Lombardy, especially its capital, Milan, earned such a reputation at one time.

8255

Piece of Silk, crimson ground, with pattern in violet and green, consisting partly of wyverns. Sicilian, end of 13th century. 10 inches by 5 inches.

Another good specimen of the Sicilian loom, and very likely one of those “cendals” for which Palermo was once so famous.

8256

Piece of Silk, pink-buff colour, with pattern, in green, of vine-leaves and grapes. South Italian, middle of 14th century. 8 inches by 5½ inches.

The design of this silk is remarkably elegant, and exemplifies the ability of the weaver-draughtsmen of those times.

8257

Piece of Crimson Silk, damasked with a pattern in which occur leopards and eagles pouncing upon antelopes. Sicilian, end of 13th century.

The design of this piece of what must have been such a beautiful stuff is very skilfully imagined, and the whole carried out in a spirited manner. The leopards are collared, and from the presence of, as well as mode of action in, the eagles stooping on their prey, a thought may cross the mind that some political or partisan meaning is hidden under these heraldic animals.

8258

Piece of Silk; ground, lilac-purple; pattern, in bright yellow, composed of stags, parrots, and peacocks, amid foliage. Italian, 14th century. 10 inches by 4½ inches.

A pretty design, in cheerful colours, and a pleasing example probably of the Lucca loom towards the close of the 14th century.

8259

Piece of Tissue, with hemp warp and silk woof; ground, dark blue; pattern, yellowish, representing a tree imparked, with eagles, and leopards having tails noued or tied in a knot. Italian, early 15th century. 1 foot 7 inches by 1 foot.

Though somewhat elaborate, the design of this piece is rather heavy.

8260

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue, lilac-purple ground, with a green pattern, showing eagles statant regardant, with wings displayed. Sicilian, 14th century. 7 inches by 4¾ inches.

The design is very good.

8260a

Piece of Silk, lilac-purple ground with green pattern, and gold woven border, exhibiting an antelope courant regardant. Sicilian, early 14th century. 6½ inches by 3½ inches.

Good in design.

8260b, C.

Two Pieces of Silk, green ground and lilac-purple pattern, with dragons and cranes. Sicilian, early 14th century. 4½ inches by 4 inches; and 4½ inches by 2½ inches.

A pleasing design.

8261

Portion of an Orphrey embroidered in silk and gold, with figures of two Apostles beneath crocketed canopies. German, early 14th century.

8262

Piece of Silk, rose-coloured ground, with pattern of eagles rising from trees, both green, and wild beasts spotted (perhaps leopards) in gold, and lodged in a park, paled green. South Italian, 14th century. 2 feet by 10½ inches.

8263

Piece of Silk, rose-coloured ground, pattern in green and gold, of two female demi-figures addorsed, gathering date-fruit with one hand, with the other patting a dog rampant and collared with bells, and other two female demi-figures holding, with one hand, a frond of the palm-tree out of which they are issuing, and with the other hand clutching the manes of lions rampant regardant and tails noued. Sicilian, 14th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 1 foot 2 inches.

This valuable and important piece displays an intricate yet well-managed and tastefully arranged pattern. One must be struck with the peculiar style of assortment of pink and green in its colours, the somewhat sameness in the subjects, and the artistic and heraldic way in which these silks (very likely wrought at Palermo) are woven. Dr. Bock has given a fine large plate of this stuff in his “Dessinateur pour Etoffes,” &c. Paris, Morel.

8264

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; the ground black, with pattern, in gold, of a rayed star, with eagles statant and swans naiant (swimming) upon water on a foliated scroll. Sicilian, early 14th century. 1 foot 2 inches by 1 foot 1½ inches.

The design of this piece is as easy and flowing as it is bold; and the specimen affords us a very choice example of fine manufacture.

8265

Piece of Linen and Silk Textile; the ground, dark blue; the pattern, yellow, consisting of arcades beneath which are rows of parrots and hawks alternately, both gardant, and perched upon a vine; the initial M surmounted by a crown or fleur-de-lis in gold thread is inserted in the alternate range of arches. Southern Spanish, late 14th century. 1 foot 6 inches by 10 inches.

As a specimen of the Andalusian loom, and wrought by Christian hands, perhaps at Granada, while that part of Spain was under Moorish rule, this piece has a peculiar interest about it.

8266

Maniple, embroidered in silk, inscribed in Gothic letters with “Gratia + plena + Dom...” German, end of 14th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 2 inches.

8267

Piece of Tissue, of cotton warp, of silk and gold woof, with pattern of birds and stags amid foliated ornamentation. Spanish, 14th century.

8268

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; the ground, lilac-purple; the pattern in gold, symmetrically arranged and partly composed of birds, upon which hounds are springing. Sicilian, 14th century. 2 feet 3½ inches by 11 inches.

A very effective and well-executed design.

8269

Piece of Silk; ground, blue, diapered in yellow with mullets of eight points and eight-petaled flowers, within lozenges. Sicilian, early 15th century. 6 inches by 4¼ inches.

8269a

Piece of Silk and Cotton Border; ground, crimson, now much faded; pattern, a diaper of the fleur-de-lis within a lozenge, both yellow; the stuff which it edged has a deep blue ground powdered with fleurs-de-lis, and eight-petaled flowers within lozenges, both yellow. South Italian, late 13th century. 4 inches by 2½ inches.

Though from its pattern we may assume that this stuff was made for the requirement of the Sicilian Anjou family or one of its adherents, the poorness of its materials forbids us from thinking it could have served for any other than common use.

8270

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; pattern, consisting of diaper and leaves interspersed with small circles, within each of which is a conventional flower expanded. South Italian, 14th century. 11 inches by 10 inches.

8271

Piece of Silk, with portions of the pattern in gold; ground, green, on which are parrots (?) and little dogs, amid a sprinkling of quatrefoils. Sicilian, beginning of 14th century. 10½ inches by 4 inches.

8272

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; ground, green; the pattern in gold seems to have been divided by bars, and consists of an interlaced knot, on which rest birds. Southern Spanish, early 14th century. 8½ inches by 4¼ inches.

The knots in this piece are somewhat like our own Bouchier one; but the four ends of the English badge are not shown in this Andalusian ornament, perhaps meant to be really an heraldic charge peculiar to Spanish blazon.

8273

Piece of Silk; ground, lilac-purple; pattern, yellow, diapered with crescents, within the horns of which are two very small wyverns addorsed. Sicilian, late 13th century. 7½ inches by 4½ inches.

The design is so indistinct that it requires time to unpuzzle it.

8274

Portion of an Orphrey, embroidered on parchment with glass, coral, gold beads, and seed pearls, having also small bosses and ornaments in silver-gilt. The ground is dark blue, on which is figured the B. V. Mary nimbed and crowned within an oblong aureole terminated by scrolls ending in trefoils and cinquefoils. Venetian, late 12th century.

That this curious and elaborate piece of bead embroidery must have been part of an orphrey for a chasuble, and not a maniple, is evident from the pointed shape in which it ends. From its style, and the quantity of very small beads and bugles which we see upon it, it would seem to have been wrought either at Venice itself, in some of its mainland dependencies, or in Lower Styria. Then, as now, the Venetian island of Murano wrought and carried on a large trade in beads of all kinds; and the silversmith’s craft was in high repute at Venice. Finding, then, this remnant of a liturgical vestment so plentifully adorned with beads, bugles, and coral, besides being so dotted with little specks of gold, and sprinkled with so many small but nicely worked silver-gilt stars, we are warranted in taking this embroidery to have been wrought somewhere in North East Italy or South West Germany, upon the borders of the Adriatic. Those fond of ecclesiastical symbolism will look upon this old piece of needlework with no small interest, and observe that it was by intention that the ground was blue. It is figured in Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder Mittelalters,” 1 Band, 2 Lieferung, pt. x. s. 275.

8275

Piece of Linen Tissue, with pattern woven in gold; the design consists of bands curving to a somewhat lozenge form and inclosing an ornament composed of intersecting circles with a three-pointed or petaled kind of conventional flower (not a fleur-de-lis) radiating from the centre. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 inches by 4½ inches.

8276

Piece of Silk; ground, pinkish purple; pattern in dark blue, or rather green, divided by four-sided compartments and formed of conventional flowers and salamanders, the borders of a running design. Sicilian, 14th century. 10½ inches by 6 inches.

Most likely woven at Palermo, but no good sample of dyeing, as the colours have evidently changed; what is now a pinkish purple hue was of a light cheerful crimson tone, and the dark blue pattern must have originally been a warm green.

8277

Piece of Crimson Silk and Gold Tissue; the pattern, in gold, of conventional ornaments and circles containing birds and animals; the border consists of a repetition of a wyvern, an eagle displayed, and an elephant and castle. Italian, early 14th century. 11 inches by 4 inches.

This fine costly specimen of old silken stuff cannot fail in drawing to itself a particular attention from the heedful observer, by its gracefully elaborate design, so well carried out and done in such rich materials, but more especially by the symbols figured on it.

Though now unable to read or understand the meaning of all those emblematic hints so indistinctly uttered in its curious border, made up, as it is, of a wyvern, a stork embowed and statant on an elephant and castle, and a displayed eagle, we hopefully think that, at no far-off day, the key to it all will be found; then, perhaps, the piece before us, and many other such textiles in this very collection, may turn out to be no little help to some future writer while unravelling several entanglements in mediæval history.

Not for a single moment can we admit that through these heraldic beasts and birds the slightest reference was intended to be made to the four elements; heaven or the air, earth or its productions, fire and water, were quite otherwise symbolized by artists during the middle ages, as we may see in the nielli on a super-altar described and figured in the “Church of Our Fathers,” t. i. p. 257.

8278

A Sindon or kind of Frontal, of Crimson Silk, on a linen or canvas lining, embroidered in silk and silver thread, with a large figure of our Lord dead, two standing angels, and, at each of its four corners, a half-length figure of an evangelist; the whole enclosed in a border inscribed with Sclavonic characters. Ruthenic work, middle of 17th century. 4 feet 6½ inches by 2 feet 10 inches.

In the centre of this curious ecclesiastical embroidery (for spreading outside the chancel, at the end of Holy Week, among the Greek,) our dead Lord, with the usual inscription, IC, XC, over Him, is figured lying full length, stretched out, as it were, upon a slab of stone which a sheet overspreads. His arms are at His sides as far as the elbows, where they bend so that His hands may be folded downward cross-wise upon His stomach, from which, to His knees, His loins are wrapped in a very full-folded cloth done in silver thread, but now nearly black from age. His skin is quite white, His hair and beard of a light brown colour, and His right side, His hands and feet are marked each with a blood-red wound; and the embroidery of His person is so managed as to display, in somewhat high relief, the hollows and elevations of the body’s surface; all around and beneath His head goes a nimbus marked inside with a cross very slightly pattee, the whole nicely diapered and once bright silver, but now quite black. Two nimbed angels, beardless and, in look, quite youthful, are standing, one at His head, the other at His feet, each, like the other, vested, as is the deacon at the present day, for mass, according to the Greek and Oriental rites; they wear the “chitonion” or alb, over that the “stoicharion” or dalmatic, and from the right—though it should have been from the left—shoulder falls the “orarion” or stole, upon which the Greek word “agios,” or holy, is repeated, just as a Greek deacon is shown in “Hierurgia,” p. 345; in his right hand each holds extended over our Lord, exactly as Greek deacons now do, at the altar, after the consecration of the Holy Eucharist, a long wand, at the end of which is a large round six-petaled flower-like ornament, having within it a cherub’s six-winged face; this is the holy fan, concerning which see the “Church of our Fathers,” iv. 197; and each has his left hand so raised up under his chin as to seemingly afford a rest for it. At each of the four corners of the frontal is the bust of an evangelist with a nimb about his head; in the upper left, “Agios o Theologos,” for so the Greeks still call St. John the Evangelist: in the lower left, St. Luke; in the upper right, St. Matthew; in the lower right, St. Mark; each is bearded, and the hair, whether on the head or chin, is shown in blue and white as of an aged man. While the heads and faces of all four evangelists are red, with the features distinguished by white lines, the angels have white faces and their hair is deep red with strokes in white to indicate the curly wavings of their locks. There are two crosses, rather pattee, done in silver thread, measuring 2½ inches, one above, the other below our Lord, in the middle of the ground, which is crimson, and wrought all over with gracefully twined flower-bearing branches; and each evangelist is shut in by a quarter-circle border charmingly worked with a wreath of leaves quite characteristic of our 13th century work. All the draperies, inscriptions, and ornamentation, now looking so black, were originally wrought in silver thread that is thus tarnished by age.

Among the liturgical rarities in this extensive and precious collection of needlework, not the least is the present Russo-Greek “sindon,” or ritual winding-sheet, used in a portion of the Eastern Church service on the Great Friday and Great Saturday, as the Orientals call our Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

The colour itself—purplish crimson—of the silk ground upon which our Lord’s dead body lies, as it were, outstretched upon the winding-sheet in the grave, is not without a symbolic meaning, for amongst the Greeks, up to a late period, of such a tint were invariably the garments and the stuffs employed on every occasion any wise connected with the dead, though now, like the Latins, the Muscovites at least use black for all such functions.

All around the four borders of this sindon are wrought in golden thread, now much tarnished, sentences of Greek, but written, as the practice is among the Sclaves, in the Cyrillian character, thus named from St. Cyrill, the monk, who invented that alphabet a thousand years ago, as one of the helps for himself and his brother St. Methodius, in teaching Christianity to the many tribes of the widely-spread Sclavonian people, as we noticed in our Introduction, § 5.

Beginning at the right-hand side, from that portion of the silk being somewhat torn, the words are not quite whole, but those that can be read, say thus:—“Pray for the servant of God, Nicolaus....and his children. Amen;” here, no doubt, we have the donor’s name, and the exact time itself of this pious gift was put down, but owing to the stuff being, at this place too, worn away, the date is somewhat obliterated, but seems to be the year 1645.

All the other sentences are borrowed from the Greek ritual-book known as the Ὡρολόγιον or Horologium, in the service for the afternoon on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Along the lower border runs this “troparion,” or versicle:— Ὁ εὐσχήμων Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου καθελὼν τὸ ἄχραντόν σου Σῶμα, σινδόνι καθαρᾷ εἰλήσας καί ἀρώμασιν ἐν μνήματι καινῷ κηδεύσας ἀπεθέτο. “The comely Joseph (of Arimathea) having taken down from the wood (of the cross) the spotless body of Thee (O Jesus), and having wrapped it up in a clean winding-sheet together with aromatics, taking upon himself to afford it a becoming burial, laid it in a new grave.” Upon the left hand side comes this versicle:— Ταῖς μυρόφοροις γυναιξὶ παρὰ τὸ μνῆμα ἐπιστάς, ὁ Ἄγγελος ἐβόα: Τὰ μύρα τοῖς θνητοῖς ὑπάρχει ἁρμόδια, Χριστὸς δὲ διαφθορᾶς ἐδείχθη ἀλλότριος—Τροπάρια τοῦ Τριαδίου. Τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ μεγάλῳ Σαββάτῳ. “Seeing at the grave the women who were carrying perfumes, the Angel cried out, ‘The ointments fitting (to be used in the burial) for mortal beings are lying here, but Christ, having undergone death, has shown Himself (again) after another form.’”

According to the rite followed by the Russians and Greeks, on the afternoon of Good Friday, as well as that of Holy Saturday, a sindon or liturgical winding-sheet, figured just like the one before us, is brought into the middle of the church, and placed outside the sanctuary, so that it may be easily venerated by all the people in turn. First come the clergy, making, as they slowly advance, many low and solemn bows, and bendings of the whole person. Reaching the sindon, each one kisses with great devotion the forehead of our Lord, and the place of the wounds in His side, His hands, and feet. Then follow the congregation, every one approaching in the same reverential manner, and going through the same ceremonial like the clergy; all this while are being sung, along with other versicles, the ones embroidered round this piece of needlework. But this is not all, at least in some provinces where the Greek ritual obtains. As soon as it is dark on Good Friday evening, upon a funeral bier is laid the figure of our Lord, either wrought in low relief, painted on wood or canvas, or shown in needlework like this sindon. Lifted up and borne forwards, it is surrounded by a crowd carrying lights. Then follow the priests vested in chasubles and the rest of the garments proper for mass; after them walk the lower clergy, and the lay-folks of the place come last. Then the procession goes all through and about the streets of the town, singing the cxviiith Psalm, the “Beati immaculati in via,” &c. of the Vulgate, or cxixth of the authorized version, between each verse of which is chanted a versicle from the Horologium. Everywhere the populace bow down as the bier comes by, and many times it halts that they may kiss the figure of our dead Saviour, whose image is overspread by the flowers sprinkled upon it as it is carried past, and afterwards these same flowers are eagerly sought for by the crowd, who set much store by them as the bringers of health to their bodies and a blessing on their homesteads all the after year. Now it should be observed that, even in the present piece, what is the real sindon or white linen winding-sheet shown open

and spread out quite flat beneath our Lord’s body, is put upon a mourning pall of red silk, which is worked all over with flowers, doubtless in allusion to this very custom of showering down upon it flowers as it is carried by.

Very like, in part, to the Greek ceremony, is the Latin rite still followed on Good Friday of kissing the crucifix as it lies upon a cushion on the steps going up to the altar, and known of old in England as creeping to the cross, the ritual for which among the Anglo-Saxons, as well as later, according to the use of Salisbury, may be seen in the “Church of Our Fathers,” t. iv. pp. 88, 241. Those who have travelled in the East, or in countries where the Greek rite is followed, may have observed that, almost always, the cupola of the larger churches is painted with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy; and among the crowd of personages therein shown are usually six angels reverently bearing one of these so-figured sindons, as was noticed in the Introduction, § 5.

8279

Portion of an Orphrey for a Chasuble; border woven in silk, with a various-coloured diapering. German, late 14th century. 3 feet.

Such textiles (for they are not embroideries) as these were evidently wrought to serve as the orphreys for liturgical garments of a less costly character, and made, as this example is, out of thread as well as silk, fashioned after a simple type of pattern.

8279a

Linen Napkin, for a Crozier; of very fine linen, and various embroideries. German, late 14th century. 2 feet 10 inches by 6 feet.

Such napkins are very great liturgical curiosities, as the present one, and another in this collection, are the only specimens known in this country; and perhaps such another could not be found on any part of the Continent, the employment of them having been for a very long time everywhere left off. Its top, like a high circular-headed cap, 4¾ inches by 4 inches, is marked with a diapering, on one side lozengy, on the other checky, ground crimson, and filled in with the gammadion or filfot in one form or another. On the lozenges this gammadion is parti-coloured, green, yellow, white, purple; in the checks, all green, yellow, white, and purple. Curiously enough, the piece of vellum used as a stiffening for this cap is a piece of an old manuscript about some loan, and bears the date of the year 1256. The slit up the middle of the linen, 11 inches long, is bordered on both edges with a linen woven lace, 1½ inches broad, embroidered on one side of the slit with L, one of the forms of the gammadion; on the other with the saltire, or St. Andrew’s cross; the gammadion and saltire are wrought in purple, green, crimson (faded), or yellow, each of one colour, and not mixed, as in one part of the cap. These two edgings brought together, and thus running up for the space of 6 inches, are stopped by a piece of woven silk lace, 3¼ inches by 2 inches, and figured with the filfot or gammadion. The linen is very fine, and of that kind which, in the middle ages, was called “bissus;” tent-like in shape, and closed, it hung in full folds. Its gold and silken cords, of various colours, as well as those large well-platted knobs of silk and gold by which it was strung to the upper part of the crozier, are all quite perfect; and an account of this ornament is given in the “Church of Our Fathers,” t. ii. p. 210. Dr. Bock has given a figure of the present one in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pl. xiv. fig. i; and another specimen will be found here, No. 8662.

8280

Piece of Net, of coarse linen thread, with an interlaced lozenge pattern, and a border. Very likely German, 16th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 8 inches.

Those who amuse themselves by netting will find in this specimen a good example to follow, both in design and accurate execution. It must have been wrought for domestic, and not for Church use.

8281

Portion of an Orphrey, in red and purple silk, figured in gold, with a fleur-de-lis, inscriptions, and armorial bearings. German, late 15th century. 12¾ inches by 2¾ inches.

This piece is woven throughout, and the letters, as well as the heraldry, are the work, not of the needle, but of the shuttle. On a field gules is shown a fleur-de-lis argent, which device, not being upon a shield, may have been meant for a badge. On a field or is a cross purpure, and over it, another cross of the field. Though the words given may possibly be intended to read “Pete allia (alia),” there are difficulties in so taking them. It is imagined that these heraldic bearings refer to the archiepiscopal sees and chapters of Cologne and Treves.

8282

Piece of Silken and Linen Texture. Upon a yellow thread ground are figured, in green silk, trees, from the lower right side of which darts down a pencil of sunbeams, and just over these rays stand birds like cockatoos or hoopoes, and six-petaled flowers and eagles stooping, both once in gold, now dimmed; the flowers and eagles well raised above the rest of the design. Made in North Italy, during the middle of the 14th century.

When bright and fresh, this stuff must have been very effective; and a play of light could not fail in well showing off its golden eagles and flowers, that are made to stand out somewhat boldly amid the green foliage of the trees.

8283

Piece of Lilac-purple Silk, with a delicate diapering of vine-branches and birds. Italian, late 14th century.

Though everything is small in the design of this piece, it is remarkably pleasing. The way in which the boughs are twined is quite graceful, and the foliage very good.

8284

Piece of Light Crimson Silk and Gold Tissue. This small bit of a large pattern shows a crested bird plucking a bell-shaped flower. Italian, early 15th century.

Unfortunately this scrap is so small as not to exhibit enough of the original design to let us know what it was; but, to judge by the ends of some wings, we have before us sufficient to see that, when entire, it must have consisted of large birds, and have been bold and telling.

8285

Piece of Light Crimson Silk and Gold Tissue; the pattern is a diapering, all in gold, formed of a tree with a lioness sejant regardant beneath it, and a bird alighting on a flower, the centre of which is spotted with stamens of blue silk. North Italian, beginning of the 15th century.

This specimen is valuable both for its rich materials and the effective way in which the design is brought out.

8286

Piece of Dark Purple Silk and Silver Tissue, relieved with crimson thrown up in very small portions. The pattern is a bold diapering of grotesque animals and birds, together with inscriptions affecting to be in Arabic. Very likely from the South of Spain, at the beginning of the 15th century. 24 inches by 19 inches.

Alike conspicuous for the richness of materials, as for the exuberance in its design, this specimen deserves particular attention. Spotted leopards and shaggy-haired dogs, all collared, and separated by bundles of wheat-ears; birds of prey looking from out the foliage, hoopoes pecking at a human face, dragon-like snakes gracefully convoluted amid a Moorish kind of ornamentation, and imitated Arabic letters strung together without a meaning, show that the hand of the Christian workman was guided somewhat by Saracenic teachings, or wrought under the set purpose of passing off his work as of Oriental produce. But in this, as in so many other examples, a strong liking for heraldry is displayed by those pairs of wings conjoined and elevated, in the one instance eagle’s, in the other wyvern’s.

8287

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue, on a red ground; a design in green, relieved by bands of scroll-pattern, with an eagle’s head and neck in gold and flowers in white and dark purple. Sicilian, 15th century. 12¼ inches by 12 inches.

When new this tissue must have been very showy, but now the whole of its pattern is somewhat difficult to trace out. The way in which the large eagle’s head and neck are given, resting upon a broad-scrolled bar, is rather singular; so, too, is the listing or border, on one side charged with a small but rich ornamentation, amid which may be detected some eaglets.

8288

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue, the ground of which is gold banded with patterns in blue, red, and green, divided by narrowed stripes of black; on one golden band is an Arabic word repeated all through the design. Syrian. 16½ inches by 16 inches.

The value of this fine rich specimen will be instantly appreciated when it is borne in mind that it is one of the few known examples of real Saracenic weaving which we have.

Its ornamentation has about it, in the checkered and circular portions of its design, much of that feeling which shows itself in Saracenic architecture; and those who remember the court of lions, in the Alhambra at Granada, will not be surprised at seeing animals figured upon this piece of stuff so freely.

The broad bands are separated by very narrow black ones, on which are shown, in gold, short lengths of thick foliage like strawberry-leaves, and an animal, which, from the tuft of hair on its ears, seems a lynx, chased by the hunting-leopard, of which our celebrated travelling countryman, Sir John Mandeville, in his “Voiage,” written in the reign of Edward III, speaks thus: “In Cipre men hunten with Papyonns that ben lyche Lepardes, and thei taken wylde bestes righte welle and thei ben somedelle more than Lyonns; and thei taken more scharpely the bestes and more delyverly than don houndes.” Ed. Halliwell, p. 29. This sort of leopard, the claws of which are not, like the rest of its kind, retractile, is, to this day, employed in Asia, more especially in the East Indies, like dogs for hunting, and known by the name of “Cheetah.”

Each of these lengths is studded with those knots, found so often upon eastern wares of all sorts, and formed by narrow ribbons interlacing one another at right angles so as to produce squares or checks; these knots are alternately large—of three rows of checks, and small—of two rows. Upon one of the large bands, gold in its ground, is, all along it, woven a sentence in Arabic letters in dusky white, of which tint is the circular ornament which everywhere stands between this writing; very likely these characters, as well as the dividing flower, were once of a crimson colour, which is now faded. The inscribed sentence itself being figured without the distinctive points, may be understood various ways. That it is some well-known Oriental saying or proverb is very likely, and, to hazard a guess, reads thus: “Injury, hurt, reception,”—meaning, perhaps, that the individual who has done you, behind your back, all the harm he can, may, when next he meets you, utter the greetings and put on all the looks of friendship. Such was its meaning, as read by the late lamented Oriental scholar, Dr. Cureton.

Upon the next broad band, on a ground once crimson, are figured, in gold, the before-mentioned “papyonns,” or hunting-leopards, collared and in a sitting position under foliage, swans swimming, and an animal of the gazelle or antelope genus, heraldically lodged regardant, with a flower-bearing stem in its mouth, and another animal not easily identified. The remaining two broad bands, one blue, the other green, are figured, in gold, with squares filled up by checks of an Oriental character, alternating with quatrefoils sprouting all over into flowers.

8289

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; the ground, lilac; the pattern, green and white, of flowers, beneath which couch two animals, and under them stand two eagles. Italian or Sicilian, late 14th century. 15½ inches by 15¼ inches.

One of those well-balanced designs thrown off so freely by the looms of Italy and Sicily during the whole of the 14th century. What those two animals collared, couchant and addorsed regardant, may be meant for it is hard to imagine. Rays, like those from the sun, dart down beneath these dog-like creatures, and looking upward to those beams stand two eagles. Some of the flowers and the two animals are wrought in gold.

8290

Piece of Silk; ground, dark blue; pattern, yellow, in zigzag arabesque. Moorish work of the South of Spain, 14th century. 12½ inches by 8½ inches.

Though of such simple elements in its design, this Moresco stuff is not unpleasing.

8291, 8291a

Two Pieces of Silk and Gold Tissue, having a pattern in bands diapered with arabesques, birds, and animals. Syrian, 14th century. 5 inches by 4 inches, and 5 inches by 3½ inches.

Although but mere rags, these two specimens are interesting. They tell, of their country and time, by the management of their design, and have a near relationship to the specimen No. 8288.

8292

Piece of Silk; ground, red with pattern, in violet, of vine-leaves, conventional foliage, and animals. Sicilian, early 14th century. 12½ inches by 6 inches.

This very pretty produce of the Italian loom, like No. 8283, commends itself to our admiration by the graceful manner in which the design is carried out. Though small in its parts, the pattern is attractive. Those stags, tripping and showing heads well attired, are not uncommon, about the period, upon stuffs, but those wild boars—like the deer, in pairs—segeant face to face, are somewhat new.

8293

Piece of Linen embroidered in red silk, with an open diaper of crosslets leaving circular and lozenge spaces, the former now empty, the latter ornamented with cross-crosslets in yellow, purple, and green silk. Late 14th century. 15 inches by 12½ inches.

In all likelihood the round spaces were filled in with heraldic animals, and the piece served as the apparel to an alb, resembling the one shown on the fine Wensley brass, figured by the brothers Waller, and also given in the “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 325.

8294

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue, the ground red with a pattern in green and white, forming a large lozenge, enclosing, in one instance, a bunch of foliage and two eagles, in the other, a bough and two dogs. South Italian, late 14th century. 21½ inches by 11½ inches.

In this rich pattern there are certain portions that, at first sight, might be taken for attempts to represent Oriental letters; they are, however, no forms of any alphabet, and, least of all, bear any likeness to the Cufic.

8295

Piece of Silk and Cotton Tissue; ground, deep red mixed with green, blue, white, and gold; the pattern consists of loosely branched stems with large flower-heads, and monsters alternately blue and gold, bearing in their hands a white flower. Italian, late 14th century. 27½ inches by 9½ inches.

The so-called sphinxes in this piece are those monster figures often found in art-work during the middle ages, and are formed of a female head and waist joined on to the body of a lioness passant cowed, that is, with its tail hanging down between its legs. In this specimen may be detected an early form of the artichoke pattern, which afterwards became such a favourite.

8296

Piece of Silk; ground, dark red; pattern, a yellow diapering of somewhat four-sided figures enclosing an ornament of a double ellipsis. South Spanish, 15th century. 10¾ inches by 7 inches.

8297

Piece of Crimson Silk; pattern, in green, of open arabesque spread in wide divisions. Southern Spain, late 14th century. 18 inches by 7 inches.

The design of this valuable piece is very good, and must have had a pleasing effect. From the way in which the cross is introduced by combinations of the ornamentation and slight attempts at showing the letter M for Maria—the Blessed Virgin Mary, it would seem that it was the work of a Christian hand well practised in the Saracenic style of pattern-drawing.

8298

Piece of Silk; ground, crimson; pattern, a yellow diapering of a rather peculiar form. Spanish, late 14th century. 18 inches by 12 inches.

Rich in its tones, this specimen may have been designed under the influence of Moorish teachings; it is, however, very agreeable.

8299

Piece of Silk Tissue; the pattern, a large raised diaper, which consists of a centre, in red silk, representing the web of the geometric spider, with the insect resting in the middle, enclosed within the branches of a conventional tree, in silver thread. Italian, early 15th century. 12 inches by 6 inches.

Though the silk ground of this elegant stuff must have been once of a bright crimson tinge, almost the whole of the colour has flown; and the silver thread, of which the beautifully arranged tree is formed, has become so tarnished as to look as if it had been from first a dull olive-green. Such events give a warning to manufacturers about the quality of their dyes, and the purity as well as sort of the metals they may choose to employ. The manner in which the tree and its graceful branches are made to stand well out and above the red grounding is remarkably good; and, altogether, the pattern, composed as it is of a spider in its web, hanging so nicely between the outspread limbs of the tree, is as singular as it is pleasing. Of old, a Lombard family bore, as its blazon, a spider in its web.

8300

Piece of very rich Crimson Silk and gold Tissue; the large pattern represents a palm-tree rising from a close palisade, within which is a lion seated; from one side shoots a slender branch, to which clings a bird. Italian, late 14th century. 31 inches by 14 inches.

A fine bold pattern, but the gold so tarnished that it looks as if the threads had always been brown. The down-bent eagles, and the shaggy-maned lion couchant regardant at the foot of a palm-tree in a park palisaded, make this heraldic design very pleasing.

8301

Portion of Linen; border, probably of an altar-cloth, stamped in red and yellow with a geometric pattern composed of circles and leaves. Flemish, 15th century.

The design and colouring of this old piece of printed cloth are so very like those employed upon the glazed paving tiles of the mediæval period, that the idea of the potter’s work immediately suggests itself; though of such poor material, it is a valuable link in the history of textiles.

8302

Piece of Purple Silk and Gold Tissue; the pattern is formed of angels holding a monstrance, beneath which is a six-winged cherub’s head. Florentine, 14th century. 18 inches by 16 inches.

This is one of the most elaborate and remarkable specimens of the mediæval weavers’ works, and shows how well, even with their appliances, they could gear their looms. The faces of the six-winged cherubic heads, as well as the hands and faces of the seraphim, vested in long albs, were originally shaded by needlework, most of which is now gone. The Umbrian school of design to be seen in the gracefully floating forms of the angels, is very discernible. This rich stuff must have been purposely designed and woven for especial liturgical use at the great Festival of Corpus Christi, and its solemn processions. It may have been employed for hanging the chancel walls, or for altar-curtains; but most likely it overspread the long wooden frame-work or portable table upon which stood, and was thus carried all about the town by two or four deacons, the Blessed Sacrament enclosed in a tall heavy gold or silver vessel like the one shown in this textile, and called a “monstrance,” because, instead of shutting up from public gaze, it displayed the consecrated host as it was borne about among the people. Dr. Bock has figured this stuff in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters.”

8303

Piece of Linen; pattern, stamped in black with a central stem of conventional branches and flowers, at either side of which are hawks crested, regardant; at one side is a running border of detached portions of scroll-foliage. Flemish, very late 14th century. 13 inches by 6¾ inches.

Any specimen of such printed linen has now become somewhat a rarity, though there are other pieces here, Nos. 7022, 8615.

8304

Linen Towel, for use at the altar, with deep border embroidered in various coloured silk, with a geometrical pattern interspersed with small figures of birds. Beginning of 15th century. 3 feet by 1 foot 1 inch.

8305

A Diaconal Stole, embroidered in linen thread and various-coloured silk, with a pattern somewhat like the “gammadion” ornaments, the ends of gold tissue, fringed with silk and linen. German, 14th century. 8 feet 8 inches by 2¾ inches.

For the distinction of the priest’s and the deacon’s stole, and the manner in which either wears it in the celebration of the liturgy, see Hierurgia, p. 434, 2nd edition.

8306

Piece of Dark brown raised Velvet and Gold Tissue; portion of the robe in which the Emperor Charles IV. was buried at Prague, as it is said. Italian, 14th century. 7 inches by 6½ inches.

8307

Linen Amice, with its “apparel” of crimson silk, to which are sewed small ornaments in silver and silver-gilt. German, 15th century. 4 feet 2 inches by 1 foot 11 inches.

The example of linen in this amice will, for the student of mediæval antiquities and manufactures, be of great service, showing, as it does, what we are to understand was the kind of stuff meant by canvas in old accounts which speak of that material so often as bought for making albs, surplices, and other linen garments used in the ceremonial of the Church. The crimson ornament of silk sprinkled with large spangle-like plates of silver gilt, and struck with a variety of patterns, is another of various instances to show how the goldsmith’s craft in the middle ages was brought into play for ornaments upon silk and other textiles; and the liturgical student will be glad to see in this specimen an instance, now so very rare, of an old amice, with its strings, but more especially its apparel, in its place; about which see “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. 463.

8308

Piece of Embroidery in Silk, on linen ground; the subject, partly needlework, and partly sketched in, represents the Adoration of the three Kings. German, 14th century. 12 inches square.

Though in the style of that period, it is roughly done, and by no means a good example.

8309

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; the ground, lilac-blue; the pattern, in gold, represents the Annunciation. Florentine, late 14th century. 17¾ inches by 12 inches.

This is another of those many beautiful and artistic exemplars of the loom given to the world, but more especially for the use of the Church, by North Italy, during the 14th and 15th centuries. The treatment of the subject figured on this fragment—the Annunciation—is quite typical, in its drawing and invention, of the feelings which spread themselves all over the sweet gentle Umbrian school of painting, from the days of its great teacher the graceful Giotto. The lover, too, of ecclesiastical symbolism will, in this small piece, find much to draw his attention to it: the dove, emblem of the Holy Ghost, is in one place flying down from heaven with an olive-branch, and hovers over the head of the Blessed Virgin Mary; in another place, it stands at rest behind her, and bearing in its beak a lily-like flower; the angel Gabriel, clothed in a full, wide-flowing alb, carrying in his left hand a wand—the herald’s sign—tipped with a fleur-de-lis, to show not only that he was sent from God, but for an especial purpose, is on his bended knee before the mother of our Lord, while, with his right hand uplifted in the act of blessing according to the Latin rite, he utters the words of his celestial message. The colour, too, of the ground—lilac-blue, emblematic of what is heavenly—must not be overlooked.

8310

Fragment of a Vestment for Church use; embroidered in silk and gold, on a dark blue linen ground, with figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Infant, our Saviour, and St. John. German, 15th century. 3 feet 6 inches by 10 inches.

This fine example of the German needle, in its design and treatment, calls to mind the remarkably painted folding altar-piece by Master Stephen Sothener, A.D. 1410, in the chapel of St. Agnes, at the east end of Cologne Cathedral.

8311

The Apparel for an Amice; the ground, crimson, embroidered in silk; the centre pattern is edged at both sides with inscriptions done in letters of the mediæval form. German, 15th century. 15¼ inches by 3¾ inches.

This apparel for an amice is embroidered in sampler-stitch and style with the names of St. Odilia and St. Kylianus, and the first line of the hymn in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Ave Regina celorum,” as well as the inscription “Mater Regis,” having, except in one instance, a crowned head between each word in the lettering. St. Kilian or Kuln was an Irishman born of a noble house: with two companions, he went to Germany to preach to the unbelieving Franconians, and being made bishop by Pope Conon, he fixed his see at Wurtzburg, where he was martyred, A.D. 688. Dr. Bock has figured it in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” iv Lieferung, pl. iii. fig. 4.

8312

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, crimson; pattern, flowers and foliage in green, white, and purple. North Italian, middle of 15th century. Attached is a piece of dark blue plush lining of the same date and country. 14¼ inches by 13¼ inches.

As a specimen of a pattern in raised velvet upon a plain silk ground, this fragment is valuable; and the occurrence of roses, both white and red, seeded and barbed, would, at first sight, lead to the thought that its designer had in his mind some recollection of the English Yorkist and Lancastrian strife-stirring and direful badges; but it must have been woven some years before the war of the Roses raged in all its wildness through the length and breadth of this land.

8313

Purse with cords; white lattice-work on crimson ground, with crimson and yellow pattern in the spaces, four of which on each side are ornamented with gold thread. German, latter half of the 14th century. 5½ inches by 5 inches.

Not only is this little bag nicely embroidered, but it has a lining of crimson sarcenet, and is supplied with platted silken strings of several colours for drawing its mouth close, as well as another silk string made after the same fashion, for carrying it in the hand. In church inventories of the period mention is often found of silk bags holding relics, and from Dr. Bock we learn that in the sacristy of St. Gereon’s, at Cologne, may yet be seen just such another bag, which served, if it does not still serve, as a sort of reliquary. For taking to the sick and dying, the holy Eucharist shut up in a small silver or ivory box, such little bags were and yet are employed, but then they were borne slung round the neck of the priest, which in this instance could not be done, as the cord is too short. Bags for prayer-books are often figured, but this one is too small for such a purpose; its most probable use was that of a reliquary.

8314

Piece of Velvet; ground of crimson, bordered with green, brown, white, and purple, and striped with bands of gold thread, probably for secular use. Spanish, beginning of the 16th century. 13½ inches by 5 inches.

The pile of this velvet is good, but so bad was the gold, that it has turned black.

8315

Two Pieces of Embroidery, in silk and gold thread upon white linen; the one shows our Saviour bearing His cross; the other, an inscription with the date 1442. These pieces have been mounted on a piece of crimson damask of a much later date. The embroideries, German, middle of 15th century; the crimson silk, Lyons, late 17th century. 6 inches square.

To all appearance, this figure of our Lord carrying His cross to Calvary, as well as the inscription above it, formed part of the orphrey of a chasuble, and to preserve it, was mounted upon the crimson silk which is stiffened by a thin board; and from the black loop at top it seems it was hung as a devotional picture upon the wall, most likely, of a private oratory or bed-room. As a work of art, the figure of our Lord is beautiful. The head, hands, and feet, as well as the crossed nimbus in gold, the cross, and the ground strewed with flowers, are worked with the needle; while the folds of the white linen garment are all, with but a very few strokes, marked by brown lines put in with the brush. The inscription, quite a separate piece, done in gold upon thin brown silk lined with canvas, reads thus:—Wyderoyd Pastor S. Jac(obi) Colon(iensis). 1442.

In its original state it must have been, as now, “applied,” and not wrought upon the vestment itself, and affords a good hint to those who are striving to bring back the use of such a mode of embroidery in cut work.

8316

Piece of Silk Embroidery on green silk ground. The pattern is in branches decorated with glass beads, and gilt spangles, flowers in white and red silk, and leaves in red and yellow. German, middle of 15th century. 6 inches square.

Remarkable for the freedom of its design and beautiful regularity of its stitches. The thin green sarcenet upon which the embroidery was originally made is nearly all gone, and scarcely anything like a grounding is to be seen beside the thick blue canvass, which is backed by a lining of the same material, but white. Those small opaque white beads, in all likelihood, came from Venice, where Murano, to this day, is the great manufactory for Africa of the same sort of ornament.

8317

Napkin, or Towel, in White Linen Diaper, with patterns woven in blue and brown. German, beginning of the 15th century. 19½ inches by 9 inches.

Though not conspicuous for the richness of its material, this linen textile is somewhat a curiosity, as such specimens have now become rare; and it shows how, even in towels, the ornamentation of colour, as well as the pattern in warp and weft, were attended to in the mediæval period.

8318

Piece of Silk Damask, green, with pattern of pomegranates, crowns, and wreaths of flowers. Flemish, middle of 16th century.

The tastefully-arranged design of this silk would seem to have been a favourite, as we shall again meet it in other specimens, especially at No. 8332.

8319

Piece of Silk Damask, slate blue ground, with winding borders of cinnamon colour, enclosing pomegranates wrought in gold thread and white silk. Flemish, middle of 16th century, 2 feet 6½ inches by 2 feet.

Though elaborate in design and rich in gold, this piece is not happy in its colours. Its use must have been for the court and palace, but not for the church, and the whole is loom-wrought, and nothing about it done by the needle.

8320

Orphrey, woven of crimson wool and white linen thread. The pattern is of flowers and leaves on a trellis of branches, in which appear the names of “Jhesus,” “Maria.” German, end of 15th century. 2 feet 8½ inches by 2¾ inches.

In this textile the warp is of white strong linen thread, the woof of crimson wool; and stuffs of such cheap materials were wrought to serve as orphreys to tunicles and dalmatics worn by deacon and sub-deacon at high mass, and in processions, as well as for trimming other adornments for church use; the liturgical girdle neither is, nor ever was made, according to the Latin rite, of so broad a width, nor after such a fashion; in the Greek ritual, broad girdles are in use.

The weavers of laces for carriage-trimming, or the adornment of state liveries, will in this specimen see that, more than three hundred years ago, their craft was practised in Germany; and Cologne appears to have been the centre of such a loom production.

8321

Piece of Satin Damask, ground of golden yellow, covered with a rich pattern in rose-colour. French (?), middle of the 16th century. 2 feet 10½ inches by 11 inches.

In this specimen we observe how the designs for textiles were gradually losing the conventional forms of the mediæval period.

8322

Piece of Velvet, dark blue, figured with a pomegranate kind of pattern. Italian, end of the 15th century. 17¾ inches by 14½ inches.

Lucca seems to be the place where this specimen of a deep-piled and prettily designed velvet was produced; and a mediæval conventionality hung about the pencil of its designer, as we may observe in the scrolls or featherings stopped with graceful cusps which go round and shut in those modifications of the so-called pine, really an artichoke, and the pomegranate pattern.

Though equally employed for secular as well as sacred purposes, such velvets, in their latter use, are often found in the remains of copes, chasubles, &c. and altar-frontals.

8323

Portion of a Chasuble, in figured velvet; the ground, purple, with a pomegranate pattern in yellow, green, and white, with a broad yellow scroll. Genoese, middle of 16th century. 2 feet 3¼ inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

Genoa had earned for itself a notoriety, about this period, for its velvets, wrought in several colours, and the present piece seems no bad specimen of the style. By the warp of cotton and the thin low pile of its silken woof we learn that Genoese velvets varied much in the richness of their materials, and, in consequence, in their cost. This piece was once in a chasuble, as we may see by the bend, to fit the neck, in the upper part.

8324

Piece of Silk and Linen Tissue; pattern, white crosses on ground of crimson, barred with purple, yellow, and green. German, 16th century. 4 inches square.

This specimen of German trimming, like the one No. 8320, seems to have been made at Cologne, and for the same ecclesiastical uses.

8325

Piece of Silk-Velvet Damask; green, with pattern of large and small pomegranates in gold. Lucca, latter half of the 15th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 11½ inches.

Among the remarkable specimens of velvet in this collection, not the least conspicuous is the present one, being velvet upon velvet, that is, having, in a portion of it, a pattern in a higher pile than the pile of the ground. By looking narrowly at the larger pomegranate in golden thread within its heart-shaped oval, with featherings bounded by trefoiled cusps, the eye will catch an undulating pattern rising slightly above the rest of the pile; such examples, as distinguished from what is called cut or raised velvet, are very rare. The tone, too, of the fine green, as well as the goodness of the gold, in the ornamentation, enhance the value of this piece, which was once the back part of a chasuble.

8326

Piece of Silk Damask; white, with the rose and pomegranate pattern woven in gold thread. Spanish, latter half of the 15th century.

This piece, from the looms of Spain, for the beauty of design and the thick richness of its silk, is somewhat remarkable.

8327

Box covered with crimson raised velvet, having, round the lid, a many-coloured cotton fringe. It holds two liturgical pallæ, both of fine linen and figured—one mounted on pasteboard and measuring 7¾ inches by 7¼ inches, with an altar and two figures; the other, with the Crucifixion and St. Mary and St. John, measuring 9½ inches by 9¾ inches. Inside the lid of this box is an illuminated border of flowers, and the central design is effaced. Velvet, Italian, 16th century, all the paintings very late 15th century, and German. Box, 10 inches by 9½ inches.

As a case for holding “corporals” and “palls,” this box is a curiosity, in its way, of rare occurrence. It must be carefully distinguished from a square sort of case for the “corporal,” and called the “burse.” The corporal is a large square piece of fine linen; and at one time the chalice at mass not only stood upon it but was covered too by its inward border; but for a long period, the usage has been and is to put upon the chalice, instead of any part of the corporal, a much smaller separate square piece of fine linen, often stiffened, the better to serve its purpose, with card-board, like this example; such is a pall, and the one before us is figured, we may say illuminated, with what used to be called, in England, St. Gregory’s Pity; “Church of our Fathers,” i. 53. Upon an altar, around which are the instruments of the Passion, and on one side St. Peter, known by the key in his hand, and on the other the cock on the column, crowing, stands our Lord all bleeding, with the blood trickling into a chalice between His feet. At the foot of the altar kneels, veiled for mass, St. Gregory the Great, behind whom we see, holding a book in both hands, St. Jerome, robed as a cardinal; the whole is framed in a floriated border. The other, and unstiffened “pall,” is illuminated with the Crucifixion after the usual conventional manner, in all respects, that prevailed at the time it was done, that is, somewhere about the year 1490. As specimens on linen these two palls are rather rare. The border of flowers, on vellum, attached to the inside of the lid, is a free, well-coloured, and pleasing example of the Flemish school late in the 15th century. The raised velvet is of a rich crimson tone, and from Lucca or Genoa.

Though, in later times, employed as an ordinary case for the cleanly keeping after service of the corporals or pieces of fine linen, always spread out in the middle of the altar-stone for the host and chalice to rest upon, at mass, its first use seems to have been for reservation of the Blessed Sacrament consecrated on Maundy Thursday to serve at the celebration of the divine office on Good Friday morning, as we have fully set forth in the Introduction § 5, and again while describing a similar box, No. 5958.

In the present specimen all that remains of the vellum illumination, once upon the inside of the lid, is a wreath of painted flowers, within which stood the missing Crucifixion. The absence of that scene is, however, well supplied by the other kind of art-work wrought in colours of the same subject; done, too, after a broad bold manner, upon a square piece of very fine linen, which, as it is moveable, serves now as a lining for the lower inside of this case.

Such ecclesiastical appliances are rare, so much so, that, besides the two in this collection, none is known to be in this country; while very few, even on the Continent, are to be seen at the present day.

8328

Amice of Linen; with its apparel of crimson velvet, on which are three hexagonal roses woven in gold. Spanish, middle of the 15th century. 3 feet 9 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

The velvet of the apparel is of a fine rich pile, and the tone of colour light ruby. The flowers, seeded and barbed, are not put in by the needle but woven. Such a liturgical appliance is not now often to be met with in its original state; but, in this instance, it ought to be noticed, that while the amice itself—that is, the linen portion of this vestment—is remarkable for its large size, the velvet apparel sewed on it is broader and shorter than those which we find figured on English ecclesiastical monuments during the mediæval period. The narrow green ferret which hems the apparel is usually found employed as a binding in crimson liturgical garments anciently made in Flanders. Though the velvet was woven in Spain, this linen amice seems to have once belonged to some Flemish sacristy: at one period the connection between the two countries was drawn very close.

8329

Linen Cloth or Corporal, with an edge on all its four sides; 2¼ inches broad, embroidered in blue, white, and yellow silks. German, late 15th century. 22 inches by 21 inches.

To the student of ecclesiastical antiquities this liturgical appliance will be a great curiosity, from its being so much larger than the corporals now in use; but its size may be easily accounted for. From being put over the altar-cloth, on the middle of the table of the altar, so that the priest, at mass, might place the host and chalice immediately upon it before and after the consecration of the Eucharist, it got, and still keeps the name of “corporale,” about which the reader may consult “Hierurgia,” p. 74, 2nd edition.

The embroidery, seemingly of a vine, is somewhat remarkable from being, like Indian needlework, the same on both sides, and was so done for a purpose to be noticed below. Its greater size may be easily explained. During the middle ages, as in England, so in Germany, the usage was to cover the chalice on the altar, not with a little square piece of linen called a “palla,” two specimens of which are mentioned, No. 8327, but with the corporal itself, as shown in those illuminations copied and given as a frontispiece to the fourth volume of the “Church of our Fathers.” To draw up for this purpose the inner edge of the corporal, it was made, as needed, larger than the one now in use. Moreover, as the under side of the embroidery would thus be turned upwards and conspicuously shown, even on the consecrated chalice, to a great extent; and as anything frayed and ragged—and this single embroidery always is on the under side—would, at such a time, in such a place, have been most unseemly; to hinder this disrespect the embroidery was made double, that is, as perfect on the one side as on the other, giving the design clear and accurate on both, so that whichever part happened to be turned upwards it looked becoming.

8330

Piece of Silk Damask; green, with pattern of crowns connected by wavy ribbons, in each space is a rose. North Italian, 15th century. 22 inches by 21 inches.

This fine and valuable piece of damask exhibits a very effective design, which is thoroughly heraldic in all its elements. Of these, the first are roselettes—single roses having five petals each—seeded and barbed, and every petal folds inward very appropriately; all about each roselette roves a bordure nebulé, significative in heraldry of a cloud-wreath, above which and just over the flower rests an open crown, the hoop of which is studded with jewels, and bears on the upper rim two balls—pearls—on pyramidal points, and three fleurs-de-lis. To take these roselettes for the Tudor flower would be a great mistake, as it was not thought of at the period when this stuff was manufactured, besides which, it is never shown as a roselette or single rose, but as a very double one. It is not unlikely that this damask was, in the first instance, ordered from Italy, if not by our Edward IV, at least by one of the Yorkist party after the Lancastrian defeat at Mortimer’s Cross: the crown with its fringe of clouds seems to point to the curious appearance in the heavens that day. When once his loom was geared the Lombard weaver would not hesitate to work off stuffs after the same pattern ordered by his English customer and sell them in the Italian markets.

8331

Piece of Lace in Open Work. The pattern, oblong and octagonal spaces framed in gold thread, and containing stars in silver and flowers in gold, upon a black silk ground. Milanese, end of the 16th century. 14¼ inches by 4½ inches.

During a long time Milan, the capital of rich and manufacturing Lombardy, stood conspicuous among its neighbouring cities for the production of its gold thread, and beautifully wrought laces in that material; and the specimen before us is a pleasing example of this far-famed Milanese handicraft. To all appearance, it once served as the apparel to an amice to be used in religious services for the dead. It seems the work of the loom; and the piece of stout black silk under it was meant, though quite apart from it, to be, as it were, a grounding to throw up more effectively its gold and silver ornamentation.

8332

Piece of Silk, formerly crimson, but much faded, with elaborate pattern of pomegranates, crowns and wreaths of flowers. Flemish, middle of the 16th century. 19 inches by 17½ inches.

In this piece, though so faded, we have a good specimen of the Bruges loom about the second half of the 16th century, and seemingly from the same workshop which sent forth No. 8318.

8333

Hood of a Cope, with figures embroidered on a very rich ground of red and gold velvet. Velvet, Florentine; the embroidery Flemish, late 15th century. 16 inches by 15½ inches.

About this period, Florence was noted for its truly rich and beautiful crimson velvets of a deep pile and artistically flowered in gold, and profusely sprigged, or rather dotted, with small loops of golden thread standing well up from the velvet ground; and in this production of Florentine contrivance we have a good example of its speciality.

The needlework is a very favourable specimen of Flemish embroidery, and the management of the three subjects shows that the hand that wrought them was quickened with a feeling love for the school of Hans Memling, who has made Bruges to be the pilgrimage of many an admirer of the beautiful in Christian art. The holy woman, who, according to the old tradition, gave a napkin to our Lord on His way to Calvary, is figured, at top, holding, outstretched before her to our view, this linen cloth showing shadowed on it the head of our Redeemer crowned with thorns and trickling with blood: the Saint became known as St. Veronica, and the handkerchief itself as the “Varnicle.” Just below, we have the Blessed Virgin Mary seated and holding on her knees the infant Saviour, before whom kneels St. Bernard, the famous abbot of Clairvaux, in the white Cistercian habit which he had received from our fellow-countryman, St. Stephen Harding, the founder of the Cistercian Order, about the year 1114. The group itself is an early example of a once favourite subject in St. Bernard’s life, thus referred to by Mrs. Jameson, in one of her charming books:—“It was said of him (St. Bernard) that when he was writing his famous homilies on ‘The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s,’ the Holy Virgin herself condescended to appear to him, and moistened his lips with the milk from her bosom; so that ever afterwards his eloquence, whether in speaking or in writing, was persuasive, irresistible, super-natural.” (Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 142). Lower still, St. Bernard, with his abbot’s pastoral staff, cast upon the ground by his side, is praying, on bended knees, before a crucifix, from off of which our Redeemer has loosened Himself to fall into the arms of the saint, who was so fond of meditating on all the throes of our Lord upon the cross.

8334

Piece of Crimson Velvet, spangled with gold and silver stars, and embroidered with leaves and flowers in gold thread, once dotted with precious stones. North Italian, end of the 15th century. 14½ inches by 5¼ inches.

The Genoese velvet of this piece is of a very deep ruby tone, deeper than usual; but the way in which it is ornamented should not be passed over by those who wish to learn one among the very effective styles of embroidering. The design consists chiefly of branches gracefully bent in all directions and sprouting out, here and there, with leaves and variously fashioned flowers which, from one example that still holds its tiny round-headed piece of coloured glass set in a silver gilt socket, bore in them mock precious stones, and perhaps seed-pearls. These branches themselves are made of common hempen string, edged on both sides with a thread of gold of a smaller bulk, and the flowers are heightened to good effect by the bright red stitches of the crimson silk with which the gold that forms them is sewed in; and the whole of the design appears to have been worked, first upon a strong canvas, from which it was afterwards cut and appliqué upon its velvet ground. All the space between the boughs is sprinkled rather thickly with six-rayed stars of gold and silver, but the latter ones have turned almost black. This piece was once the apparel for the lower border of an alb.

8335

Piece of Silk Damask; upon a light blue ground, an elaborate pattern of pomegranates and flowers in pale yellow. Flemish, end of the 16th century. 24½ inches by 21 inches.

Like, in many respects, to another piece of the looms of ancient Bruges, it shows that the Flemings were unfortunate in their mode of dyeing, for this, as well as No. 8332, has faded much in colour, but the pattern is very rich and graceful. This textile is figured by Dr. Bock, in his “History of Liturgical Robes,” vol. i.

8336

Piece of Silk Net-Work, formerly crimson. The design is evidently circular, and consists of a lozenge filled in with two other very much smaller lozenges touching each other lengthwise. Milanese, end of the 16th century.

This curious little piece of frame-work seems to be another specimen of the lace of Milan, concerning which a notice has been given under No. 8331. Some would take it to be crochet, but it looks as if it came from a loom. To our thinking, it was either the heel or the toe part of a silk stocking. Though of a much finer texture, it much resembles, in pattern, the yellow silk pair of stockings belonging now to the Marquis of Salisbury, but once presented by Lord Hunsdon to Queen Elizabeth, and said to be the first ever made in England.

8837

Piece of Crimson Raised Velvet, with pattern of pomegranates, flowers and scrolls embroidered in gold thread and coloured silks. Genoese, beginning of the 16th century.

This piece affords a very instructive instance of how velvet textiles were not unfrequently treated. The pattern was first wrought in the weaving, and made the fabric what is now known as cut or raised velvet. Then those parts left bare of the silken pile were filled in by hand-embroidery, done in gold, silver, and silks of various colours, as the fancy of the individual might like, and produced a mixed work similar to the one before us. The velvet itself of this specimen is poor in colour and thin in substance, but the gold thread is of the finest, and admirably put together; and those little specks of the crimson silk employed in sewing it on, help, in no small manner, to heighten its brilliancy and effect.

8338

Part of an Orphrey; ground, gold thread, with ornamentation, in silk, of a rosette, a tree with flowers, and the inscriptions—“Ave Regina Celorum,” and “Jhesus.” Cologne work, late 15th century. 22½ inches by 3¾ inches.

Much, in style, like No. 8320.

8338a

Part of an Orphrey, woven in silk upon linen; ground, red; pattern, in gold thread upon blue silk. Cologne work, 15th century. 15½ inches by 4½ inches.

This and the piece immediately preceding afford us one of the peculiarities of the German loom, and, in all likelihood, were woven at Cologne, the great manufacturing centre of Germany in the middle ages. Such webs were wrought for the orphreys of chasubles, copes, and dalmatics, &c. The design is stiff, and wanting in much of the elegance to be found in earlier works of the loom, and, from its sampler-like look, might, at first sight, be taken for needlework.

8339

Piece of Silk and Linen Damask; pattern, rich, broad and flowing, in crimson, on a gold ground. Genoese, late 16th century. 2 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 11½ inches.

This gives us a fine specimen of Italian weaving in the middle or latter portion of the 16th century. So rich, and so solid in materials, it is as bold as it is, at first sight, attractive in its design, and shows indications of that strap-shaped ornamentation which soon afterwards became so conspicuous in all cut-work, especially so in bookbindings, all over Western Europe. Such stuffs were mostly used for hangings on the walls of state-rooms and the backs of the stalls in churches, as well as for curtains at the sides of altars.

8340

Piece of Silk Damask; pattern, of the 16th century revival character, in crimson upon a yellow ground; probably a border to some other stuff. Florentine, end of the 16th century, 10½ inches by 5½ inches.

8341

Piece of Linen and Woollen Damask, white and green; the pattern, birds, oak-leaves, and acorns. North Italian, end of the 16th century. 7 inches by 5 inches.

Though made out of such humble materials as linen-thread and worsted, this charming little piece of stuff cannot fail in drawing upon itself the eye of the observer, by the beauty and elegance which it has about it.

8342

Linen Napkin, or rather Sindon or Pyx-cloth, the borders embroidered with coloured silks and silver-thread. Perhaps Flemish, 16th century. 18½ inches by 16½ inches.

In more senses than one this small linen cloth is of great value, being, in the first place, a liturgical appliance of the mediæval period, now unused in this form, certainly unique in this country, and hardly ever to be met with on the continent, either in private hands or public collections. According to ancient English custom, the pyx containing particles of the Blessed Eucharist for giving, at all hours of day or night, the Holy Communion to the dying, and kept hanging up over the high altar of every church in this land, was overspread with one of such fine linen and embroidered veils, as may be seen in an illumination from the “Life of St. Edmund, King and Martyr,” in the Harley Collection, British Museum, and engraved in the “Church of our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 206.

The readers of English history will, no doubt, feel an interest in this specimen, when they learn that, with such a linen napkin, Mary Queen of Scots had her face muffled just before she laid her head upon the block: “Then the maid, Kennedy, took a handkerchief, edged with gold, in which the Eucharist had formerly been enclosed, and fastened it over her eyes.” “Pict. Hist. of England, ed. Knight,” t. ii. p. 671. Knight is wrong in saying that the Holy Eucharist had ever been immediately enclosed in this cloth, which is only the veil that used to be cast over the pyx or small vessel in which the consecrated hosts were kept, as we observed in the introduction, § 5.

8343

Piece of Linen Damask; pattern, of the pomegranate type, with a border of an armorial shield repeated, and the initials C. L. An edging of lace is attached to one end. Flemish, middle of the 16th century. 17¼ inches by 13 inches.

The shield is party per pale; in the first, two bars counter-embattled; in the second, a chevron charged with three escallop shells.

Most likely this small piece of Flemish napery served as the finger-cloth or little napkin with which, when saying mass, the priest dried the tips of his fingers after washing them, the while he said that prayer, “Munda me, Domine,” &c. in the Salisbury Missal; “Church of our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 150. By the rubrics of the Roman Missal, the priest was, and yet is, directed to say, at the ritual washing of his hands, that portion of the 25th Psalm, which begins, verse 6, “Lavabo manus meas,” &c. “Hierurgia,” p. 21; hence these small liturgical towels got, and still keep, the name of Lavabo cloths or Lavaboes, especially in all those countries where the Roman Missal is in use.

8344

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, blue and yellow; pattern, a large conventional flower, with heraldic shields, helmets, and crests. Italian, late 16th century. 1 foot 8½ inches by 13 inches.

The shields show a pale; the helmets are given sidewise with the beaver closed; and the crests, a demi-wyvern segeant, but with no wreath under it, doubtless to show the armorial bearings of the esquire or gentleman of blood, as, according to the readings of English blasonry, he could have been of no higher degree, for whom this stuff had been woven.

8345

Fragment of an Ecclesiastical Vestment; ground, cloth of gold, diapered with an elaborate flower-pattern. French, middle of the 16th century. 2 feet 1¼ inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

This valuable specimen of cloth of gold is figured, in small red lines, with a free and well-designed pattern, and shows us how much above modern French and Italian toca and lama d’oro were those fine old cloth of gold stuffs which, in the 16th century, became so variously employed for secular purposes. Let the reader imagine a vast round royal tent of such a textile with the banner of a king fluttering over it, and then he may well conceive why the meadow upon which it stood was called “the field of the cloth of gold.”

8346

Piece of Silk and Linen Damask, green and yellow; pattern, a small conventional flower, probably a furniture stuff. Italian, late 16th century. 10 inches by 7½ inches.

8347

Piece of Silk Damask, blue and yellow; pattern of flowers. French, late 16th century. 8 inches square.

In the design of the pattern there is evidently a wish to indicate the national fleur-de-lis.

8348

Portion of a Housing or Saddle-cloth, grey velvet, embroidered with interlaced patterns in silver and gold thread. In one corner is an armorial shield in silver and coloured silks. Spanish, middle of the 16th century. 1 foot 8½ inches by 6½ inches.

Very probably the blazon of the shield on this curious horse-furniture may be the canting arms of its primitive owner; and it is argent, a hoopoe gules on a mount vert.

8349

Piece of Silk Damask; green, with the pomegranate pattern. French, end of the 16th century. 2 feet 7 inches by 1 foot 7 inches.

8350

Embroidered Girdle; pattern, rectangular, in gold and silver threads and crimson silk; there are long gold tassels at the ends. French, late 16th century. 6 feet 3 inches by ⅞ inch.

Most likely a liturgical girdle, for the use of which see “Hierurgia,” p. 426, 2nd edition, and “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 448. Such ecclesiastical appliances are now become great rarities, and though this one is very modern, it is not less valuable on that account. The only other good example known in England is the very fine and ancient one kept, in Durham Cathedral Library, among the remains of those rich old vestments found upon the body of a bishop mistaken, by Mr. Raine, for that of St. Cuthbert. Flat girdles, whenever used in the Latin rite, were narrow; while those of the Greek and Oriental liturgies are much broader.

8351

Linen Cloth; pattern, a white diaper lozenge. Flemish, end of the 16th century. Shape, oval, diameters 22 inches and 17 inches.

Though of so simple a pattern the design is pleasing, and well brought out.

8352

Piece of Silk Damask, sky-blue and white; pattern, intersecting ribbons with flowers in the spaces. French, late 16th century. 9¾ inches by 4¾ inches.

A very agreeable specimen of the taste of the period and country, as well as grateful to the eye for the combination and management of its two colours in such a way that neither overmatches the other—a beauty often forgotten by the designers of textiles, but to be found in several other examples of the mediæval loom in this collection.

8353

Dalmatic of Yellow Silk, damasked with a pattern of the pomegranate form, in raised velvet, of a lightish green tint. The tissue, Italian, late 15th century; the embroidery and inscriptions, German, late 15th century. 7 feet 8 inches by 4 feet 3 inches.

This fine dalmatic—for the liturgical use of which the reader may consult the “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 375—is rather curious for the way in which the two very singular tassels hanging on the back from the shoulders are ornamented. These usual appendages are in this instance made of remarkably long (15 inches) flakes of white, red, and deep-brown silken thread, and, instead of silk nobs at the end of the cords, have large round balls of rock crystal. The orphreys, or stripes, down both sides, before and behind, are 2½ inches broad, woven in gold and charged with squares of flower-bearing trees, and inscribed in blue with “Jhesus,” “Maria.” The fringes on the two lower borders of the dalmatic, 3½ inches deep, are alternately red, green, white, and blue, and those on the sides and around the sleeves are much narrower. The sleeves themselves from being 18 inches wide at the shoulder become as narrow as 12 inches towards the wrist. The two apparels on the upper part, before and behind, are woven in gold, and measure 16½ inches in length, and 5¼ inches in breadth; the one on the back just under the neck is figured with three golden-grounded squares, the centre one ornamented with a crimson quatrefoil, barbed, and enclosing a various-coloured conventional flower; the other two, with a green tree blossomed with red flowers: the apparel across the breast is inscribed with the names, in large blue letters, of “Jhesus,” “Maria.” Half way down the back hangs, transversely, a shield of arms quarterly, one and four gules, two bars argent, between seven fleurs-de-lis, or, three, two, and two; two and three, sable two bars, argent: as a crest, a full-forward open-faced helmet, with six bars all gold, surmounted by a pair of horns barred sable and argent, with mantlings of the same. This blazon, according to English heraldry, would indicate that the giver of this splendid vestment—and very likely it was only one of a large set—could boast, by showing the golden five-barred full-forward helmet, of royal blood in his pedigree, and was not lower than a Duke in title. Dr. Bock has figured this finely-preserved dalmatic in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pt. vii. fig. 1.

8354

A Cope of Crimson Raised Velvet; pattern of the so-called pomegranate design. The orphreys and hood embroidered on a golden ground; the latter with the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the former, with various saints. Velvet, Spanish, the embroidery, German, both of the end of the 15th century. 10 feet 8 inches by 5 feet 8 inches.

The velvet, both for its ruby tone and richness of pile, is remarkable, while its design of the pattern is efficiently shown.

The hood which, it should be observed by those curious in liturgical garments, runs right through the orphreys quite up to the neck, is an elaborate and well-wrought piece of needlework; and strongly reminds one of the picture of the same subject—the death-bed of the Mother of our Lord—by Martin Schön, now in the National Gallery. All the Apostles are supposed to be gathered round her; to the right of the spectator stands St. Peter sprinkling her with holy water from the silver sprinkle in his right hand; next to this chief celebrant is St. John, the acolyte, with the holy water stoop in his left hand, and in his right the lighted taper, which he is about to put into the hand of his adopted mother—an emblem of the lighted lamp with which each wise virgin in the Gospel awaited the coming of the bridegroom. Behind him again, and with his back turned, is another apostle, blowing into the half-extinguished thurible, which he is raising to his mouth; the rest of the Apostles are nicely grouped around. The ground of this hood is of rich gold thread, and the figures of the scene are separately wrought and afterwards “applied.” The orphreys, that are rather narrow, measuring only 5½ inches in breadth, are of a golden web and figured, on the right hand side, with St. Mary Magdalen, carrying a box of ointment in her hands; St. Bernadin of Siena, holding a circular radiated disc inscribed with I.H.S. in his right hand, and in his left a Latin cross; St. Bicta—for so the inscription seems to read—bearing the martyr’s branch of palm in her right hand, and a sword thrust through her throat; and St. Kymbertus in a cope, with a crozier in his right hand, and in his left a closed book: on the left hand orphrey, St. Elizabeth, the Queen of Hungary, with a child’s article of dress in one hand, and a royal crown upon her head; St. Severinus, wearing a mitre and cope, and holding in his right hand a crozier, in his left a church; St. Ursula, with the martyr’s palm in one hand; in the other a long large silver arrow, and having six of her martyred virgins at her sides; and St. John Baptist, with the “Lamb of God” on the palm of his left hand, and the forefinger of the right outstretched as pointing to it. The heads of all these figures are done in silk and “applied,” but the hands and diapering of the garments, as well as the emblems, are wrought by the needle, in gold or in silk, upon the golden web-ground of these orphreys. At the lower part of the hood is “applied” a shield—no doubt the armorials of the giver of this fine cope—party per pale—gules two chevronels argent, a chief or—azure three garbs (one lost), argent, two and one.

8355

Chasuble of Damask Cloth of Gold; the orphreys figured with arabesques in coloured silk upon a golden ground, and busts of saints embroidered in coloured silks within circles of gold. There is a shield of arms on the body of the vestment, on the left side. French, 17th century. 7 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 4 inches.

The cloth of gold is none of the richest, and may have been woven at Lyons; but the orphreys are good specimens of their time: that on the back of this vestment, 4¾ inches in width, and made in a cross, shows a female saint holding a sword in her right hand, and in her left a two-masted boat—perhaps St. Mary Magdalen, in reference to her penitence and voyage to France; St. John with a cup, and the demon serpent coming up out of it; the Empress Helen carrying a cross (?). The orphrey in front, three inches broad, gives us, in smaller circles, St. Simon the apostle with his saw; a female saint (Hedwiges?) holding a cross; and two prophets, each with a rolled-up scroll in his hand. On the back, and far apart from the orphrey, is a shield argent (nicely diapered), a chevron sable between three leaves slipped vert, hanging as it does on the left hand, it may be presumed there was another shield on the right, but it is gone. This chasuble, small as it is now, must have been sadly reduced across the shoulders, from its original breadth.

8356

Piece of Carpet, of wool and hemp; ground, red; pattern, boughs, and flowers, in blue, and the so-called pomegranate, blue with a large yellow flower in the middle; border, two stripes blue barred with yellow, one stripe yellow barred red. Spanish, 16th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 7 inches.

In every way like the following specimen of carpeting, with its warp of hempen thread; and originally employed for the same purpose of being spread up the steps leading to the altar, but more especially upon the uppermost or last one for the celebrant to stand on.

8357

Piece of Carpet; ground, dark blue; pattern, a large so-called pomegranate design in light blue, spotted with flower-like circles, white and crimson (now faded). At each end it has a border in red, blue, green, white, and yellow lines. Spanish, 16th century. 9 feet 3 inches by 8 feet 6 inches.

The warp, as in the foregoing example, is of hempen thread, the woof of worsted; and this textile was woven in breadths 4 feet 3 inches wide. In all likelihood this piece of carpeting, valuable because very rare now, served as the covering for the steps that led up to the altar, and corresponded to what in some old English church inventories were called pedalia, or pede-cloths:—“Church of our Fathers,” i. 268. Finer sorts were spread on high feast days upon the long form where sat the precentor with his assistant rulers of the choir, or upon the stools which they separately occupied. Ib. ii. 202.

8358

Liturgical Cloth of grey linen thread, figured all over with subjects from the New Testament, angels, apostles, flowers, and monsters. Rhenish, end of the 14th century. 10 feet by 3 feet.

This curious and valuable piece, of the kind denominated “opus araneum,” or spider-web, is very likely the oldest as well as one among the very finest specimens yet known of that peculiar sort of needlework. The design is divided into two lengths, one much shorter than the other, and reversed; thus evidently proving that its original use was to cover, not the altar, but the lectern, upon which the Evangeliarium, or Book of the Gospels, is put at high mass for the deacon to sing the gospel from: judging by the subjects wrought upon it, and in white, it appears to have been intended more especially for the daily high mass, chaunted in many places every morning in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Beginning at the lower part of the longer length, we see an angel, vested like a deacon, in an appareled and girded alb, playing the violin, then six apostles—St. Simon with the fuller’s bat in his hand, St. Matthias with sword and book, St. James the Greater with pilgrim’s bourdon or staff, St. Jude, or Thaddeus, with club and book, St. Andrew with book and saltire cross, St. Thomas with spear; then another like vested angel sounding a guitar—all of which figures are standing in a row amid oak boughs and flowery branches. Higher up, and within a large quatrefoil encircled by the words:—☩ “Magnificat: Anima: mea: Dominum;” the Visitation, or the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth, both with outstretched hands, one towards the other, the first as a virgin with her hair hanging down upon her shoulders, the second having her head shrouded in a hood like a married woman; they stand amid lily-bearing stems (suggested by the lesson read on that festival from Canticles ii.); in each of the north and south petals of the quatrefoil is a kneeling angel, deacon-vested, holding in each hand a bell, which he is ringing, while in the east and west petals are other like-robed angels, both incensing with a thurible. Outside the quatrefoil are represented within circles at the south-west corner the British St. Ursula—one of the patron saints of Cologne—standing with a book in one hand, and an arrow in the other; at the south-east corner St. Helen (?), with cross and book; at the north-west, St. Lucy with book and pincers; at the north-east, a virgin martyr, with a book and a branch of palm. At each of the angles, in the corners between the petals, is an open crown. Above stands in the middle a double-handled vase, between two wyverns, jessant oak branches. Over this species of heraldic border is another large quatrefoil arranged in precisely the same manner: the angels—two with bells, two with thuribles—are there, so too are the corner crowns, within and encircled by the words ☩ Gloria: in: exc(e)l(s)is: Deo: et: in: terr(a), we have the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, after this manner: seated upon a throne is our Lord in majesty, that is, crowned and holding the mund or ball surmounted by a cross in His left hand; with His right He is giving His blessing to His mother, who is seated also on the same throne, crowned, with her hair about her shoulders, and with hands upraised to Him as in the act of prayer. At the top, to the left, is St. Catherine, with a sword in one hand, a wheel armed with spikes in the other; to the right, St. Dorothy, with a blooming branch in one hand and in the other a basket—made like a cup with foot and stem—full of flowers; below, St. Barbara, with tower and palm-branch, in the left side; on the other, St. Mary Magdalen, with an ointment box and palm. Here the design is reversed, and very properly so, as otherwise it would be, when thrown over the lectern, upside down; and curiously enough, just at this place there is a large hole, caused, as is clear, by this part of the needlework being worn away from the continual rubbing of some boss or ornament at the top of the folding lectern, which most likely was wrought in iron. This shorter length of the design—that portion which hung behind—begins with the double-handled vase and two wyverns, and has but one quatrefoil arranged like the other two in the front part: within the circle inscribed ☩ Ecce: ancilla: Domini: fiat: michi—we see the Annunciation; kneeling before a low reading desk, with an open book upon it, is the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the Holy Ghost under the form of a nimbed dove coming down from heaven, signified by the nebulæ or clouds, upon her; and turning about with arms wide apart, as if in wonderment, she is listening to Gabriel on his knees and speaking his message in those words:—ave: gracia: ple(na), traced upon the scroll, which, with both his hands, he holds before him. In the corners of the petals are, at top, to the left, a female saint, with a cross in one hand, a closed book in the other; to the right, a female saint with palm-branch and book; below, to the left, a female saint—St. Martina, V. M.—with book and a two-pronged and barbed fork; on the right, a female saint with a book, and cup with a lid. As the other end began, so this ends, with a row of eight figures, of which two are angels robed as deacons, one playing the violin, the other the guitar; then come six apostles—St. John the Evangelist exorcising the poisoned cup; St. Bartholomew, with book in one hand and flaying knife in the other; St. Peter, with book and key; St. Paul, with book and sword held upwards; St. Matthew, with sword held downwards, and book; St. Philip, with book and cross.

The figures within the quatrefoils and of the apostles are about seven inches high; those of the female saints—all virgins, as is shown by the hair hanging in long tresses about their shoulders—measure six inches. The spaces between are filled in with branches of five-petaled and barbed roses, and at both ends there originally hung a prettily knotted long fringe. All the female saints are dressed in gowns with very long remarkable sleeves—a fashion in woman’s attire which prevailed at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries.

The exact way in which these now very rare specimens of mediæval needlework used to be employed in the celebration of the liturgy, may be seen, by a glance, on looking at any of those engravings in which are figured a few of those old lecterns; made either of light thin wood, or iron, or of bronze, so as they could be easily folded up: they were thus with readiness carried about from one part to another of the choir, or chancel, even by a boy. When set down the veil was cast over them. Some of our own archæological works afford us good examples of such lecterns; as fine, if not finer, are those two which M. Viollet Le Duc has given in his instructive “Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français,” t. i. pp. 162, 163, especially that from the Hotel de Cluny. Speaking of the coverings for such lecterns, he tells that in the treasury of Sens Cathedral there yet may be found one which is, however, according to his admeasurements, much smaller every way than this piece of curious needlework before us. Whether the one now at Sens be of the 10th or 11th century assigned it, far too early date to our thinking, it cannot, to judge from the coloured plate given by M. Viollet Le Duc, be put for a moment in competition with the present one, as an art-work done by the needle. In our own mediæval records notices of such lecterns may be sometimes found; in the choir of Cobham College, Kent, A.D. 1479, there was such an article of church furniture, “Church of our Fathers,” ii. 201, and doubtless it was usually covered with a veil.

8359

Chasuble of Silk Damask, green and fawn-coloured, freckled in white with small flowers, inscriptions, and other ornaments; the pattern, in bands, consists of a large fan-like flower-bearing plant, and a double-handled vase, from which shoots up the thin stem of a tree between two hunting leopards collared, and addorsed, with an Arabic inscription beneath the vase, both plant and vase occurring alternately; these bands are separated by a narrower set of bands divided into squares enclosing birds of prey alternately gardant segeant. Syrian, late 13th century. 9 feet 5 inches by 4 feet.

This stuff betrays a few lingering traditions of the Persian style of design, and some people will see in the little tree between those hunting leopards the “hom,” or sacred tree of the olden belief of that country. The material of it is thin and poor, and in width it measures twenty-one inches. The characters under the vase holding the leopards and “hom,” are but an imitation of Arabic, and hence we may presume that it was woven by Jewish or Christian workmen for the European market, and to make it pass better, as if coming from Persia, inscribed as best they knew how, with Arabic letters, or imitations of that alphabet.

8360

Back of a Chasuble, blue silk wrought all over with beasts and birds in gold beneath trees. The orphrey of crimson silk is embroidered with flowers and armorial shields. The blue silk, Italian, 14th century; the orphrey, German, 15th century. 3 feet 8½ inches by 2 feet 5 inches.

The birds that are shown on this blue-grounded piece of rather shining silk are peahens, standing on green turf sprinkled with white flowers, and three very much larger flowers stand high above their heads; the beasts are leopards, with their skin well spotted, and they seem to be, as it were, scenting and scratching the ground. The orphrey, cross-shaped, and 5½ inches wide, is overspread with gracefully intertwined rose-branches, the leaves of which are of gold shaded green, and the flowers in silver, seeded and barbed. It is blazoned all over with armorial bearings, seemingly of two houses, of which the first is a shield, tincture gone, charged with a lion rampant or, langued and armed gules; the second, a shield, barry of twelve, gules and or, with a lion rampant, argent, langued and armed azure, in the dexter canton. There are three of each of these shields, and all six are worked on canvas, and afterwards sewed on. On the upright stem of the cross may be read in places the name of “Lodewich Fretie,” the individual who bore those arms and gave the chasuble.

8361

Dalmatic of blue silk damasked with gold; the pattern consists of alternate rows of oxen, and pelican-like birds amid flowers and foliage. North Italian, late 14th century. 7 feet 7½ inches by 4 feet.

A rather showy piece, and very effective in its pattern, though the gold about the thread with which the design is brought out is sparingly employed, so that it looks more yellow than metallic. The sleeves now but eleven inches long, are slit quite up, and were very likely shortened when the slitting was inflicted on them, and that, within the last hundred years, in compliance with the somewhat modern practice that took its rise in France.

8388

Piece of Embroidery of our Lord upon His mother’s lap. Florentine, 15th century. 8¼ inches by 5½ inches.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is robed in the usual crimson tunic, and sky-blue flowing mantle, and bearing, as is customary in the Italian schools of art, a golden star figured on her left shoulder. Sitting upon a tasseled cushion, and holding a little bird in His left hand, we have our Lord quite naked, with His crossed nimb about His head. Those who bring to mind that lovely picture of Raphael’s, the so-called “Madonna del Cardellino,” or our Lady of the gold-finch, will see that such an idea was an old one when that prince of painters lived. This piece of needlework was originally wrought for the purpose of being applied, and shows on the back proofs that, in its last use, it had been pasted on to some vestment or altar-frontal.

8561

Small Piece of Silk; ground, purple; pattern, boughs of green leaves twining amid rosettes, green, some with crimson, some with yellow centres. Sicilian, late 14th century. 6½ inches by 3 inches.

Good in material and pretty in design, though the colours are not happily contrasted.

8562

Piece of Silk; ground, purple; pattern, circles inclosing, some a tree which separates beasts and birds, some a long stripe which seemingly separates birds, all in yellow. Syrian, 14th century. 1 foot 1½ inches by 7½ inches.

The piece is so faded that with much difficulty its design can be traced, but enough is discernible to show the Persian feelings in it. No doubt the beasts are the cheetah or spotted hunting leopard addorsed and separated by the traditional “hom,” and the birds over them, put face to face, but parted by the “hom,” are eagles.

8563

Piece of Yellow Silk; pattern, a broad oval, filled in and surrounded with floriations. Florentine, 15th century. 11 inches by 7½ inches.

The once elaborate design, now indiscernible, was brought out not by another coloured silk but by the gearing of the loom; some one, very recently, has tried to show it by tracing it out in lead-pencil.

8564

Piece of White Silk; pattern, within circles, two birds addorsed, regardant, and separated by a tree. Syrian, 14th century. 12¼ inches by 9 inches.

The satin-like appearance and the creamy tone of this piece make it very pleasing, and in it we find, as in No. 8562, the same Persian influences; here, too, we have the mystic “hom,” put in, no doubt, by Christian hands.

8565

Piece of Silk Tissue; ground, red; pattern, embroidery in various-coloured silks, gold thread, and coloured small beads. German, 14th century. 3-⅝ inches by 3¾ inches.

In most of its characters this end of a stole is just like those attached to the fine specimen noticed under No. 8588.

8566

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, squares filled in alternately with a pair of animals and flower-like ornaments. Syrian, 13th century. 7 inches by 2 inches.

The old Persian tradition of the “hom” may be seen here dividing the two addorsed regardant lionesses, and the whole design is done with neatness.

8567

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, two popinjays divided by a bowl or cup looking much like a crescent moon, in an octagonal frame-work, all yellow. Spanish, 13th century. 8½ inches by 6 inches.

This stuff is of very light material, which has, however, kept its colour very well.

8568

Piece of Gold Tissue, embroidered with the needle; ground, gold; pattern, the Archangel Gabriel, with his head, hands, folds of his dress, and lines in his wings done by needle in different coloured silks. Italian, 14th century. 8½ inches by 5 inches.

This beautiful and rare kind of textile, combined with needlework, merits the particular attention of those occupied with embroidery. The loom has done its part well; not so well, however, he or she who had to fill in the lines, especially the spaces for the hands and head, on which the features of the face are rather poorly marked.

8569

Two Portions (joined together) of Gold Tissue; ground, gold; pattern, in various-coloured silks, of birds, beasts, monsters, and foliage. English or French, 13th century. 13 inches by 2 inches.

Among the monsters, we have the usual heraldic ones that so often occur upon the textiles of that period; but the recurrence of the unmistakable form of the fleurs-de-lis, though sometimes coloured green, persuades us that this piece, entirely the produce of the loom, came from French, very likely Parisian hands, and was wrought for female use, as a band or fillet to confine the hair about the forehead, just as we see must have been the fashion in England at the time from the marked way in which that attire is shown in the illuminations of MSS. and sepulchral effigies of our Plantagenet epoch. Our countryman, John Garland, tells us, as we noticed in our Introduction, that women-weavers, in their time, wove such golden tissues, not only for ecclesiastical, but secular uses; and these two pieces seem to belong to the latter class.

8570

Portion of an Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; pattern, foliage with fruit and flowers in gold. German, 14th century. 9½ inches by 3¾ inches.

So sparingly was the gold twined about the yellow thread, and of such a debased amalgamation that it has almost entirely disappeared, or where it remains has turned black.

8571

Portion of Gold Tissue, figured with birds and beasts in gold upon a crimson ground. French or English, late 12th century. 9 inches by 2⅛ inches.

When new this textile must have been very pretty; but so fugitive was its original crimson, that now it looks a lightish brown. Within circles, divided by a tree made to look like a floriated cross, stands a lion regardant, and upon the transverse limbs of the cross, as upon the boughs of a tree, are perched two doves; while the spandrils or spaces between the circles are filled in with fleurs-de-lis growing out of leafed stalks. Though, in after times, it may have been applied to church use, it seems, like the specimen under No. 8569, to have been at first intended for female dress, either as a girdle or head attire.

8572

Two Portions of Embroidery (joined together), the one showing, on a reddish purple silk ground, figures of birds and animals within circles, all embroidered in gold; the other, a similar ground and pattern within lozenges. German, 14th century. 2 feet 1½ inches by 2 inches.

The figures are heraldic monsters with the exception of the three birds, and are all done with great freedom and spirit; like the preceding piece, this looks as if it had originally been wrought for a lady’s girdle. The present two portions seem from the first to have formed parts of the same ornament, and to have been worked by the same needle.

8573

Small Fragment of Red Silk, having a narrow border of purple with lozenge pattern, in gold. English or French, 13th century. 2 inches by ¾ inch.

Alike, in its original use, to the foregoing pieces.

8574

Two Fragments (joined together) of Purple Silk, much faded, with a cotton woof. Byzantine, 12th century. 2½ inches by 1¼ inches.

8575

Two Fragments (joined together) of Silk and Gold Tissue; ground, light crimson, now quite faded, bordered green; pattern, an interlacing strap-work, in gold. English or French, 13th century. 2 inches by 2 inches.

Like, for use, to the other similar specimens.

8576

Very small Fragment of Gold Tissue on a red ground. 13th century. 1⅜ inches by ½ inch.

This cloth of gold must have been showy from its richness.

8577, 8577a

Two small Pieces of Silk, Tyrian purple. Byzantine, 12th century. Each 1¼ inches square.

8578, 8578a

Two Rosettes, in small gold thread on deep purple silk, bordered by an edging of much lighter purple. 14th century. 1½ inches square; 1 inch square.

8579

Piece of Silk and Linen Damask; ground, green; pattern, a monster animal within a circle studded with full moons, and a smaller circle holding a crescent-moon studded in like manner. Syrian, 13th century. 1 foot 8¼ inches by 1 foot 2 inches.

This bold and effective design is somewhat curious, exhibiting, as it does, a novel sort of monster which is made up of a dog’s head and fore-paws, wings erect, and a broad turned-up bushy tail freckled with squares, in each of which is an ornament affecting sometimes the shape of an L, sometimes of an F, at others of an A. Around the neck of this imaginary beast is a collar which, as well as the root of the wing, shows imitations of Arabic characters.

8580

Portion of Gold Embroidery; ground, dark blue silk; pattern, large griffins in gold. Early 13th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 12½ inches.

Pity it is that we have such a small part, and that so mutilated, of what must have been such a fine specimen of the needle. Though the whole pattern may not be made out, enough remains to show that the griffins, which were langued gules, stood in pairs and rampant, both figured with two-forked tails ending in trefoils, all worked in rich gold thread.

8581

Portion of an Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; pattern, stars of eight points, within squares, both embroidered in gold. 14th century. 5½ inches by 2 inches.

This is one of the very few specimens which have pure gold, or perhaps only silver-gilt wire, without any admixture of thread in it, employed in the stars and narrow oblong ornaments in the embroidery, the wire itself being stitched to its grounding by thin linen thread. The large and small squares, as well as the borders, are executed in gold-twisted thread, very poor of its kind. The glittering effect of the pure metal-wire is very telling.

8582

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, conventional peacocks and foliage, in yellow. Syrian, 13th century. 13 inches by 9½ inches.

A good design bestowed upon very thin materials.

8583

Portion of Gold Tissue; ground, light crimson, now quite faded, edged green; pattern, a diaper of interlacing strap-work. English or French, 13th century. 2½ inches by 1½ inches.

8584

Portion of Gold Tissue; ground, green, edged crimson; pattern, lozenge-shaped diaper in gold. English or French, 13th century. 7½ inches by 1 inch.

8585

Portion of Gold Tissue; ground, green, now quite faded; pattern, in gold, almost all worn away, a lozenge diaper. English or French, 13th century. 5 inches by 1½ inches.

This, as well as the other two pieces immediately preceding, were woven by female hands for the binding of the hair.

8586

Fragment of Silk Tissue; ground, purple; pattern, small squares, green and black, enclosing a black disk voided in the middle. Byzantine (?), 12th century. 7 inches by 2 inches.

This stuff, which was thin in its new state, is now very tattered and its colours dimmed.

8587

Fragment of Silk Tissue; ground, purple; pattern, a rosette within a lozenge, with a floral border. Italian, 14th century. 4 inches by 2 inches.

8588

Stole of Gold Tissue, figured with small beasts, birds, and floriated ornaments, bordered on one side by a blue stripe edged with white and charged with ornamentation in gold, on the other, by a green one of a like character, as well as by two Latin inscriptions. The ends, four inches long, are of crimson silk, ornamented with seed-pearls, small red, blue, gold, yellow, and green beads, pieces of gilt-silver, and have a fringe three inches long, red and green. Sicilian, 13th century. 6 feet by 3¼ inches.

As a piece of textile showing how the weavers of the middle ages could, when they needed, gear the loom for an intricacy of pattern in animals as well as inscriptions, this rich cloth of gold is a valuable specimen. Among the ornaments on the middle band we find doves, harts, the letter M floriated, winged lions, crosses floriated, crosses sprouting out on two sides with fleurs-de-lis, four-legged monsters, some like winged lions, some biting their tails, doves in pairs upholding a cross, &c.; and above and below these, divided from them by gracefully ornamented bars, one blue the other green, may be read this inscription,—“O spes divina, via tuta, potens medicina ☩ Porrige subsidium, O Sancta Maria, corp. (sic) consortem sancte sortis patrone ministram. ☩ Effice Corneli meeritis (sic) prece regna meri. ☩ O celi porta, nova spes mor. (sic) protege, salva, benedic, sanctifica famulum tuum Alebertum crucis per sinnaculum (sic) morbos averte corporis et anime. Hoc contra signum nullum stet periculum. ☩ O clemen. (sic) Domina spes dese’erantibus una.”

The ends of this stole, German work of the 14th century, widen like most others of the period, and in their original state seem to have been studded with small precious stones, the sockets for which are very discernible amid the beads; and in each centre must have been let in a tiny illumination, as one still is there showing the Blessed Virgin Mary with our Lord, as a child, in her arms; and this appears to have been covered with glass. Amid the beads are yet a few thick silver-gilt spangles wrought like six-petaled flowers. As a stole, the present one is very short, owing, no doubt, to a scanty length of the gold tissue; in fact, it might easily be taken for a long maniple. When it is remembered that the Suabian house of Hohenstaufen reigned in Sicily for many years, till overthrown in the person of the young Conradin, at the battle of Tagliacozzo, by the French Charles of Anjou, A.D. 1268, we can easily account for Sicilian textiles of all sorts finding their way, during the period, into Germany. In his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pt. xviii. fig. 3, Dr. Bock has given a figure of this stole.

8589

Piece of Silk and Linen Tissue; ground, yellow, with a band of crimson; pattern, crowned kings on horseback amid foliage, each holding on his wrist a hawk, and having a small dog on the crupper of his saddle. Sicilian, early 13th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 7 inches.

From a small piece to the left, figured with what looks like an English bloodhound or talbot, it would seem that we have not the full design in the pattern of this curious stuff, which speaks so loudly of the feudalism of mediæval Italy and other continental countries. Seldom was a king then figured without his crown, besides carrying his hawk on hand and being followed by his dogs, like any other lord of the land. The little hound behind him is somewhat singular. To us it appears curious that such an elaborate and princely design, meant evidently for the hangings of some palace, should have been done in the rather mean materials which we find. Parts seem to have been woven in gold thread; but so thin and debased was the metal that it is now quite black, and the linen warp far outweighs the thin silken woof.

8590

Piece of Silk Tissue; ground, green; pattern, a so-called pomegranate of elaborate form, amid flowers of white and light purple, now faded, both largely wrought in gold. Spanish, 15th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 1 foot 2 inches.

Not only is the design of the pattern very effective, but the gold, in which the far larger part of it is done, looks bright and rather rich; yet, by examining it with a powerful glass, we may discover an ingenious, not to say trickish, way for imitating gold-covered thread. Skins of thin vellum were gilt, and not very thickly; these were cut into very narrow filament-like shreds, and in this form—that is, flat with the shining side facing the eye—afterwards woven into the pattern as if they were thread, a trick in trade which the Spaniards learned from the Moors.

The warp is of a poor kind of silk not unlike jute, and the woof is partly of cotton, partly linen thread, so that with its mock gold filaments we have a showy textile out of cheap materials; a valuable specimen of the same sort of stuff from a Saracenic loom will be found under No. 8639, &c.

8591, 8591a

Two Pieces of Silk Tissue; ground, a bright green; pattern, not complete, but showing a well-managed ornamentation, consisting of the so-called pomegranate with two giraffes below, the heads of which are in gold, now so faded as to look a purplish black. Sicilian, early 14th century. 7½ inches by 4½ inches; 4½ inches by 4½ inches.

This is a specimen interesting for several reasons. When new and fresh, this stuff must have been very pleasing; the elaborate design of its pattern, done in a cheerful spring-like tone of green upon a ground of a much lighter shade of the same colour, makes it welcome to the eye. The giraffes, tripping and addorsed, with their long necks and parded skins, have something like a housing on their backs. From such a quadruped being figured on this stuff, he who drew the design must have lived in Africa, or have heard of the animal from the Moors; he must have been a Christian, too, for green being Mohammed’s own colour, and even still limited, in its use, to his descendants, no Saracenic loom would have figured this stuff with a forbidden form of an animal. Yet, withal, there may be seen upon it strong traces of Saracenic feeling in its pattern. That singular ornament, made up of long zero-like forms placed four together in three rows, which we find upon other examples in this curious collection (No. 8596, &c.), seems distinctive of some particular locality; so that we may presume this fine textile to have been wrought at the royal manufactory of Palermo, where the giraffe might have been well known, where Saracenic art-traditions a long time lingered; and people cared nothing for the prohibition of figuring any created form, or of wearing green in their garments, or hanging their walls with silks dyed green; in some specimens the zero-like ornamentation takes the shape of our letter U; moreover the large feathers in the bird’s long tail are sometimes so figured.

8592

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, the castle of Castile and fleur-de-lis, both in yellow. Spanish, 13th century. 10 inches by 6¼ inches.

Though of poor and somewhat flimsy silk, this stuff is not without some merit, as it shows how exact were the workmen of those days to be guided by rule in the choice of colour; for instance, the tinctures here are correct, so far that metal or is put upon colour gules. It was woven in stripes marked by narrow blue lines.

8593

Portion of some Liturgic Ornament (?); ground, deep blue; pattern, fleurs-de-lis embroidered in gold. French, 14th century. 7 inches by 3½ inches.

Whether this fragment once formed a part of maniple, stole, or orphrey for chasuble, cope, dalmatic, or tunicle, it is impossible to say; heraldically it is quite correct in its tincture, and that is its only merit.

8594

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds and beasts amid foliage, all in green. Sicilian, early 14th century. 10¼ inches by 4 inches.

Though every part of the design in the pattern of this charming stuff is rather small, the whole is admirably clear and well rendered, and we see a pair of hawks perched, a pair of lions passant, a pair of flags tripping, a pair of birds (heads reversed), a pair of monster-birds (perhaps wyverns), and a pair of eagles (much defaced) with wings displayed. The lions are particularly well drawn.

8595

Fragment of Silk Tissue; ground, crimson and gold, with three white and green narrow stripes running down the middle, and an inscription on each side the stripes. Spanish, 14th century. 7 inches by 6 inches.

The warp is of thick cotton thread, the woof of silk and gold. Though very much broken, the inscription is Latin, and gives but a very few entire words, such as “et tui amoris in eis,” with these fragments, “—tus. Re—— le tuoru—.” From this, however, we are warranted in thinking this textile to have been wrought, not for any vestment—for it is too thick, except for an orphrey—but rather for hangings about the chancel at Whitsuntide. See Introduction, § 5.

8596

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light crimson; pattern, in deep brown, vine-leaves within an ellipsis which has on the outer edge a crocket-like ornamentation, and on both sides a cluster as if of the letter U, arranged four in a row, one row above the other. Sicilian, 14th century. 8½ inches by 6 inches.

As we saw in Nos. 8591, 8591A, so here we see that very curious and not usual ornamentation, in the former instances like an O or zero, in the present one like another letter, U. The same crispiness in the foliage may be observed here as there; and in all likelihood both silks issued from the same city, perhaps from the same loom, but at different periods, as the one before us does not come up, by any means, in beauty with those fragments at Nos. 8591, 8591A. In some instances the feathers in a bird’s tail are made in the shape of our capital letter U.

8597

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, blackish purple; pattern, conventional foliage in greyish purple. Italian, 14th century. 1 foot 8 inches by 1 foot 6 inches.

The foliage, so free and bold, is quite of an architectural character, and shows a leaning to that peculiar scroll-form so generally to be seen on Greek fictile vases. Perhaps this stuff was wrought at Reggio in South Italy; but evidently for secular, not ecclesiastical use.

8598

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, large monster birds, and, within ovals, smaller beasts, all in gold thread, relieved with green silk. Sicilian, 14th century. 2 feet 4 inches by 10 inches.

The design is bold and very effective, and consists of an oval bordered very much in the Saracenic style, within which are two leopards addorsed rampant regardant. Above this oval stand two wyverns with heads averted and langued green or vert. This alternates with another oval enclosing two dog-like creatures rampant addorsed regardant; above this two imaginary birds, well crested, langued vert, with heads averted, and seem to be of the cockatoo family. From the shape of this piece, as we now have it, no doubt its last use was for a chasuble, but of a very recent make and period; and sadly cut away at its sides.

8599

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, green; pattern, in light purple or violet, an ellipsis filled in with Saracenic ornamentation, having below two split pomegranates in gold, and above, two giraffes, which alternate with a pair of long-necked gold-headed birds that are flanked by an ornament made up of letters like U. Sicilian, 14th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 2 feet 2 inches.

Though this specimen has been sadly ill-used by time, and made out of several shreds, it evidently came from the hands that designed and wrought other pieces (Nos. 8591, 8591A, 8596) in this collection. Upon this, as upon them, we have the same elements in the pattern—the ellipsis, the giraffes, and that singular kind of ornamentation, a sort of letter U or flattened O, not put in for any imaginary beauty of form, but to indicate either place or manufacturer, being a symbol which we have yet to learn how to read and understand. That in time we shall be able to find out its meanings there can be little or no doubt.

Though of so pleasing and elaborate a design, the stuff, in its materials, is none of the richest.

8600

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, yellow; the pattern, in violet, an ellipsis filled in with Saracenic ornamentation. Sicilian, 14th century. 10 inches by 2¼ inches.

There can be little doubt that this inferior textile, showing, as it does, the same feelings in its pattern, came from Palermo.

8601

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, yellow; pattern, a broad stripe of gold with narrow stripes, two in green, two in blue, and yellow bands charged with birds and flowers in gold. Spanish, late 14th century. 13 inches by 8 inches.

The narrow stripes running down the broad one, and constituting its design, are ornamented with square knots of three interlacings and a saltire of St. Andrew’s cross alternatingly. The bands display birds of the waterfowl genus—a kind of crested wild-duck—very gracefully figured as pecking at flowers, one of which seems of the water-lily tribe.

Here, as at No. 8590, we have the same substitution for gold thread, of gilt vellum cut into thread-like filaments, and so woven up with the silk and cotton of which the warp and woof are composed. This, like its sister specimen, so showy, is just as poor in material; and, from its thinness, if may have served not so much for an article of dress as for hangings in churches and state apartments.

8602, 8602a, B, C, D, E.

Six Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, a floriated ellipsis enclosing a pair of eagles, with foliage between the elliptical figures. Sicilian, 14th century. Dimensions, all small and various.

In many respects these fragments of the same piece of tissue closely resemble the fine stuff under No. 8594; the ground, fawn-colour, is the same; the same too—green, and of the same pleasing tone—is the colour of its pattern, which, however, gives us the peculiarity of a knot of two interlacings plentifully strewed amid the foliage. It is slightly freckled, too, with white.

8603

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds in pairs amid foliage (all green) and flowers, some blue, some gold, now faded black. Italian, 14th century. 18 inches by 12¾ inches.

Not a satisfactory design, as the birds are in green and hard to be distinguished from the heavy foliage in which they are placed. The materials, too, are poor and thin, the warp being cotton.

8604

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, deep fawn-colour; pattern, birds pecking at a flower-stem amid foliage, all yellow, occasionally shaded deep green. Sicilian, 14th century. 6½ inches by 4½ inches.

As far as it goes, the design is neat and flowing, with the peculiarity of the deep green, now almost blue, shadings both in the birds and foliage. The warp is fine cotton, and the whole speaks of a Sicilian origin.

8605

Piece of Damask; ground, light purple; pattern, in yellow, a net-like broad ribbon, within the meshes of which are eight-petaled conventional flowers. Italian, 14th century.

The texture of the specimen is somewhat thin, but the tones of its two harmonious colours are good, and its pattern, in all its parts, extremely agreeable; upon those broad ribbon lines of the net, the branches, sprouting out into trefoils, are gracefully made to twine; and an inclination to figure a crowned M on every petal of the flower inside the meshes is very discernible. Possibly Reggio, south of Naples, is the town where this showy stuff was wrought, serviceable alike for sacred and secular employment.

8606

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, black; pattern, not easily discernible, though evidently elaborate. Italian, 14th century. 10 inches by 6¼ inches.

So much has damp injured this piece that its original black has become almost brown, and its pattern is well nigh gone. In its fresh state, however, the design, traces of which show it to have been sketched in the country and about the time mentioned, was thrown up satisfactorily, for it was woven in cotton from the silken ground of the piece.

8607

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, trefoils and vine-leaves, in green. Sicilian, 14th century. 8¾ inches by 4½ inches.

Like all the other specimens of this kind, the present one is pleasing in its combination of those favourite colours—fawn and light green—as well as being remarkable for the elegance with which the foliage is made to twine about its surface; the materials, too, are thick and lasting.

8608

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, dark blue; pattern (very imperfect in the specimen), an ellipsis filled in with ornamentation and topped by a floriation, out of which issue birds’ necks and heads, all in lighter blue, edged with white, and two conventional wild animals in gold, but now black with tarnish. Sicilian, 14th century. 6 inches by 6 inches.

8609

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, wreaths of white flowers, green boughs bearing white flowers, forming part of a design in which an ellipsis in green constitutes a leading portion; and a broad band figured with scroll-work and an Arabic sentence, all in gold. Sicilian, 13th century. 1 foot 5½ inches by 5¾ inches.

Probably in the sample before us we behold a work from the royal looms or “tiraz”—silk-house—of Palermo, when Sicily was under the sway of France, in the person of a prince belonging to the house of Anjou. In the first place, we have the fawn—a tone of the murrey colour of our old English writers—and the light joyous green; in the second place, the ellipsis was there, though our specimen is too small to show it all. Those narrow borders that edge the large golden lettered band present us with a row of golden half-moons and blue fleurs-de-lis on one side; on the other, a row of golden half-moons and blue cross-crosslets: on the band itself we find, alternating with foliage, an oblong square, within which is written a short sentence in Arabic—a kindly word, a wish of health and happiness to the wearer—such as was, and still is, the custom among the Arabs. Sure is it that this textile, if wrought by Saracenic hands, was done under a Christian prince, and that prince a Frenchman.

8610

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds and dogs in green. Sicilian, 14th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 10¼ inches.

Like so many other specimens of the Palermitan loom, both in colours and design, this piece is rather poor in its silk, which is harsh and somewhat thin. The birds are a swan ruffling up its feathers at the presence of an eagle perched just overhead, amid branches and foliage in which the trefoil abounds.

8611

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, foliage in green, wild dogs in blue, gold, and white. South Italian, 14th century. 15 inches by 12½ inches.

The wild dogs are segeant face to face, in pairs; one blue, the other gold; one white, the other gold: and below are flowers blue, gold, and white, alternating like the animals. The warp is cotton, the woof silk, and altogether the stuff is coarse.

8612

Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, black; pattern, a tower surrounded by water and a figure holding a hawk, and hawks perched, in pairs, on trees. Italian, 15th century. 9 inches by 5½ inches; 9 inches by 4½ inches.

Pity that this curious piece is so fragmental and decayed that its singular design cannot, as in another specimen of the very same tissue, all be made out. Whether it be man or woman standing on high outside the tower with a bird at rest on the wrist is here hard to say. The castle is well shown, with its moat, and its draw-bridges—for it has more than one—all down. Like No. 8606, it shows its pattern by the difference of material in the warp and woof. All over it has been thickly sprinkled with thin gilt trefoils that were not sewed but glued on; many have fallen off, and those remaining have turned black. See No. 7065.

8613

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, black; pattern, in gold thread, birds amid foliage. Italian, 14th century. 14 inches by 7¼ inches.

The bold and facile pattern of this piece is very conspicuous, with its eagles stooping upon long-necked birds perched on waving boughs; to much beauty in design it adds, moreover, richness in material.

8614

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light brown; pattern, the same colour, palmettes and rosettes, with Arabic sentences repeated. Attached is a piece of green silk wrought with gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 16¼ inches by 15½ inches.

A quiet but rich stuff, and especially noticeable for its Arabic or imitated Arabic inscriptions, one within the rosettes, the other all round the inner border of the palmettes or elliptical ornamentations. The cloth of gold is plain.

8615

Piece of Linen, block-printed in a pattern composed of birds and foliage. Flemish, late 14th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 3 inches.

Of this kind of block-printed linen, with its graceful design in black upon a white ground, there are other good examples (Nos. 7027 and 8303) in this collection. From the marks of use upon its canvas lining, this long narrow strip would seem to have once served as an apparel to an amice in some poor church.

8616

Portions of Crimson Silk, brocaded in gold; the pattern, angels holding crescents beneath crowns, from which come rays of glory, and hunting leopards seizing on gazelles. Italian, end of 14th century. 2 feet 8¾ inches by 2 feet.

This rich stuff betrays in its design an odd mixture of Asiatic and European feeling; we have the eastern hunting lion spotted and collared blue, pouncing on the gazelle or antelope, which is collared too; so far we have the imitation, but without lettering, of a Persian or Asiatic pattern. With this we find European, or at least Christian, angels, clothed in white, but with such curious nebule-nimbs about their heads as to make their brows look horned, more like spirits of evil than of good. The open crowns are thoroughly after a western design; and the head and shoulders of a winged figure, to the left, show that we have not the entire design before us. From the graceful way in which the figures are made to float, as well as from several little things about the scrolls, we may safely conclude that the designer of the pattern lived in upper Italy, and that this costly and elegant brocade was wrought at Lucca. Of the Oriental elements of this pattern we have said a few words at No. 8288.

8617

Stole of deep purple silk, brocaded in gold and crimson; pattern, a long flower-bearing stem, and large flowers. Italian, early 15th century. 9 feet 6 inches by 4 inches.

Like all the old stoles, this is so long as almost to reach down to the feet, and is rather broader than usual, but does not widen at the ends, which have a long green fringe. The stuff is of a rich texture, and the pattern good.

8618

Part of a Linen Cloth, embroidered with sacred subjects, and inscribed with the names, in Latin, of the Evangelists. German, end of the 14th century. 6 feet by 4 feet.

Unfortunately, this curious and very valuable sample of Rhenish needlework is far from being complete, and has lost a good part of its original composition on its edges, but much more lamentably on the right hand side. Not for a moment can we think it to have been an altar-cloth properly so-called, that is, for spreading out over the table itself of the altar; but, in all likelihood, it was used as a reredos or ornament over but behind the altar, as a covering for the wall. Another beautiful specimen of the same kind has been already noticed under No. 8358, for throwing over the deacon’s and subdeacon’s lectern at high mass; and, from the fact that, in both instances, the subjects figured are in especial honour of the B. V. Mary, it would seem that, in many German churches, and following a very ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin wrought during all her girlhood days ornaments for the Temple of Jerusalem with her needle, the custom was to have for the “Mary Mass,” and for altars dedicated under her name, as many liturgical appliances as might be of this sort of white needlework, and done by maidens’ hands.

In the centre we have the coronation of the B. V. Mary, executed after the ordinary fashion, with her hair falling down her shoulders, and a crown upon her head; she is sitting with arms uplifted in prayer, upon a Gothic throne, by her Divine Son, who, while holding the mund in His left, is blessing His mother with raised right hand; over-head is hovering an angel with a thurible; at each of the four corners is an Evangelist represented, not only by his usual emblem, but announced by his name in Latin. At first sight the angel, the emblem of St. Matthew might be taken for Gabriel announcing the Incarnation to the B. V. Mary. Above and around are circles formed of the Northern Kraken, four in number, put in orb, and running round an elaborately floriated Greek cross, symbolizing the victory of Christianity over heathenism. In many places, within a gracefully twining wreath of trefoil leaves and roses barbed, is the letter G, very probably the initial of the fair hand who wrought and gave this beautiful work to our Lady’s altar; and the spaces between the subjects are filled in with well-managed branches of the oak bearing acorns. To the left is seen a hind or countryman hooded, carrying, hung down from a long club borne on his shoulder, a dead hare; and further on, still to the left, an old man who with a lance is trying to slay an unicorn that is running at full speed to a maiden who is sitting with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and stroking the forehead of the animal with her left hand. The symbolism of this curious group, not often to be met with, significative of the mystery of the Incarnation, is thus explained by the Anglo-Norman poet, Phillippe de Thaun, who wrote his valuable “Bestiary” in England for the instruction of his patroness, Adelaide of Louvaine, Queen to our Henry I:—“Monoceros is an animal which has one horn on its head; it is caught by means of a virgin: now hear in what manner. When a man intends to hunt it and to take and ensnare it, he goes to the forest where is its repair, there he places a virgin with her breast uncovered, and by its smell the monoceros perceives it; then it comes to the virgin and kisses her breast, falls asleep on her lap, and so comes to its death: the man arrives immediately, and kills it in its sleep, or takes it alive and does as he likes with it.... A beast of this description signifies Jesus Christ; one God he is and shall be, and was and will continue so; he placed himself in the virgin, and took flesh for man’s sake: a virgin she is and will be, and will always remain. This animal in truth signifies God; know that the virgin signifies St. Marye; by her breast we understand similarly Holy Church; and then by the kiss it ought to signify that a man when he sleeps is in semblance of death; God slept as a man, who suffered death on the cross, and His destruction was our redemption, and His labour our repose,” &c.—“Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages, &c., and edited for the Historical Society of Science by T. Wright,” pp. 81, 82.

The figure of the countryman carrying off the hare is brought forward in illustration. As the rough coarse clown, prowling about the lands of his lord, wilily entraps the hare in his hidden snares, so does the devil, by allurements to sin, strive to catch the soul of man. These interesting symbolisms end the left-hand portion of the reredos. Going to the right, we find that part torn and injured in such a way that it is evidently shorn of its due portions, and much of the original so completely gone that we are unable to hazard a conjecture about the subject which was figured there.

8619

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, rose-coloured; pattern, peacocks, eagles, a small nondescript animal, and a lyre-shaped ornament, all in green, touched with white. Italian, late 14th century. 11 inches by 10½ inches.

A curious design, in which the birds are boldly and freely drawn. Each horn of the lyre-shaped ornament ends, bending outwardly with what to herald’s eyes seems to be two wings conjoined erect.

8620

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, dark blue, in some places faded; pattern, a band charged with squares in gold, every alternate one inscribed with the same short Arabic word, lions in gold beneath a tree in light blue shaded white, and cockatoos in gold. Syrian, 14th century. 19 inches by 13½ inches.

So strong is the likeness between this and the stuff at No. 8359, both in the texture of the silk and the treatment of the beasts and birds, that we are led to suppose them to have come from the same identical workshop. That tree-like ornament, under which the shaggy long-tailed lion with down-bent head is creeping, seems the traditionary form of the Persians’ “hom.” The gold is, in most parts, very brilliant, owing to the broadness of the metal wrapped round the linen thread that holds it; and, altogether, this is a rich specimen of the Syrian loom.

8621

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, foliage in green, flowers, some white, some in gold, and lions in gold. Sicilian, late 14th century. 22½ inches by 10 inches.

The warp is of linen, and the silken woof is thin; so sparingly was the gold bestowed, that it has almost entirely faded; altogether, this specimen shows a good design wasted upon very poor materials. In the expanding part of the foliage there seems to be a slight remembrance of the fleur-de-lis pattern, and the lions are sejant addorsed regardant.

8622, 8623

Two Portions of Silk Damask; in both, the ground, fawn-colour; the pattern, in the one, ramified foliage, amid which two lions sejant regardant, in gold; in the other, two eagles at rest regardant, in green, divided by a large green conventional flower, including another such flower in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 11 inches by 5¼ inches; 9½ inches by 4¾ inches.

Very likely from the same loom as No. 8621, and every way corresponding to it.

8624

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, pale brown; pattern, in a lighter tone, stags and sunbeams, and below eagles within hexagonal compartments. Sicilian, late 14th century. 18 inches by 14 inches.

The stags, well attired, are in pairs, couchant, chained, with heads upturned to sunbeams darting down on them, with spots like rain coming amid these rays; beneath these stags are eagles. The material is very thin and poor for such a pleasing design. In a much richer material part of this same pattern is to be seen at No. 1310.

8625

Piece of very fine Linen. Oriental. 2 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 5 inches.

This is another of those remarkably delicate textiles for which Egypt of old was, and India for ages has been, so celebrated. A fine specimen has been already noticed at No. 8230; but to indicate the country or the period of either would be but hazarding a conjecture. Surplices were often made of such fine transparent linen, as is shown by illuminated MSS. See “Church of our Fathers,” t. ii. p. 20.

8626

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, flowers and birds, both in green. Italian, end of 14th century. 11 inches by 8½ inches.

The birds are in two pairs, one at rest, the other on the wing darting down; between them is an ornament somewhat heart-shaped, around which runs an inscription of imitated Arabic. Most likely this silk is of Sicilian work.

8627

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, dark blue; pattern, lozenge-shaped compartments, filled in with quadrangular designs varying alternately. Spanish, late 14th century. 10½ inches by 8 inches.

There is a Moorish influence in the design, which leads to the supposition that this stuff was wrought somewhere in the South of Spain.

8628, 8628a

Two Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, light yellow; pattern, flowers and birds, with the letters A and M crowned, all in pale red. Italian, late 14th century. 6 inches by 5 inches; 6 inches by 3½ inches.

A very pleasing design, in nicely toned colours, and evidently wrought for hangings, or perhaps curtains, about the altar of the B. V. Mary, as we have the whole sprinkled with the crowned letters A M, significative of “Ave Maria.”

8629

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, four green hares in a park walled, with conventional flowers, yellow. Italian, late 14th century. 5 inches by 4¾ inches.

The colours, both of the ground and design, of this piece are much faded, so that it becomes hard, at first sight, to make out the pattern, especially the four green hares tripping within a park, which, instead of being shown with pales, has a wall round it.

8630

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, foliage and flowers in green, with animals, alternately in gold and dark blue. Italian, late 14th century. 5 inches by 4 inches.

Though the materials be thin, the design is interesting and displays taste. The animals, seemingly fawns, are lodged, but so sparingly was the gold bestowed upon its cotton thread that it has almost entirely disappeared from the would-be golden deer.

8631

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, deep purple; pattern, a circle inclosing a heart-shaped floral ornament, in red, with an indistinct ornament, once gold. South of Spain, 14th century. 6¼ inches by 5½ inches.

The colours of what may have been a rich stuff, as well as the brightness of the gold, are much dulled.

8632

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, pale yellow; pattern, vine-leaves and grapes, with the letter A, all in light purple. Italian, late 14th century. 11¾ inches by 3 inches.

One of those cheerful designs which are to be found in this collection; and had the specimen been larger, very likely an M would have been shown under the A.

8633

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, within interlacing strapwork forming a square, two parrots addorsed alternating with two dogs addorsed, all yellow, with ornamentations of small circles and flowers, once gold, but now so tarnished that they look black. Sicilian, 14th century. 5½ inches by 5 inches.

One of those specimens which will be sought by those who want examples of stuffs figured with animals. This stuff is shewn in Dr. Bock’s “Dessinateur pour Etoffes,” &c. 3 Livraison.

8634

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn and green; pattern, small squares enclosing leaves, birds, and beasts alternately. Italian, 14th century. 7½ inches by 3 inches.

Though small, the pattern is good and comes from either a Sicilian or a Reggio loom. Lions, and stags with branching horns, eagles, parrots, and undecipherable birds, in braces with necks crossing one another, are to be found upon it; among the foliage the vine-leaf prevails.

8635

Altar Frontal of Linen, embroidered with the filfot in white thread freckled with spots in blue and green silk, and lozenge-shaped ornaments in blue, green, and crimson silk. German, 14th century. 3 feet 10 inches square.

There can be little doubt but this piece of needlework was originally meant for an altar frontal, and its curious but coarser lining, may have been wrought for the same separate but distinct purpose. The filfot or gammadion, a favourite object upon vestments, is its chief adornment, while its lining, a work of a century later, is worked with a palm-like design in thick linen thread. At a later time, it seems to have been employed as a covering to the table itself of the altar, and is plentifully sprinkled with spots of wax-droppings.

8636

Piece of Linen Cloth, embroidered with filfots, some in white, some in blue silk. German, 14th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 9 inches.

This handsome piece of napery was evidently woven for the service of the church, and may have been intended either for frontals to hang in front of the altar, or as curtains to be suspended away from, but yet close to, the altar-table on the north and south sides. The favourite gammadion appears both in the pattern of the loom-work and in the embroideries wrought by hand, sometimes in blue, sometimes in white silk, upon it.

8637

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, green; pattern, flower-bearing stems, in gold, amid foliated tracery of a deep green tone, all enclosed by a golden elliptical border. Italian, early 15th century, 11½ inches by 7½ inches.

This rich and pleasing stuff is most likely from the loom of some workshop in Lucca and was manufactured for secular purposes, and deserves attention not only for the goodness of its materials, but for the beauty of its design.

8638

Piece of Thread and Silk Damask; ground, purple slightly mixed with crimson; pattern, vine-branches bearing grapes and tendrils all in green, amid which are wyverns in gold, langued green. South Italian, 15th century, 1 foot 1 inch by 9½ inches.

The warp is of thread, and the woof of silk. Such was the poverty of the gold thread in the wyverns, that it has almost entirely dropped off or turned black. This specimen shows how, sometimes, a rich pattern was thrown away upon mean materials. Its uses seem to have been secular.

8639

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, gold; pattern, a circle showing, in its lower half, a crescent moon and an eight-petaled flower, in the round centre of which is an Arabic inscription, all in black, and the spaces filled in with a Saracenic scroll in light blue, light green, and crimson (now faded). Moresco-Spanish, 14th century. 1 foot 1¾ inches by 5¾ inches.

This unmistakeable specimen of a Saracenic loom would seem to have been wrought somewhere in the south of Spain, may be at Granada, Seville, or Cordova.

As a sample of its kind it is valuable, showing, as it does, that the same feelings which manifested themselves upon Moorish ornamentation for architecture were displayed in the patterns of textiles among that people. The fraud, so to say, of gilt shreds of parchment for threads covered with gold is exemplified here; and hence we may gather that the Spaniards of the mediæval period learned this trick from their Saracenic teachers in the arts of the loom. As in No. 8590, &c., so here, the gold ground is wrought, not in thread twined with gold foil, but with gilt vellum cut into very narrow filaments, and worked into the warp so as to lie quite flat.

8640

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light blue; pattern, a circle elaborately filled in with a wreath of leaves edged with a hoop of fleur-de-lis, and enclosed in an oblong garland made up of boughs and flowers, in a slightly deeper tone of the same blue. Italian, early 15th century. 1 foot by 8½ inches.

So very like in design to No. 8637, that we may presume it to have been wrought at Lucca.

8641

Part of an Orphrey; ground, once crimson, but now faded to a light brown colour; pattern, quatrefoils, with angles between the leaves, embroidered with male saints in various colours upon a golden ground. Each quatrefoil is separated by a knot of three interlacings, and the sides filled in with a pair of popinjays, gold and green, and two boughs of the oak bearing acorns, alternately. On both sides runs a border formed of a scroll of vine-leaves, done alternately in gold and silver, upon a green silk ground. North Italian, 15th century. 2 feet 7 inches by 5½ inches.

The whole of this elaborate piece of needlework has been done with much care, and in rich materials; but as the saints have no peculiar emblems given them, their identification is beyond hope. Whether for cope or chasuble—for it might have served for either vestment—this embroidery must have been very effective, from the bold raised nature of much of its ornamentation.

8642, 8642a

Two Pieces of Silk Damask; ground, green and fawn; pattern, intertwining branches of the vine, with bunches of grapes. Sicilian, 14th century. 9¾ inches by 4½ inches; 6 inches by 4 inches.

Another of those graceful green and fawn-coloured silks almost identical in pattern with others we have seen from the same country.

8643

Piece of Net-work; ground, reticulated pale brown silk; pattern, a sort of lozenge, in green and in brown silk, hand-embroidered. German, 14th century. 7 inches by 5 inches.

From the circular shape of this piece it seems to have been a portion of female attire, most likely for the shoulders. One of its ornaments looks very like a modification of one form of the heraldic mill-rind, with the angular structure.

8644

Portion of an Orphrey; ground, gold; pattern, a shield of arms, and an inscription in purple letters, repeated. German, 15th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 2¼ inches.

This specimen of the German loom may have been woven at Cologne, probably for the narrow orphreys of a whole set of vestments given to the church by some Duchess of Cleves, of the name of Elizabeth Vancleve, since, to such a lady, the blazon and the inscription point. The shield is party per pale gules, an escarbuncle or; and purpure, a lion rampant argent, barred gules, ducally crowned and armed or.

8645

Piece of Linen; ground, light brown; pattern, small blue squares or lozenges, separated into broad bands by narrow stripes, once ornamented with green lozenges and bordered all along by red lines. German, 15th century. 1 foot by 7 inches.

The warp and woof are linen thread; the green of the narrow stripes, from the small remains, appears to have been woollen.

8646

Fragment of a Piece of Silk and Gold Embroidery on Linen; ground, as it now looks, yellow; pattern, interlacing strapwork, forming spaces charged with the armorial bearings of England, and other blazons, rudely worked. 14th century. 5 inches by 3½ inches.

So faded are the silks, and so tarnished the gold thread used for the embroidery of this piece, that, at first sight, the tinctures of the blazon are not discernible. In the centre we have the three golden libards or lions of England, and the silk of the ground or field, on narrow examination, we find to have been scarlet or gules; immediately below is a shield quarterly, 1 and 4 or, a lion rampant gules, 2 and 3 sable, a lion rampant or; immediately above, a shield gules, with three pales azure (?), each charged with what are seemingly tall crosses (St. Anthony’s) or; above, the shield of England; but to the right hand, on a field barry of twelve azure and or, a lion rampant gules; below this shield, another, on a field or, two bars sable; these two shields alternate on the other side. The strapwork all about is fretty or, on a field gules.

8647

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson, sprinkled with gold stars; pattern, the Annunciation. Italian, 14th century. 1 foot 1¼ inches by 8 inches.

In this admirable specimen of the Florentine loom we have shown us the B. V. Mary not quite bare-headed, but partly hooded and nimbed, as queen-like she sits on a throne, with her arms meetly folded on her breast, the while she listens to the words of the angel who is on his knees before her, and uplifting his hand in the act of speaking a benediction, while in his left he holds the lily-branch, correctly—which is not always so in artworks—blooming with three, and only three, full-blown flowers. Above the archangel the Holy Ghost is coming down from heaven in shape of a dove, from whose beak dart forth long rays of light toward the head of St. Mary. The greater part of the subject is wrought in gold; the faces, the hands, and flowers are white, and a very small portion of the draperies blue. The drawing of the figures is quite after the Umbrian school, and, therefore, not merely good, but beautiful. In his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Lieferung, pl. xiii. Dr. Bock has figured it.

8648

An Embroidered Figure of St. Ursula, within a Gothic niche, which with much of the drapery, was done in gold, on a ground now brown. Rhenish, 14th century. 8¾ inches by 3¾ inches.

So sadly has the whole of this embroidery suffered, apparently from damp, that the tints of its silk are gone, and the gold about it all become black. That this is but one of several figures in an orphrey is very likely; it gives us the saint with the palm-branch of martyrdom in one hand, a book in the other, and an arrow slicking in her neck, the instrument of her death; being of blood royal, she wears a crown; emblem of heaven and paradise, the ground she treads is all flowery.

8649

Piece of Woollen Carpet; ground, red; pattern, a green quatrefoil bearing three white animals. Spanish, late 14th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 1 foot 1 inch.

A most unmistakeable piece of mediæval carpeting; the lively tone of its red is yet bright. The quatrefoils are quite of the period, and look like four-petaled roses barbed, that is, with the angular projection between the petals. So unlion-like are the animals, that we may not take them as the blazon of the Kingdom of Leon.

8650

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, the so-called artichoke in yellow and green, lined white, and foliage of green lined white. Spanish, 15th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 1 foot 4½ inches.

A good example of this showy pattern, once so much in favour, and of which the materials are very good and substantial; much of the yellow portions of the design was in gold thread, the metal of which has, however, almost all gone. From the quantity of glue still sticking to the hind part of this silk, its last destination would seem to have been the covering of some state room.

8651

The “Vernicle,” embroidered in silk, and now sewed on a large piece of linen. Flemish, middle of 15th century. 9½ inches by 7½ inches; the linen, 2 feet 10½ inches by 2 feet 9 inches.

To the readers of old English literature, especially of Chaucer, the term of “Vernicle” will not be unknown, as expressing the representation of our Saviour’s face, which He is said to have left upon a napkin handed Him to wipe His brows, by one of those pious women who crowded after Him on His road to Calvary. It is noticed, too, in the “Church of our Fathers,” t. iii. p. 438. This piece of needlework seems to have been cut off from another, and sewed, at a very much later period, to the large piece of linen to which it is now attached; for the purpose of being put up either in a private chapel, or over some very small altar in a church, as a sort of reredos; or, perhaps, it may have originally been one of the apparels on an alb: never, however, on an amice, being much too large for such a purpose. One singularity in the subject is the appearance of crimson tassels, one at each corner of the napkin figured with our Lord’s likeness, which is kept with great care still, at Rome, among the principal relics in St. Peter’s, where it is shown in a solemn manner on Easter Monday. It is one of those representations of a sacred subject called by the Greeks ἀχειροποίητος, that is, “not made by hands,” or, not the work of man, as was noticed in the Introduction to the present Catalogue.

8652

Linen Towel, with thread embroidery; pattern, lozenges, some enclosing flowers, others, lozenges. German, 15th century. 3 feet 11 inches by 1 foot 6½ inches.

Most likely this small piece of linen was meant to be a covering for a table, or may be the chest of drawers in the vestry, and upon which the vestments for the day were laid out for the celebrating priest to put on. In the pattern there is evidently a strong liking for the gammadion—a kind of figuration constructed out of modifications of the Greek letter gamma. In England the gammadion became known as the “filfot,” and seems to have been looked upon as a symbol for the name Francis or Frances, and is of frequent occurrence in our national monuments—especially in needlework—belonging to the 14th and 15th centuries. From the presence of that large eight-petaled flower in this cloth we are somewhat warranted in thinking that the same hand that wrought the fine and curious frontal, No. 8709, worked this, and that her baptismal name was Frances.

8653-8661a

Ten Fragments of Narrow Laces for edgings to liturgical garments, woven, some in gold, some in silk, and some in worsted. 8658 is a specimen of parti-coloured fringe; 8659 shows a two-legged monster as part of its design;

and in 8661 and 8661 A we find a knot much like the one to which Montagu gives the names of Wake and Ormond, in his “Guide to the Study of Heraldry,” p. 52.

8662

The Napkin for a Crozier, of fine linen ornamented with two narrow perpendicular strips of embroidery of a lozenge pattern in various-coloured worsteds, and having, at top, a cap-shaped finishing made of a piece of green raised velvet, which is figured with a bird, like a peacock, perched just by a well, into which it is looking. At each corner of this cap is a small parti-coloured tassel, and, at the top, the short narrow loop by which it hung from the upper part of the crozier-staff. German, 15th century. 2 feet 2½ inches by 1 foot 8½ inches.

This is another of those liturgical ornaments, valuable, because so rare, of which we have spoken under No. 8279A. But in the specimen before us we find it in much diminished form—half only of its usual size. The design of the raised velvet, in its cap, is as unusual as curious.

8663

Linen Cloth, embroidered in coloured silks with sacred emblems and hagiological subjects, and inscribed with names amid trees and flowers. German, 15th century. 1 foot 1¾ inches by 4 inches.

In all likelihood this needlework was meant as the covering for a table in the vestry of some church, or oratory in some lady’s room. On the left is figured St. George slaying the dragon; next, the pelican in its piety, above which is the “vernicle,” and over this the word “Emont,” with a ducal coronet above it. Then the names “Ihs,” “Maria,” and, above them, the word “Eva” crowned. In the middle of the cloth is a cross with all the emblems of the Passion around it, as well as a star and crescent. Then an animal spotted like a panther and chained to a tree; this is followed by the name “Meltinich;” last of all we find the name “Amelia,” and beneath, a half-figure of a woman having long hair with a large comb in her right hand, altogether resembling a mermaid. At bottom runs a narrow parti-coloured thread fringe.

8664

Frontlet to an Altar-Cloth, embroidered in coloured silks upon fine linen, with flower-bearing trees and a shield of the Passion, along with saints’ names, &c. German, 16th century. 1 foot 1¾ inches by 4 inches.

The shield in the middle is charged with a chalice and consecrated host, and four wounds (hands and feet) of our Lord. Under one tree occur the names “Jhesus,” “Maria;” under another, “Andreas,” “Anna.” From amid the grass on the ground spring up tufts of daisies.

8665

Piece of Embroidery, done upon fine linen in coloured silks and gold thread. German, middle of the 15th century. 7½ inches square.

The subject of this piece is the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary, figured according to the traditional manner much followed by the mediæval schools of art in most parts of Christendom. It is, however, to be regretted that this embroidery has been at some time mutilated; in its original state it may have, perhaps, served as an apparel to an alb, and occupied the place of one of those to be seen at No. 8710.

8666

Fragment of thin Silk Damask; pattern, a lozenge-shaped diaper; colour, a much faded crimson. Oriental, 13th century. 8½ inches by 4½ inches.

Though small, the pattern is pretty, and much resembles a stuff of silk and gold very lately found in the tomb of one of the Archbishops of York, in that cathedral.

8667

Portion of an Orphrey, wrought partly in the loom, partly by the needle, and figured with an angel-like youth holding before him an armorial shield, as he stands within a Gothic niche, with an inscription below his feet. German, very late 15th century. 10½ inches by 5½ inches.

This instructive piece deserves the attention of those who study embroidery. The loom was geared in such a manner that the spaces for the head, face, neck, and hands were left quite empty, so that they might be filled in by the needle. But this was not all the hand had to do; the architectural features of the canopy, its shading in red, the nimb, and nicely floriated diapering all over the angel’s golden alb, were put in by the needle.

The inscription, woven in, reads “Johā vā geyē,” and the piece is figured in Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 2 Lieferung, pl. xv.

8668

Part of an Orphrey, mostly loom-woven, and figured with the Crucifixion, on one side of which stands the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the other, St. John the Evangelist, German, late 15th century. 12¼ inches by 5 inches.

Like the preceding piece, the greater part is woven, even the body itself of our Lord, so that in His figure, as in those of His mother and the beloved disciple, the only embroidered portions are the head and face, besides those blood-spots all over His person, the tricklings from His five wounds, and the crossed nimb about His head.

8669

Portion of a Maniple, in much faded tawny silk; pattern, a rose-like floriation. Flemish, 16th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 3¼ inches.

Though peculiar, the pattern in the design of this silken stuff is very pretty; the piece of parti-coloured silken fringe that edges the end of this maniple is older than the textile to which it is sewed.

8670

The hind Orphrey for a Chasuble, with embroidered figures applied upon a ground red and gold. The figures are a knight bareheaded and kneeling in prayer, with his helmet and shield before him, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Anthony of Egypt reading a book. German, middle of the 15th century. 2 feet 11 inches by 5¼ inches.

The figures are well done, and all show the varieties of process then brought into use; they were worked on canvas, of which the portions for the face and hands were left untouched, saving by the few slight stitches required for indicating the hair and features of the countenance and indications of the fingers. Some of the dress was cut out of woven cloth of gold and sewed on; other parts worked with the needle, as were such accessories as books, instruments of martyrdom, and other such emblems. The knight, probably the giver of the chasuble, is meant to be indicated by his blazon, which is a shield or charged with eight torteaux in orle, and this is surmounted by a golden helmet with mantling, and a crest, consisting of golden horns fringed with four torteaux each. The ground upon which the embroideries are set is rich, and woven with golden wheel-like circles with wavy, not straight, spokes upon a bright red field.

8671

Fragment of an Orphrey, woven in gold and coloured silks; pattern, intertwining brambles of the wild rose, bearing flowers seeded and barbed. German, beginning of the 16th century. 7¾ inches by 4½ inches.

Though the ground is, or rather was, of gold, so sparingly was the precious metal bestowed upon the thread, that it has been almost entirely worn away. The same may be said of the very narrow tape with which, on one of its edges, it is still bordered.

8672

Part of an Orphrey, embroidered upon linen, in coloured silks, and figured with St. Anthony and a virgin martyr-saint, both standing beneath Gothic canopies. Rhenish, late 15th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 3¾ inches.

Notwithstanding the embroidery be somewhat coarse, like much of the same kind of work at the period, it is so far valuable as it instructs us how three methods were practised together on one piece. The canvas ground was left bare at the faces and hands, so that the features of the one and the joints of the other might be shown by appropriate stitches in silk. Pieces of golden web, cut to the right size, were applied for the upper garments of the figures, and the folds shaded by hand in red silk, and the borders of the robe edged with a small cording, while all the rest of the work was filled in with needlework. The closely fitting scull-cap, but more especially the staff ending in a tau-cross, indicate St. Anthony, but the female saint cannot be identified; her long hair flowing about her shoulders signifies that she was a virgin, and the green palm-branch in her right hand indicates that she underwent martyrdom.

8673

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, yellowish pink, the raised velvet, bright crimson; pattern, a large compound floriation within a circle formed by small hooked lines having flowers at the cusps, and the round itself springing out of a somewhat smaller floriation. Flemish, 16th century. 2 feet 3 inches by 1 foot 1¾ inches.

8674

Piece of Raised Velvet; the ground, orange, the raised velvet, green; the pattern, of pomegranate form, within crocketed circles, and alternating with a large floriation. Flemish, 16th century. 2 feet 4½ inches by 11 inches.

The raised pattern, from its rich pile, stands up well, and was hung upon walls, or employed for curtains and other household appliances, for which such stuffs were generally produced.

8675

Piece of Worsted Needlework; pattern, lozenges after several forms, and done in various colours. Flemish, 16th century. 18½ inches by 12 inches.

Worked after the same fashion, and with the same materials, that our ladies at this day employ upon their Berlin wool work.

8676

Piece of Linen Damask; pattern, artichoke and pomegranate forms. Flemish, 16th century. 1 foot 3 inches by 1 foot 1¾ inches.

The design is carefully elaborated; and the piece itself is evidence of the beauty of old Flemish napery.

8677

A Small Cloth for an Oratory, of fine linen, embroidered with sprigs of flowers in their proper colours, in silk, and with I. H. S. in red gothic letters, within a thorn-like wreath in green. Flemish, 16th century. 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 10 inches.

That this cloth has been cut down is evident; the sacred monogram is not in the middle, and the higher row of flowers is shortened. Though hemmed with tape on one side, and edged on two sides by very narrow strong lace, and on the fourth or front border by a broader lace, its last use was as a covering for some sort of table, not an altar properly so called; it is by far very much too small for any such purpose. In all likelihood, this cloth was made to overspread the top of a praying desk, or some little table strewed with devotional objects in a bed-room or private oratory.

8678

Portion of Worsted Embroidery upon light brown linen; the pattern, a scroll of flowers and foliage in colours German, late 16th century. 1 foot 5¾ inches by 4¼ inches.

The design is made to run along well, and the colours are nicely contrasted.

8679

Piece of Silk Damask, of a light red and straw colour; pattern, two varieties of the pomegranate mixed with large artichokes and small crowns, and separated by thick branches, which are purpled with broad ivy-like leaves. Italian, 16th century. 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 11 inches.

A bold pattern, remarkable for the originality of some parts of its design.

8680, 8680a

Two Pieces of Raised Velvet, green and gold; pattern, a modification of the favourite pomegranate and its accompanying intertwining foliage; very large and incomplete. Florentine, early 16th century. 2 feet 1 inch by 9½ inches; 1 foot 3 inches by 10½ inches.

These two pieces give us specimens of those gorgeous stuffs so often sent forth to the world from the looms of Tuscany, and afford, in portions of the design, samples of velvet raised upon velvet so very rarely to be found. The little short loops, or spots, of gold thread, with which the velvet is in some parts freckled, ought not to go unnoticed.

8681

Piece of Embroidery, wrought with a running pattern of leaves and flowers in coloured threads upon a golden ground, now much tarnished. German, 16th century, 1 foot 6 inches by 4½ inches.

Embroidery in thread is of somewhat rare occurrence.

8682

Part of a Web for church use, wrought in thread and silk upon a golden ground, now much faded. The pattern, trees bearing white flowers, bunches of white lilies, wheels with stars, and the words “Jhesus, Maria.” Cologne, late 15th century. 6 feet by 5 inches.

That it once formed a frontlet or border to the front edge of an altar-cloth is very likely, not only from the spots of wax with which it is in some parts sprinkled, but more especially from the way in which its pattern is wrought, so as to be properly seen when stretched out horizontally.

8683, 8684

Two Specimens of Web for church use; woven in silks, upon a golden ground; the first with the sacred name “Jhesus,” and a tree bearing white and red flowers, with daisies at its foot, and the name “Maria,” beneath which is a garland of white and red flowers twined about the letter M; the second, with a round ornament, having red and gold stars upon a tawny white ground between each of its eight radii, and underneath the sacred name, in dark blue silk. German, late 15th century. 1 foot 7½ inches by 2½ inches; 7 inches by 3¼ inches.

Like several other examples of the same kind to be found in this collection, and wrought for the same liturgical purposes.

8685

Piece of Raised Velvet, dark blue; pattern, one of the several varieties of the pomegranate. Italian, 16th century. 1 foot 3½ inches by 1 foot 3 inches.

Rich neither in material nor design, this velvet may have been wrought not for ecclesiastical but personal use.

8686

Piece of Silk Damask, purple; pattern, the pomegranate. Italian. 2 feet 5 inches by 11¾ inches.

Like the preceding, meant for personal use, but exhibiting a much more elaborate design, and the variety of the corn-flower (centaurea) springing forth all round the pomegranate, which itself grows out of a fleur-de-lis crown.

8687

Piece of Embroidery, on canvas; ground, figured with St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. Rhenish, 16th century. 1 foot 4 inches square.

To the left is seen St. John the Baptist, clothed in a long garment of camel-hair and his loins girt with a light-blue girdle, preaching in the wilderness on the banks of the Jordan. In his left hand he holds a clasped book, upon which rests the “Lamb of God,” and just over, a flag, the white field of which is ensigned with a red cross; his upraised right hand, with the first two fingers elevated as in the act of blessing, is pointed to the lamb. To the right we have St. John the Evangelist, holding a cup in one hand, while with the other he makes the poisonous drug in it harmless by a blessing.

The grounding has been filled in mostly with golden thread, but of so poor a quality that the thin metal on it is scarcely discernible. In both figures the whole of the person, the fleshes, as well as clothing, are all done in woven white silk cut out, shaded, and featured in colours by the brush, with some little needlework here and there upon the garments and accessories. The figures of the saints are “applied;” and one cannot but admire the effect which a few stitches of rich green silk produce upon the canvas ground, while a piece of applied silk, slightly shaded by the brush, is an admirable imitation of a rocky cliff. The two tall trees and green garlands between them are telling in their warm tones. Altogether this is a precious specimen of applied work, and merits attention. It seems to have been the middle piece of a banner used for processions, and may have once belonged to some church at Cologne dedicated to the two SS. John.

8688

Portion of an Orphrey, crimson satin, embroidered with flowers in coloured silk and gold thread. 17th century. 1 foot 3½ inches by 2 inches.

From what liturgical vestment this was taken it would be hard to guess, but there is no likelihood that it ever ornamented a mitre. The yellow flowers, of the composite kind, and heart’s-eases are very nicely done, whether the work of an Italian, French, or German hand. They have much about them that speaks of France.

8689

Piece of Raised Velvet, brown, with floriated pattern in gold thread. North Italy, early 16th century. 1 foot 1½ inches by 6½ inches.

Most likely from the looms of Lucca, and with a pretty diapering in the gold ground where it is bare of the velvet pile.

8690

Piece of Green Velvet, spangled with gold, and embroidered with three armorial shields in gold thread and coloured silks. German, 17th century. 10 inches by 9¾ inches.

All the shields are very German, especially in their crests. The shield on the right hand will attract notice by its anomaly; on a field azure it gives a rose gules barbed green, or colour upon colour; the crest, too, is a curiosity, at least in English blazon, displaying an Elector’s cap with very tall bullrushes, five in number, and coloured proper, issuing from between the ermine and the crimson velvet.

8691

Linen Napkin, for liturgic use, embroidered, in coloured silks, with conventional flowers. German, end of the 16th century. 2 feet ½ inch by 1 foot 11 inches.

This is another of those liturgical rarities—Corpus Christi cloths—of which we have spoken at No. 8342, under the name of Sindons, or Pyx-cloths. Such appliances were employed for mantling the pyx or ciborium when shut up in the tabernacle—that little temple-like erection on the table, or rather step, on the wall-side of the altar—when the custom ceased of keeping the pyx hanging up beneath a canopy.

8692

Hood of a Cope, silk damask, red and yellow, with the subject of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary woven in it. Florentine, late 15th century. 1 foot 5 inches by 1 foot 4½ inches.

Uprising from her grave, and amid rays of glory and an oblong or elliptic aureole, the Virgin Mary is being wafted to heaven by four angels, who are not, as of yore, vested in long close albs like deacons, but in flowing garments so slit up as to show their naked arms, bare legs, and lower thighs. Upon the empty tomb, from out of which are springing up lilies, is written “Assunta est;” and at one corner kneels the apostle St. Thomas who, with head uplifted and both his arms outstretched, is receiving from the mother of our Lord her girdle, which she is holding in her hands and about to let drop down to him. “La Madonna della cintola”—this subject—may often be met with in Italian, more especially Florentine, art of the middle ages, and is closely linked with the history of the fine old church of Prato, as we gather from Vasari, in his “Vite dei Pittori,” t. i. p. 279, Firenze, 1846; and the English translation, t. ii. p. 75.

8693

Linen Napkin, for liturgic use, embroidered in white, brown, and blue thread, with figures of our Lord and the twelve Apostles. German, 4 feet 8 inches by 1 foot 4½ inches.

Like the valuable specimen of the needle described at No. 8358, the example before us served the purpose of covering the lectern in the chancel at the celebration of the liturgy.

As in the usual representations of the Jesse-tree, the bust of each of the thirteen figures is made to rest within a circular branch upon its tip, where it sprouts out like a wide flower. At the top of this tree we behold our Lord with His right hand uplifted in the act of benediction, His left rested upon a mund, and, about His head a scroll inscribed “Pax F(V)obis.” To the right is St. Peter—so inscribed—holding a key; to the left, St. John, as a beardless youth—inscribed “S. Johnis;” then St. Anderus (Andrew), with a cross saltire-wise; and St. Jacob (James), with his pilgrim’s staff in hand, and on his large slouched hat turned up in front he has two pilgrim-staves in saltire; St. Jacobi (James the Less), with fuller’s bat; St. Simonus (Simon), beardless, with a long knife or sword jagged or toothed like a saw; St. Thomas, with his spear; St. Bartlyme (Bartholomew), with the flaying knife; St. Judas Tadvs (Jude or Thaddeus), with a knotted club; St. Matheus (Matthew), with a hatchet, and beardless; St. Philippe, with a cross bottony, and beardless; St. Mathias, with a halbert. At bottom is marked, in blue ink, 1574; but it may be fairly doubted if this date be the true one for this embroidery, of which the style looks at least fifty years older.

8694

Fragment of Silk and Cotton Tissue, green, with small flower pattern. Italian, late 16th century. 6½ inches by 4¼ inches.

A pleasing specimen, rich in material, and bright in its tones, very likely from the South of Italy.

8695

Piece of Silk Damask, crimson and yellow; pattern, scroll and foliage. French, end of 16th century. 1 foot 7¾ inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

This piece, intended for household use, is not without effect in its design. Though the warp is silk, in the woof there is linen thread, though not easily perceived.

8696

Piece of Fine Linen, with broad border of flowers in coloured silks. Syrian (?), 15th century. 12¼ inches by 1 foot 7 inches.

This very fine linen has all the appearance of having been wrought in some country on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and reminds us of those thin textures for which India was, and yet is, so celebrated. The embroidery, too, is but a timid imitation of flowers, and is so worked as to be equally good on both sides. To all appearance it is she end of a woman’s scarf.

8697

Piece of Needlework in coloured worsteds, upon a canvas ground; pattern, zig-zag lozenges, containing tulips and other liliacious flowers. German, middle of 16th century. 1 foot 4¾ inches by 1 foot 1 inch.

Seemingly, this is but a small piece of a foot-cloth for the upper step of an altar.

8698

Linen Damask Napkin; pattern, scrolls enclosing a pomegranate ornamentation; border, at two sides, rich lace. Flemish, 16th century. 4 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 3½ inches.

This napkin probably served for carrying to the altar the Sunday “holy loaf,” as it was called in England, the use of which is still kept up in France, and known there as the “pain benit.” For an account of this ancient rite, see the “Church of our Fathers,” i. 135.

8699

Small Bag, silk and linen thread, embroidered in quadrangular pattern. German, 15th century. 3½ inches square.

Very like the one under No. 8313. It may have been used as a reliquary, or, what is more probable, for carrying the rosary-beads of some lady. Concerning the form of prayer itself, see the “Church of our Fathers,” t. iii. p. 320.

8700

Piece of Embroidery, upon an older piece of white silk, brocaded in gold, three armorial shields in their proper tinctures, all within a golden wreath. German, late 16th century. 4 inches square.

8701

Piece of Black Raised Velvet, with small flower pattern. Italian, 16th century. 1 foot by 7 inches.

A pleasing example of the Genoese loom.

8702

Piece of Damask, silk and linen, tawny and yellow; pattern, a modification of the pomegranate within oblong curves, and other floriations. Florentine, 16th century. 2 feet 11½ inches by 1 foot 1½ inches.

Of a large bold design, though not rich in material.

8703

Piece of Damask, silk and linen, tawny and yellow; pattern, a slight variation of the foregoing, No. 8702. Florentine, 16th century. 3 feet 4 inches by 9½ inches.

So much alike are these two specimens, that at first sight they look parts of the same stuff; a near and close inspection shows, however, that for one or other there was a slight alteration in the gearing of the loom. Both may have originally been crimson and yellow: if so, the first colour has sadly faded. From the shape of this piece, its last use must have been for a chasuble, but of a very recent period, judging from its actual shape.

8704

Chasuble, cloth of gold, diapered with a deep-piled blue velvet, so as to show the favourite artichoke pattern after two forms, with embroidered orphreys and armorial shields. Flemish, very late 15th century. 4 feet 4½ inches by 3 feet 10½ inches.

This chasuble, rare, because not cut-down, has been lately but properly repaired. The back orphrey, in the form of a cross, is figured with the Crucifixion, the B. V. Mary fainting and upheld by St. John; a shield gules, with chalice or, and host argent, at top; another shield at bottom, gules, a column argent, twined with cords or; the front orphrey is figured with the B. V. Mary crowned, and carrying our infant Lord in her arms; beneath her, the words inscribed in blue, “Salve Regina;” lower down, St. John the Evangelist blessing a golden chalice, out of which is coming a dragon, and having the inscription at his feet, “Sanctus Iohannes.” Lower still, St. Catherine with a book in her right hand, and in the left a sword resting on a wheel.

The front orphrey is done in applied work; the back orphrey consists of a web with a ground of gold, figured with green flower-bearing boughs, and having spaces left for the heads and hands to be filled in with needlework. The shield of arms or, with a chief azure, charged with three square buckles argent, we may presume to be the blazon of the giver of this gorgeous vestment.

8705

Frontlet to an Altar-Cloth of diapered linen. The frontlet itself is the broad border of purple cloth on which is figured a Latin inscription within wreaths of flowers done in white linen. German, late 15th century. 10 feet 9 inches by 6½ inches; the linen, 9 inches.

This is another liturgical appliance, once so common everywhere, and so often mentioned in English ecclesiastical documents, which has now become a very great rarity. From the shred of the altar-cloth itself to which it is sewed, that linen, with its fine diapering and its two blue stripes, diapered, too, and vertically woven in, must have been of a costly kind, and large enough to overspread the whole table of the altar, so that this blue frontlet fell down in front. The Latin inscription, each word parted by a wreath, from four parts of which shoot sprigs of flowers, reads thus:—“O Gloriosum lumen ec(c)lesiarum funde preces pro salute populorum.” The letters, as well as all the floral ornamentation of this short prayer, are wrought in pieces of linen stitched on with red thread; and below is a worsted parti-coloured fringe, 1¾ inches deep. For the use of the frontlet in England, during the mediæval period, the reader may consult the “Church of our Fathers,” i. 238.

8706

An Altar-Frontal in very dark brown coarse cloth, on which are applied armorial shields, and the ground is filled in with flower-bearing branches, in worsted and silk. German, beginning of 16th century. 7 feet 8 inches by 4 feet 1 inch.

Though of so late a period, this altar-frontal can teach those studious of such appliances how readily and effectively such works may be wrought. The whole is divided into eight squares; in the middle of each is put a shield alternating with another in its blazon, the first being or, three hearts gules, two and one, between three bendlets sable; the second, argent, an eagle sable on an arched bough raguly azure in the dexter base. The ramifications twining all over the ground are done in light brown broad worsted threads stitched on with white thread; and the flowers, all seeded and barbed, some white, some yellow, as if in accordance with the tints of the two shields, are done in silk. At bottom this frontal has been edged with a deep fringe, parti-coloured white and black.

8707

Chasuble, blue cut velvet; pattern, one of the pomegranate forms, with orphreys. German, late 15th century. 9 feet 5 inches by 4 feet 9 inches.

To the liturgical student fond of vestments in their largest, most majestic shapes, this chasuble will afford great satisfaction, as it is one of the few known that have not been cut down. The front orphrey is a piece of narrow poor web, once of gold, but not much worn; the hind orphrey is a long cross, raguly or knotted, with our Lord nailed to it; above is the Eternal Father wearing an imperial crown of gold lined crimson, and in the act of blessing, between whom and our Saviour is the Holy Ghost in shape of a silver dove with outspread wings. At foot is the group of the Blessed Virgin Mary fainting, and hindered from falling by St. John.

8708

The Blue Linen Lining of a Dalmatic, with the parti-coloured fringe bordering the front of the vestment, and some other fragments. 4 feet 1½ inches by 5 feet 7 inches. The silk Sicilian, 14th century.

The silk is much like the specimen fully described under No. 8263.

8709

Altar-Frontal of grey linen, figured in needlework, with flowers, stars, and heraldic animals, on alternating squares of plain linen and net-work. German, 15th century. 9 feet 5½ inches by 4 feet 2½ inches.

This important piece of stitchery was never meant for a covering to the table or upper part of the altar; it served as a frontal to it, and was hung before, and at each corner of the altar so as to cover it and its two sides down to the ground. From all its ornaments having an armorial feeling about them, this elaborate piece of needlework would seem to have been wrought by the hands of some noble lady, who took the blazon of her house for its adornment. At the lower part, in the middle, is a shield of arms argent, charged with two bars once gules; high above, a star of eight points voided gules; below, a fleur-de-lis barred argent and gules; at each of the four corners of the square a maneless lion rampant barred argent and gules. To the right, on the same level, a square filled in with fleurs-de-lis; then a square with birds and beasts unknown to English heraldry: the birds, natant, have heads of the deer kind, horned, and the beasts a beaked head with a single arched horn coming out of the forehead with the point of the bow in front; both birds and beasts are paled argent and gules. On the next square are stars of eight points, and flowers with eight petals, within quatrefoils all argent, upon a field (the netting) gules. The last square is separated into three pales each charged with a flower-like ornament alternately argent and gules. Above this square is another of net gules, charged with four flowers argent; and, going to the left, we have a square showing two bears combatant barred argent and gules; still to the left, birds at rest, and stars alternating argent upon a square of net gules. Next to this a large antelope tripping paled argent and gules; then a square having lions rampant within lozenges with a four-petaled flower at every point, all argent, on a field (of net) gules. Following this is a large dog, maned and rampant barred argent and gules; to this succeeds a square of net gules charged with lozenges, having over each point a mascle, and within them stars of eight points all argent. The last square to the left on this middle row is charged with a heart-shaped ornament voided in the form of a fleur-de-lis, and put in three piles of four with flowers between. The only other square differing from those just noticed are the two charged with an animal of the deer kind, with antlers quite straight. The narrow borders at the sides are not the least curious parts of this interesting specimen; that on the left hand is made up of a dog running after a bearded antelope, which is confronted by a griffin so repeated as to fill up the whole line. The border on the right hand is made up of the beast with the one horn.

8710

Alb of White Linen appareled at the cuffs, and before and behind at the feet, with crimson and gold stuff figured with animals and floriations of the looms of Palermo. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 feet 7 inches long, 4 feet across the shoulders, without the sleeves.

For those curious in liturgical appliances this fine alb of the mediæval period will be a valuable object of study, though perhaps not for imitation in the way in which it is widened at the waist. Its large opening at the neck—1 foot 4½ inches—is somewhat scalloped, but without any slit down the front, or gatherings, or band. On each shoulder, running down 1 foot 3¾ inches, is a narrow piece of crochet-work inscribed in red letters with the names “Jesus,” “Maria.” The full sleeves, from 1 foot 6 inches wide, are gradually narrowed to 6¼ inches at the end of the apparels at the cuffs, which are 4 inches deep and edged with green linen tape. At the waist, where it is 3 feet 10 inches, it is made, by means of gatherings upon a gusset embroidered with a cross-crosslet in red thread, to widen itself into 6 feet, or 12 feet all round. Down the middle, before and behind, as far as the apparels, is let in a narrow piece of crochet-work like that upon the shoulders, but uninscribed. The two apparels at the feet—one before, the other behind—vary in their dimensions, one measuring 1 foot 1 inch by 1 foot 1¾ inches, the other, which is made up of fragments, 1 foot by 11¾ inches. Very elaborate and freely designed is the heraldic pattern on the rich stuff which forms the apparels. The ground is of silk, now faded, but once a bright crimson; the figures, all in gold, are an eagle in demi-vol, langued, with a ducal crown, not upon, but over its head; above this is a mass of clouds with pencils of sun-rays darting from beneath them all around; higher up again, a collared hart lodged, with its park set between two large bell-shaped seeded drooping flowers, beneath each of which is a dog collared and courant. For English antiquaries, it may be interesting to know that upon the mantle and kirtle in the monumental effigy of King Richard II, in Westminster Abbey, the hart as well as the cloud with rays form the pattern on those royal garments, and are well shown in the valuable but unfinished “Monumental Effigies of Great Britain,” by the late brothers Hollis. This alb is figured, but not well with regard to the apparels, by Dr. Bock, in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pl. iii, fig. 1.

8711

Chasuble, Cloth of, now tawny, once crimson, silk; pattern, animals amid floriations. Sicilian, 14th century. 4 feet 5 inches by 3 feet 6 inches.

Made of precisely the same rich and beautiful stuff employed in the apparels of the alb just noticed, No. 8710, the elaborate design of which is here seen in all its perfectness. The chasuble itself has been much cut away from its first large shape.

8712

Part of a large Piece of Needlework, done upon linen in coloured worsteds, figured with a king and queen seated together on a Gothic throne, and a young princess sitting at the queen’s feet. All about are inscriptions. German (?), 15th century. 5 feet 6½ inches by 3 feet 10 inches.

Wofully cut as this large work has been, enough remains to make it very interesting. The king,—whose broad-toed shoes, as well as the very little dog at his feet, will not escape notice,—holds a royal sceptre in his left hand, and around his head runs a scroll bearing this inscription, “Inclitus Rex Alfridus ex ytalia Pacis amator.” About the head of the queen, which is wimpled, the scroll is written with, “Pia Hildeswit Fundatrix Peniten (?), A^o. M^o. XII^o.” Below the princess, whose hair, as that of a maiden, falls all about her shoulders, and whose diadem is not a royal one, nor jewelled like those worn by the king and queen, runs a scroll bearing these words, “Albergissa Abbatissa.” Just under the king, on a broad band, comes—“o. dāpnacionis (damnationis) in &.” At top, on a broad bright crimson ground, in large yellow letters, we read—“v (ex voto?) hoc opus completum ē (est).” From droppings of wax still upon it, this curious piece of needlework must have been used somewhere about an altar—very likely as a sort of reredos; and from the inscription, it would seem to have been wrought as an ex voto offering.

8713

Piece of Needlework, in silk, upon linen, figured with St. Bartholomew and St. Paul, each standing beneath a round arch. German, early 12th century. 2 feet 8 inches by 1 foot 6 inches.

The linen upon which this venerable specimen of embroidery is done shows a very fine texture; but the silk in which the whole is wrought is of such an inferior quality that, at first sight, though soft to the touch, it looks like the better sort of untwisted cotton thread. Such parts of the design as were meant to be white are left uncovered upon the linen, and the shading is indicated by brown lines. As such early examples are scarce, this is a great curiosity. Dr. Bock has figured it in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 2 Lieferung, pl. viii.

8942

Persian Tunic, crimson satin, embroidered in various-coloured silks after shawl-patterns, with a double-mouthed long pocket in front. 4 feet by 3 feet.

8973

Piece of Embroidered Silk; ground, blue silk; pattern, flowers in coloured flos-silks and gold thread, and broad band figured with wood-nymphs, syrens, boys, and an animal half a fish and half a lion. Italian, 17th century. 6 feet ½ inch by 3 feet 1½ inches.

No doubt this embroidery served as domestic decoration. It may have been employed as the front to a lady’s dressing-table.

8975

Counterpane; ground, thread net, embroidered with foliage and flowers in various silks. Italian, 16th century. 8 feet by 7 feet 10 inches.

The flos-silks used are of a bright colour, and the whole was worked in narrow slips sewed together in places with yellow silk; in other parts the joinings were covered by a narrow silk lace of a pleasing design.

8976

Frontal to an Altar; ground, crimson; pattern, sacred subjects and saints, some in gold, some in yellow silk. Venetian, early 16th century. 6 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 3½ inches.

This frontal is made out of pieces of woven orphreys, and by the way in which those pieces are put together we know that they must have been taken from old vestments, some of which had been much used. It is composed of nine stripes or pales of broad orphrey-web; and allowing for the two end pales being brought round the ends of the altar when hung there, it would then present seven stripes or pales to the eye. Looking at it thus, we find the first pale of crimson silk, figured in yellow silk, with the B. V. Mary holding our Lord as an infant on her lap, with the mund or terraqueous globe surmounted by a cross in His right hand, amid a strap-like foliation; the next pale of crimson silk is figured in gold, with a saint-bishop vested in alb, stole crossed over his breast, and cope, and wearing jewelled gloves, with his pastoral staff in his right hand. The third pale, in yellow silk upon a crimson ground, presents us our Lord’s tomb, with soldiers watching it, and our Lord Himself uprising, with His right hand giving a blessing, and in His left a banner, and by His side cherubic heads. The fourth pale at top gives us the B. V. Mary and our infant Saviour in her arms, very much worn away, and beneath, St. Peter with his keys, in gold upon crimson. The other pales are but repetitions of the foregoing. Altogether, this frontal, thread-bare as it is in places, is well worth the attention of those who interest themselves in the history of Venetian design, and the art of weaving.

8977

Hood to a Cope; ground, two shades of yellow silk; subject, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Venetian, 16th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 1 foot 3½ inches.

Within an oval, upheld by four angels, and radiant with glory, and having a cherubic head beneath her, the B. V. Mary is rising heavenward from her tomb, out of which lilies are springing, and by it St. Thomas on his knees is reaching out his hand to catch the girdle dropped down to him. On an oval upon the face of the tomb is written “Assunta est,” like what is shown in other pieces in this collection.

8978

Piece of Silk Orphrey Web; ground, crimson; pattern, the Coronation, in heaven, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in yellow. Venetian, 16th century. 1 foot 7½ inches by 10¾ inches.

This design, though treated after the tradition of the Italian schools, has one peculiarity. On the royal diadem which our Lord, who wears, as Great High Priest of the new law, a triple-crowned tiara, is putting on the head of His mother a large star is conspicuously shown; one of the titles of St. Mary is “stella maris,” star of the sea, which would not be forgotten by a seafaring people like the Venetians.

8979

Tissue of Crimson Silk and Gold Thread; pattern, the Blessed Virgin Mary in glory, amid cherubic heads, and having two angels, one on each side, standing on clouds. Venetian, 16th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 1 foot.

The subject, a favourite one of the time, is the Assumption of the B. V. Mary, and the tissue was woven entirely for the adornment of liturgical furniture.

9047

Cushion, elaborately wrought by the needle on fine canvas, and figured with animals, armorial bearings, flowers, and love-knots, as well as with the letters I and R royally crowned. Scotch, 17th century. 11 inches by 8 inches.

We have on the first large pane a rose tree, bearing one red rose seeded or, barbed vert, and at its foot, but separating them, two unicorns argent, outlined and horned in silver thread; above them, and separated by the red rose, two lions passant, face to face, langued and outlined in gold thread; above the flower a royal crown or, and two small knots or, and at each side a white rose slipped; over each unicorn a gold knot, and a strawberry proper. Beneath this larger shield are three small ones: the first, fretty or, and vert (but so managed that the field takes the shape of strawberry leaves), charged with four true-love-knots or, and in chief vert, a strawberry branch or wire or, bearing one fruit proper, and one flower argent; the second shield gives us, on a field azure, and within an orle of circles linked together on four sides by golden bands, and charged with strawberry fruit, and leaf, and flower proper, and alternating, a plume of Prince of Wales’s feathers argent, with the quill of the middle feather marked red or gules, at each of the four corners there is a true-love-knot in gold; the third small shield is a series of circles outlined in gold, and filled in with quatrefoils outlined green; below, on a large green pane, a white rose slipped, with grapes and acorns; by its side, the capital letters, in gold, I and R, with a strawberry and leaf close by each letter, and above all, and between two love-knots, a regal crown. By the sides of this device are several small panes, exhibiting fanciful patterns of flowers, &c.: but in most of them the true-love-knot as well as the strawberry plant, in one combination or another, are the principal elements; and in one of the squares or panes the ornamentation evidently affects the shape of the capital letter S; upon the other side, with an orle of knots of different kinds, is figured a mermaid on the sea, with a comb in one hand, and on one side of this pane is shown a high-born dame, whose fan, seemingly of feathers, is very conspicuous. Underneath the mermaid are shown, upon a field vert, a man with a staff, amid four rabbits, each with a strawberry-leaf in its mouth, and at each far corner a stag. As on the other side, so here the larger squares are surrounded by smaller ones displaying in their design true-love-knots, strawberries, acorns, roses, white and red, and in one pane the combination, in a sort of net-work, of the true-love-knot with the letter S, is very striking. In Scotland several noble families, whether they spell their name Fraser or Frazer, use, as a canting charge in their blazon, the frasier or strawberry, leafed, flowered, and fructed proper; the buck, too, comes in upon or about their armorial shields. And this may have been worked by a member of that family.

9047a

Silk Damask; ground, white; pattern, wreaths of flowers and fruits, in net-work, each mesh filled in with two peacocks beneath a large bunch of red centaurea, or corn-flowers. Sicilian, late 15th century. 2 feet 3½ inches by 1 foot 8 inches.

The garlands of the meshes, made out of boughs of oak bearing red and blue acorns, have, at foot, two eagles red and blue; at top, two green parrots beneath a bunch of pomegranates, the fruit of which is red and cracked, showing its blue seed ready to fall out. The corn-flower is spread forth like a fan. This stuff shows the mark of Spanish rule over the two Sicilies.

9182

The Syon Monastery Cope; ground, green, with crimson interlacing barbed quatrefoils enclosing figures of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles, with winged cherubim standing on wheels in the intervening spaces, and the orphrey, morse, and hem wrought with armorial bearings, the whole done in gold, silver, and various-coloured silks. English needlework, 13th century. 9 feet 7 inches by 4 feet 8 inches.

This handsome cope, so very remarkable on account of its comparative perfect preservation, is one of the most beautiful among the several liturgic vestments of the olden period anywhere to be now found in christendom. If by all lovers of mediæval antiquity it will be looked upon as so valuable a specimen in art of its kind and time, for every Englishman it ought to have a double interest, showing, as it does, such a splendid and instructive example of the “Opus Anglicum,” or English work, which won for itself so wide a fame, and was so eagerly sought after throughout the whole of Europe during the middle ages.

Beginning with the middle of this cope, we have, at the lowermost part, St. Michael overcoming Satan; suggested by those verses of St. John, “And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels;... and that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan,” &c.—Rev. xii. 7, 9, to which may be added the words of the English Golden Legend: “The fourth victorye is that that tharchaungell Mychaell shal have of Antecryst whan he shall flee hym. Than Michaell the grete prynce shall aryse, as it is sayd Danielis xii, He shall aryse for them that ben chosen as an helper and a protectour and shall strongely stande ayenst Antecryst... and at the last he (Antichrist) shall mount upon the mount of Olyvete, and whan he shall be... entred in to that place where our Lorde ascended Mychaell shall come and shall flee hym, of whiche victorye is understonden after saynt Gregorye that whyche is sayd in thapocalipsis, the batayll is made in heven,” (fol. cclxx. b.). As he tramples upon the writhing demon, the archangel, barefoot, and clad in golden garments, and wearing wings of gold and silver feathers, thrusts down his throat and out through his neck a lance, the shaft of which is tipped with a golden cross crosslet, while from his left arm he lets down an azure shield blazoned with a silver cross. The next quatrefoil above this one is filled in with the Crucifixion. Here the Blessed Virgin Mary is arrayed in a green tunic, and a golden mantle lined with vair or costly white fur, and her head is kerchiefed, and her uplifted hands are sorrowfully clasped; St. John—whose dress is all of gold—with a mournful look, is on the left, at the foot of the cross upon which the Saviour, wrought all in silver—a most unusual thing,—with a cloth of gold wrapped about His loins, is fastened by three, not four, nails. The way in which the ribs are shown and the chest thrown up in the person of our Lord is quite after old English feelings on the subject. In the book of sermons called the “Festival” it is said, with strong emphasis, how “Cristes body was drawen on the crosse as a skyn of parchement on a harow, so that all hys bonys myght be tolde,” fol. xxxiii. In the highest quatrefoil of all is figured the Redeemer uprisen, crowned as a king and seated on a cushioned throne. Resting upon His knee, and steadied by His left hand, is the mund or ball representing the earth—the world. Curiously enough, this mund is distinguished into three parts, of which the larger one—an upper horizontal hemicycle—is coloured crimson (now faded to a brownish tint), but the lower hemicycle is divided vertically in two, of which one portion is coloured green, the other white or silvered. The likelihood is, that such markings were meant to show the then only known three parts of our globe; for if the elements were hereon intended, there would have been four quarters—fire, water, earth, and heaven; instead, too, of the upper half being crimsoned, it would have been tinted, like the heavens, blue. Furthermore, the symbolism of those days would put, as we here see, this mund under the sovereign hand of the Saviour, as setting forth the Psalmist’s words, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein;” while its round shape—itself the emblem of endlessness—must naturally bring to mind that everlasting Being—the Alpha and the Omega spoken of in the Apocalypse—the beginning and the end, Who is and Who was, and Who is to come—the Almighty. Stretching forth His right arm, with His thumb and first two fingers upraised—emblem of one God in three persons—He is giving His blessing to His mother. Clothed in a green tunic, over which falls a golden mantle lined with vair or white fur, she is seated on the throne beside Him, with hands upraised in prayer. It ought not to be overlooked, that while the Blessed Virgin Mary wears ornamented shoes, our Lord, like His messengers, the angels and apostles, is barefoot. To show that as He had said to those whom He sent before His face, that they were to carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, so therefore, is He Himself here and elsewhere figured shoeless. Though already in heaven, still, out of reverence towards Him, the head of His mother is kerchiefed, as it would have been were she yet on earth and present at the sacred liturgy. John Beleth, an Englishman, who, in A.D. 1162, a short century before this cope was worked, wrote a book upon the Church Ritual, lays it down as an unbending rule that, while men are to hear the Gospel bare-headed, all women, whatever be their age, rank, or condition, must never be uncovered, and if a young maiden be so her mother or any other female ought to cast a cloth of some sort over her head;—“Viri, itaque... aperto capite Evangelium audire debent.... Mulieres vero debent audire Evangelium tecto et velato capite etiamsi sit virgo, propter pomum vetitum. Et si eveniat ut virgo capite sit aperto, ut velamen non habeat, necesse est, ut mater, aut quævis alia mulier capiti ejus pannum vel simile quippiam imponat.” Divin. Offic. Explic. c. xxxix. p. 507.

The next two subjects now to be described are—one, that on the right hand, the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the other, to the left, her burial. To fully understand the traditionary treatment of both, it would be well to give the words of Caxton’s English translation of the “Golden Legend,” from the edition “emprynted at London, in Fletestrete at y^e sygne of y^e Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde, in y^e yere of our Lorde M.CCCCXVII,” a scarce and costly work not within easy reach. “We fynde in a booke sente to saynt Johan the evangelys, or elles the boke whiche is sayd to be apocryphum... in what maner the Assumpcyon of the blessyd vyrgyn saynt Marye was made... upon a daye whan all the apostles were spradde through the worlde in prechynge, the gloryous vyrgyne was gretely esprysed and enbraced wyth desyre to be wyth her sone Ihesu Cryste... and an aungell came tofore her with grete lyghte and salewed her honourably as the mother of his Lorde, sayenge, All hayle blessyd Marie.... Loo here is a bowe of palme of paradyse, lady,... whiche thou shalte commaunde to be borne tofore thy bere, for thy soule shall be taken from thy body the thyrde daye nexte folowynge; and thy Sone abydeth thee His honourable moder.... All the apostles shall assemble this daye to thee and shall make to thee noble exequyes at thy passynge, and in the presence of theym all thou shalte gyve up thy spyryte. For he that broughte the prophete (Habacuc) by an heer from Judee to Babylon (Daniel xiv. 35, according to the Vulgate) may without doubte sodeynly in an houre brynge the apostles to thee.... And it happened as Saynt Johan the euangelyst preched in Ephesym the heven sodeynly thondred and a whyte cloude toke hym up and brought hym tofore the gate of the blessyd vyrgyne Marye at Jerusalem (who) sayd to hym,... Loo I am called of thy mayster and my God,... I have herde saye that the Jewes have made a counseyll and sayd, let us abyde brethren unto the tyme that she that bare Jhesu Crist be deed, and thenne incontynente we shall take her body and shall caste it in to the fyre and brenne it. Thou therefore take this palme and bere it tofore the bere whan ye shall bere my body to the sepulcre. Than sayd Johan, O wolde God that all my brethren the apostles were here that we myght make thyn exequyes covenable as it hoveth and is dygne and worthy. And as he sayd that, all the apostles were ravysshed with cloudes from the places where they preched and were brought tofore the dore of the blessyd vyrgyn Mary.... And aboute the thyrde houre of the nyght Jhesu Crist came with swete melodye and songe with the ordre of aungelles.... Fyrst Jhesu Crist began to saye, Come my chosen and I shall set thee in my sete... come fro Lybane my spouse. Come from Lybane. Come thou shalte be crowned. And she sayd I come, for in the begynnynge of the booke it is wryten of me that I sholde doo thy wyll, for my spyryte hath joyed in thee the God of helth; and thus in the mornynge the soule yssued out of the body and fledde up in the armes of her sone.... And than the apostles toke the body honourably and layde it on the bere.—And than Peter and Paule lyfte up the bere, and Peter began to synge and saye Israhell is yssued out of Egypt, and the other apostles folowed hym in the same songe, and our Lorde covered the bere and the apostles with a clowde, so that they were not seen but the voyce of them was onely herde, and the aungelles were with the apostles syngynge, and than all the people was moved with that swete melodye, and yssued out of the cyte and enquyred what it was.—And than there were some that sayd that Marye suche a woman was deed, and the dyscyples of her sone Jhesu Crist bare her, and made suche melodye. And thenne ranne they to armes and they warned eche other sayenge, Come and let us slee all the dysciples and let us brenne the body of her that bare this traytoure. And whan the prynce of prestes sawe that he was all abashed and, full of angre and wrath sayd, Loo, here the tabernacle of hym that hath troubled us, and our lygnage, beholde what glorye he now receyveth, and in the saynge so he layde his hondes on the bere wyllynge to turne it and overthrowe it to the grounde. Than sodeynly bothe his hondes wexed drye and cleved to the bere so that he henge by the hondes on the bere and was sore tormented and wepte and brayed. And the aungelles... blynded all the other people that they sawe no thynge. And the prynce of prestes sayd, saynt Peter despyse not me in this trybulacyon, and I praye thee to praye for me to our Lorde.—And saynt Peter sayd to hym—Kysse the bere and saye I byleve in God Jhesu Crist. And whan he had so sayd he was anone all hole perfyghtly.—And thenne the apostles bare Mary unto the monument (in the Vale of Josaphat outside Jerusalem) and satte by it lyke as oure Lord had commaunded. And at the thyrde daye... the soule came agayne to the body of Marye and yssued gloryously out of the tombe, and thus was receyved in the hevenly chaumbre, and a grete company of aungelles with her; and saynt Thomas was not there; and whan he came he wolde not byleve this; and anone the gyrdell with whiche her body was gyrde came to hym fro the ayre, whiche he receyved, and therby he understode that she was assumpte into heven; and all this it here to fore is sayd and called apocryphum,” &c. ff. ccxvi, &c.

With this key we may easily unlock what, otherwise, would lie hidden, not only about the coronation, but, in an especial manner, the death and burial, as here figured, of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the former of these two is thus represented on the right hand side. In her own small house by the foot of Mount Sion, at Jerusalem, is Christ’s mother on her dying bed. Four only of the apostles—there would not have been room enough for showing more in the quatrefoil—are standing by the couch upon which she lies, dressed in a silver tunic almost wholly overspread with a coverlet of gold; she is bolstered up by a deep purple golden fretted pillow. St. Peter is holding up her head, while by her side stands St. Paul, clad, like St. Peter, in a green tunic and a golden mantle; then St. Matthew, in a blue tunic and a mantle of gold, holding in the left hand his Gospel, which begins with the generation of our Lord as man, and the pedigree of Mary His mother; while, in front of them, stands John, arrayed in a shaded light-purple tunic, youthful in look, and whose auburn hair is in so strong a contrast to the hoary locks of his brethren. On the left-hand side we have her burial. Stretched full-length upon a bier, over which is thrown a pall of green shot with yellow, lies the Virgin Mary, her hair hanging loose from her head. St. Peter, known by his keys, St. Paul, by his uplifted sword, are carrying on their shoulders one end of the bier, in front; behind, in the same office, are St. Andrew bringing his cross with him, and some other apostle as his fellow. After them walks St. Thomas, who, with both his uplifted hands, is catching the girdle as it drops to him from above, where, in the skies, her soul, in the shape of a little child, is seen standing upright with clasped hands, within a large flowing sheet held by two angels who have come from heaven to fetch it thither. Right before the funeral procession is a small Jew, who holds in one hand a scabbard, and with the other is unsheathing his weapon. By the side of the bier stand two other Jews also small in size—one, the high priest. One of them has both his arms, the priest but one, all twisted and shrunken, stretched forward on the bier, as if they wanted to upset it; while the latter holds in one of his wasted hands the green bough of the palm-tree, put into it by St. John.

With regard to St. Thomas and the girdle, this cope, if not the earliest, is among the earlier works upon which that part of the legend is figured, though after a somewhat different manner to the one followed in Italy, where, as is evident from several specimens, in this collection, it found such favour.

Below the burial, we have our Lord in the garden, signified by the two trees (John xx. 17). Still wearing a green crown of thorns, and arrayed in a golden mantle, our Lord in His left hand holds the banner of the resurrection, and with His right bestows His benediction on the kneeling Magdalene, who is wimpled, and wears a mantle of green shot yellow, over a light purple tunic. Below, but outside the quatrefoil, is a layman clad in gold upon his knees, and holding a long narrow scroll, bearing words which cannot now be satisfactorily read. Lowermost of all we see the apostle St. Philip with a book in the left hand, but upon the right, muffled in a large towel wrought in silver, three loaves of bread, done partially in gold, piled up one on the other, in reference to our Lord’s words (John vi. 5), before the miracle of feeding the five thousand. At the left is St. Bartholomew holding a book in one hand, in the other the flaying knife. A little above him, St. Peter with his two keys, one gold, the other silver; and somewhat under him, to the right, is St. Andrew with his cross. On the other side of St. Michael and the dragon is St. James the Greater—sometimes called of Compostella, because he lies buried in that Spanish city—with a book in one hand, and in the other a staff, and slung from his wrist a wallet, both emblems of pilgrimage to his shrine in Galicia. In the next quatrefoil above stands St. Paul with his usual sword, emblem alike of his martyrdom, and of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephes. vi. 17), and a book; lower, to the right, St. Thomas with his lance of martyrdom and a book; and still further to the right, St. James the Less with a book and the club from which he received his death-stroke (Eusebius, book ii. c. 23). Just above is our Saviour clad in a golden tunic, and carrying a staff overcoming the unbelief of St. Thomas. Upon his knees that apostle feels, with his right hand held by the Redeemer, the spear-wound in His side (John xx. 27).

As at the left hand, so here, quite outside the sacred history on the cope, we have the figure of an individual probably living at the time the vestment was wrought. The dress of the other shows him to be a layman; by the shaven crown upon his head, this person must have been a cleric of some sort: but whether monk, friar, or secular we cannot tell, as his gown has become quite bare, so that we see nothing now but the lower canvas with the lines drawn in black for the shading of the folds. Like his fellow over against him, this churchman holds up a scroll bearing words which can no longer be read.

When new this cope could show, written in tall gold letters more than an inch high, an inscription now cut up and lost, as the unbroken word “Ne” on one of its shreds, and a solitary “V” on another, are all that remains of it, the first on the lower right side; the second, in the like place, to the left. Though so short, the Latin word leads us to think that it was the beginning of the anthem to the seven penitential psalms, “Ne reminiscaris, Domine, delicta nostra, vel parentum nostrorum; neque vindictam sumas de peccatis nostris,” a suitable prayer for a liturgical garment, upon which the mercies of the Great Atonement are so well set forth in the Crucifixion, the overthrow of Antichrist, and the crowning of the saints in heaven.

In its original state it could give us, not, as now, only eight apostles, but their whole number. Even as yet the patches on the right-hand side afford us three of the missing heads, while another patch to the left shows us the hand with a book, belonging to the fourth. The lower part of this vestment has been sadly cut away, and reshaped with shreds from itself; and perhaps at such a time were added its present heraldic orphrey, morse, and border, perhaps some fifty years after the embroidering of the other portions of this invaluable and matchless specimen of the far-famed “Opus Anglicum,” or English needlework.

The early writers throughout Christendom, Greek as well as Latin, distinguished “nine choirs” of angels, or three great hierarchies, in the upper of which were the “cherubim, or seraphim, and thrones;” in the middle one, the “dominations, virtues, and powers;” in the lower hierarchy, the “principalities, angels, and archangels.” Now, while looking at the rather large number of angels figured here, we shall find that this division into three parts, each part again containing other three, has been accurately observed. Led a good way by Ezekiel (i.), but not following that prophet step by step, our mediæval draughtsmen found out for themselves a certain angel form. To this they gave a human shape having but one head, and that of a comely youth, clothing him with six wings, as Isaias told (vi. 2) of the seraphim, and in place of the calf’s cloven hoofs, they made it with the feet of man; instead of its body being full of eyes, this feature is not unoften to be perceived upon the wings, but oftenest those wings themselves are composed of the bright-eyed feathers borrowed from the peacock’s tail.

Those eight angels standing upon wheels, and so placed that they are everywhere by those quatrefoils wherein our Lord’s person comes, may be taken to represent the upper hierarchy of the angelic host; those other angels—and two of them only are entire—not upon wheels, and far away from our Lord, one of the perfect ones under St. Peter, the other under St. Paul, no doubt belong to the second hierarchy; while those two having but one, not three, pair of wings, the first under the death, the other under the burial of the Virgin, both of them holding up golden crowns, one in each hand, represent, we may presume, the lowest of the three hierarchies. All of them, like our Lord and His apostles, are barefoot. All of them have their hands uplifted in prayer.

For every lover of English heraldic studies this cope, so plentifully blazoned with armorial bearings, will have an especial value, equal to that belonging to many an ancient roll of arms. To begin with its orphrey: that broad band may, in regard to its shields, be distinguished into three parts, one that falls immediately about the neck of the cleric wearing this vestment, and the other two portions right and left. In this first or middle piece the shields, four in number, are of a round shape, but, unlike the square ones, through both the other two side portions, are not set upon squares alternately green and crimson (faded to brown) as are the quatrefoils on the body of the cope. Taking this centre-piece first, to the left we have—

6. Checky azure and or, a chevron ermine. Warwick.

7. Quarterly 1 and 4 gules, a three-towered castle or; 2 and 3 argent, a lion rampant azure. Castile and Leon.

8. Vair or and gules, within a bordure azure, charged with sixteen horse-shoes argent. Ferrers.

9. Azure, three barnacles or, on a chief ermine a demi-lion rampant gules. Geneville.

These four shields are round, as was said before, and upon a green ground, having nothing besides upon it. All the rest composing this orphrey are squares of the diamond form, and put upon a grounding alternately crimson and green; on the crimson are two peacocks and two swans in gold; on the green, four stars of eight rays in gold voided crimson. Now, beginning at the furthermost left side, we see these blazons:—

1. Ermine, a cross gules charged with five lioncels statant gardant or. Everard.

2. Same as 8. Ferrers.

3. Gules, the Holy Lamb argent with flag or, between two stars and a crescent or. Badge of the Knights Templars.

4. Same as 2. Ferrers.

5. Same as 1. Everard.

10. Checky azure and or, a bend gules charged with three lioncels passant argent. Clifford.

11. Quarterly argent and gules; 2 and 3 fretty or, over all a bend sable. Spencer.

12. The same as 3, but the Lamb is or, the flag argent. Badge of the Knights Templars.

13. Same as 11. Spencer.

14. Same as 10. Clifford.

Just below the two middle shields are four nicely-formed loops, through which might be buttoned on to the cope the moveable hood—or different hoods, according to the festival, and figured with the subject of the feast—now lost. On the other edge of the orphrey, to the left, are seen other three loops, like the former, made of thick gold cord, by which was made fast the morse that is also blazoned with ten coats, as follows:—

1. Gules, a large six-pointed star argent voided with another star azure voided argent voided gules, between four cross-crosslets or.

2. Gules, an eagle displayed or. Limesi or Lindsey.
3. Castile and Leon.
4. Gules, a fess argent between three covered cups or. Le Botiler.
5. Castile and Leon.
6. Ferrers.
7. Azure, a cross argent between four eagles (?) displayed argent (?).
8. Spencer.
9. Same as 2. Lindsey.
10. Geneville.

The ground is checky azure and or upon which these small shields in the morse are placed.

On the narrow band, at the hem, the same alternation of green and crimson squares, as a ground for the small diamond-shaped shields, is observed, as in the orphrey; and the blazons are, beginning at the left-hand side:—

1. Barry of ten azure and or imbattled, a fess gules sprinkled with four-petaled flowers seeded azure.

2. Or, charged with martlets gules, and a pair of bars gemelles azure.
3. Ferrers.
4. Castile and Leon.
5. Azure, a cross or. Sheldon.

6. Azure, a lion rampant or, within a bordure gules charged with eight water-bougets argent.

7. Warwick.
8. Spencer.
9. Azure, a bend between six birds or. Monteney of Essex.

10. Gules, sprinkled with cross-crosslets or, and a saltire verry potent argent and azure. Champernoun.

11. Geneville.

12. England.

13. Checky argent and azure, on a bend gules, three garbs (?) or escallop-shells (?) or.

14. Or, on a fess gules between six fleurs-de-lis three and three gules, three fleurs-de-lis or.

15. Gules, a lion rampant argent, within a bordure azure, charged with eight water-bougets or.

16. Checky or and gules, on a bend azure, five horse-shoes argent.
17. Same as 1.
18. Same as 2.
19. Same as 3. Ferrers.
20. Same as 10. Champernoun.
21. Same as 10 in the orphrey. Clifford.
22. Same as 8. Spencer.
23. Azure, between six escallop-shells (?) three and three, a bend or. Tyddeswall.
24. Same as 6.

25. Paly of ten argent and azure, on a bend gules, three escallop-shells (?) or. A coat of Grandison.

26. Gules, a lion rampant or. Fitz Alan.
27. Barry argent and azure, a chief checky or and gules.
28. Geneville.
29. Party per fess azure and or, a cross fusil counterchanged.

30. Argent, four birds gules, between a saltire gules, charged with nine bezants. Hampden (?).

31. Azure, five fusils in fesse or. Percy.
32. Same as 1, on the orphrey. Everard.
33. Same as 6, on the orphrey. Warwick.
34. Gules, three lucies hauriant in fess between six cross-crosslets or. Lucy.

35. Paly of ten or and azure, on a fess gules, three mullets of six points argent, voided with a cross azure. Chambowe (?).

36. Party per fess gules, fretted or, and ermine. Ribbesford (?).
37. Same as 9.
38. Or, on a cross gules, five escallop-shells argent. Bygod.

39. Barry, a chief paly and the corners gyronny, or and azure, an inescutcheon ermine. Roger de Mortimer.

40. Same as 6.

41. Party per fess, argent three eight-petaled flowers formed as it were out of a knot made cross-wise, with two flowers at the end of each limb, and azure with a string of lozenges like a fess argent, and three fleurs-de-lis (?) two and one or.

42. Gules, a fess checky argent and azure, between twelve cross crosslets or. Possibly one of the many coats taken by Le Botiler.

43. Azure, three lucies hauriant in fess between six cross-crosslets or. Lucy.
44. Ermine, on a chevron gules, three escallop-shells or. Golbore or Grove.
45. Gyronny of twelve or and azure. De Bassingburn.

Besides their heraldry, squares upon which are shown swans and peacocks wrought at each corner, afford, in those birds, objects of much curious interest for every lover of mediæval symbolism under its various phases.

In the symbolism of those times, the star and the crescent, the peacock and the swan, had, each of them, its own several figurative meanings. By the first of these emblems was to be understood, according to the words, in Numbers xxiv. 17, of Balaam’s prophecy,—“a star shall arise out of Jacob,”—our Saviour, who says of His divine self, Apocalypse xxii. 16, “I am the bright and morning star.” By inference, the star not only symbolized our Lord Himself, but His Gospel—Christianity—in contradistinction to Mahometanism, against which the crusades had been but lately carried on. The star of Bethlehem, too, was thus also brought before the mind with all its associated ideas of the Holy Land.

The crescent moon, on the shields with the Holy Lamb, represents the Church, for the reason that small at first, but getting her light from the true Sun of justice, our Lord, she every day grows larger, and at the end of time, when all shall believe in her, will at last be in her full brightness. This symbolism is set forth, at some length, by Petrus Capuanus as quoted by Dom (now Cardinal) Pitra in his valuable “Spicilegium Solesmense,” t. ii. 66. But for an English mediæval authority on the point, we may cite our own Alexander Neckam, born A.D. 1157 at St. Albans, and who had as a foster-brother King Richard of the Lion-Heart. In his curious work, “De Naturis Rerum,” not long since printed for the first time, and published by the authority of Her Majesty’s treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, Neckam thus writes:—“Per solem item Christus, verus sol justiciæ plerumque intelligitur; per lunam autem ecclesia, vel quæcunque fidelis anima. Sicut autem luna beneficium lucis a sole mendicat, ita et fidelis anima a Christo qui est lux vera.” P. 53.

Not always was the peacock taken to be the unmitigated emblem of pride and foolish vanity. Osmont the cleric, in his “Volucraire, or Book of Birds,” after noticing its scream instead of song, its serpent-like shape of head that it carries so haughtily, but lowers quite abashed as it catches a glimpse at its ugly feet, and its garish plumage with the many bright-eyed freckles on its fan-like tail which it loves to unfold for admiration, draws these comparisons. As the peacock affrights us by its cry, so does the preacher, when he thunders against sin startle us into a hatred of it; if the step of the bird be so full of majesty, with what steadiness ought a true Christian fearlessly tread his narrow path. A man may perhaps find a happiness, nay, show a pride in the conviction of having done a good deed, perhaps may sometimes therefore carry his head a trifle high, and, strutting like the peacock, parade his pious works to catch the world’s applause; as soon as he looks into Holy Writ and there learns the weakness, lowliness, of his own origin, he too droops his head in all humility. Those eye-speckled feathers in its plumage warn him that never too often can he have his eyes wide open, and gaze inwardly upon his own heart and know its secret workings. Thus spoke an Anglo-Norman writer.

About the swan an Englishman, our Alexander Neckam, says:—“Quid quod cygnus in ætate tenella fusco colore vestitus esse videtur, qui postmodum in intentissimum candorem mutatur? Sic nonnulli caligine peccatorum prius obfuscati, postea candoris innocentiæ veste spirituali decorantur.”—De Naturis Rerum, p. 101. Here our countryman hands us the key to the symbolic appearance of the swan upon this liturgical garment; for, as while a cygnet, its feathers are always of a dusky hue, but when the bird has grown up its plumage changes into the most intensely white, just so, some people who are at first darkened with the blackness of sin, in after days become adorned with the garb of white innocence.

Besides their ecclesiastical meanings these same symbols had belonging to them a secular significance. Found upon a piece of stuff quite apart from that of the cope itself, and worked for the adornment of that fine vestment after a lapse of many years, made up too of an ornamentation the whole of which is heraldic and thus bringing to mind worldly knights and their blazons and its age’s chivalry, it is easy to find out for it an adaptation to the chivalric notions and customs of those times. The Bethlehem star overtopping the Islam badge of the crescent moon showed forth the wishes of every one who had been or meant to be a crusader, or rather more, not merely of our men at arms but of every true believer throughout Christendom whose untiring prayers were that the Holy Land might be wrested from the iron hand of the Mahometan. At great national festivities and solemn gatherings of the aristocracy, not the young knight alone then newly girt, but the grey-haired warrior would often, in that noble presence, bind himself by vow to do some deed of daring, and swore it to heaven, and the swan, the pheasant, or the peacock as the bird of his choice, was brought with a flourish of trumpets, and amid a crowd of stately knights waiting on a bevy of fair young ladies, and set before him. This sounds odd at this time of day; not so did it in mediæval times, when those birds were looked upon with favour on account of the majestic gracefulness of their shape, or the sparkling beauty of their plumage. It must not be forgotten that this orphrey was blazoned by English hands in England, and while all the stirring doings of our first Edward were yet fresh in our people’s remembrance. That king had been and fought in the Holy Land against the Saracens. At his bidding, towards the end of life, a scene remarkable even in that period of royal festive magnificence, took place, when he himself, in the year 1306, girded his son, afterwards Edward II, with the military belt in the palace of Westminster, and then sent him to bestow the same knightly honour, in the church of that abbey, upon the three hundred young sons of the nobility, who had been gathered from all parts of the kingdom to be his companions in the splendours of the day. But that grand function was brought to an end by a most curious yet interesting act; to the joyous sounds of minstrelsy came forwards a procession, bearing along a pair of swans confined in a net, the meshes of which were made of cords fashioned like reeds and wrought of gold. These birds were set in solemn pomp before the king; and there and then Edward swore by the God in heaven and the swans that he would go forth and wage war against the Scots: Matthew Westminster, p. 454. No wonder, then, that along with the star and crescent we find the knightly swan and peacock mingled in the heraldry of the highest families in England, wrought upon a work from English hands, during the fourteenth century. A long hundred years after this elaborate orphrey was worked we find that Dan John Lydgate, monk of Bury St. Edmund’s, in his poem called “All stant in chaunge like a mydsomer Rose,” upon the fickleness of all earthly things, while singing of this life’s fading vanities, counts among them—

“Vowis of pecok, with all ther proude chere.”
    Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell for Percy Society, p. 25.

To the wild but poetic legend of the swan and his descendants, we have already alluded in our Introduction.

A word or two now upon the needlework, how it was done, and a certain at present unused mechanical appliance to it after it was wrought, so observable upon this vestment, lending its figures more effect, and giving it, as a teaching example of embroidery, much more value than any foreign piece in this numerous collection.

Looking well into this fine specimen of the English needle, we find that, for the human face, all over it, the first stitches were begun in the centre of the cheek, and worked in circular, not straight lines, into which, however, after the middle had been made, they fell, and were so carried on through the rest of the fleshes. After the whole figure had thus been wrought; then with a little thin iron rod ending in a small bulb or smooth knob slightly heated, were pressed down those spots upon the faces worked in circular lines, as well as that deep wide dimple in the throat especially of an aged person. By the hollows thus lastingly sunk, a play of light and shadow is brought out that, at a short distance, lends to the portion so treated a look of being done in low relief. Upon the slightly-clothed person of our Lord this same process is followed in a way that tells remarkably well; and the chest with the upper part of the pelvis in the figure of our Saviour overcoming Thomas’s unbelief, shows a noteworthy example of the mediæval knowledge of external anatomy.

We must not, however, hide from ourselves the fact that the edges, though so broad and blunt, given by such a use of the hot iron to parts of an embroidery, expose it somewhat to the danger of being worn out more in those than other portions which soon betray the damage by their thread-bare dingy look, as is the case in the example just cited.

The method for filling in the quatrefoils, as well as working much of the drapery on the figures, is remarkable for being done in a long zigzag diaper-pattern, and after the manner called in ancient inventories, “opus plumarium,” from the way the stitches overlie each other like the feathers on a bird.

The stitchery on the armorial bearings is the same as that now followed in so many trifling things worked in wool.

The canvas for every part of this cope is of the very finest sort; but oddly enough, its crimson canvas lining is thick and coarse. What constituted, then, the characteristics of the “opus Anglicum,” or English work, in mediæval embroidery were, first, the beginning of the stitchery in certain parts of the human figure—the face especially—in circular lines winding close together round and round; and, in the second place, the sinking of those same portions into permanent hollows by the use of a hot iron.

A word or two now about the history of this fine cope.

In olden days not a town, hardly a single parish, throughout England, but had in it one or more pious associations called “gilds,” some of which could show the noblest amongst the layfolks, men and women, and the most distinguished of the clergy in the kingdom, set down upon the roll of its brotherhood, which often grew up into great wealth. Each of these gilds had, usually in its parish church, a chapel, or at least an altar of its own, where, for its peculiar service, it kept one if not several priests and clerics, provided, too, with every needful liturgical appliance, articles of which were frequently the spontaneous offering of individual brothers, who sometimes clubbed together for the purpose of thus making their joint gift more splendid. Now it is most remarkable that upon this cope, and quite apart from the sacred story on it, we have two figures, that to the left, pranked out in the gay attire of some rich layman; on the right, the other, who must be an ecclesiastic from the tonsure on his head; each bears an inscribed scroll in his hand, and both are in the posture of suppliants making offerings. This cleric and this layman may have been akin to one another, brothers, too, of the same gild for which they at their joint cost got this cope worked and gave to it. But where was this gild itself?

Among the foremost of our provincial cities once was reckoned Coventry. Its Corpus Christi plays or mysteries, illustrated by this embroidery, enjoyed such a wide-spread fame that for the whole eight days of their performance, every year, they drew crowds of the highest and the gentlest of the land far and near, as the “Paston Letters” testify, to see them; its gild was of such repute that our nobility—lords and ladies—our kings and queens, did not think it anywise beneath their high estate to be enrolled among its brotherhood. Besides many other authorities, we have one in that splendid piece of English tapestry—figured with Henry VI, Cardinal Beaufort, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and other courtiers, on the left or men’s side, and on the women’s, Queen Margaret, the Duchess of Buckingham, and other ladies, most of them on their knees, and all hearing mass—still hanging on the wall of the dining hall of St. Mary’s gild, of which that king, with his queen and all his court became members; and at whose altar, as brethren, they heard their service, on some Sunday, or high festival, which they spent at Coventry. Taking this old city as a centre, with a radius of no great length, we may draw a circle on the map which will enclose Tamworth, tower and town, Chartly Castle, Warwick, Charlcote, Althorp, &c. where the once great houses of Ferrers, Beauchamp, Lucy, and Spencer held, and some of them yet hold, large estates; and from being the owners of broad lands in its neighbourhood, their lords would, in accordance with the religious feeling of those times, become brothers of the famous gild of Coventry; and on account of their high rank, find their arms emblazoned upon the vestments belonging to their fraternity. That such a pious queen as the gentle Eleanor, our First Edward’s first wife, who died A.D. 1290, should have, in her lifetime, become a sister, and by her bounties made herself to be gratefully remembered after death, is very likely, so that we may with ease account for her shield—Castile and Leon—as well as for the shields of the other great families we see upon the orphrey, being wrought there as a testimonial that, while, like many others, they were members, they also had been munificent benefactors to the association. A remembrance of brotherhood for those others equally noble, but less generous in their benefactions, may be read in those smaller shields upon the narrow hem going along the lower border of this vestment. The whole of it must have taken a long, long time in the doing; and the probability is that it was worked by the nuns of some convent which stood in or near Coventry.

Upon the banks of the Thames, at Isleworth, near London, in the year 1414, Henry V. built, and munificently endowed, a monastery to be called “Syon,” for nuns of St. Bridget’s order. Among the earliest friends of this new house was a Master Thomas Graunt, an official in one of the ecclesiastical courts of the kingdom. In the Syon nuns’ martyrologium—a valuable MS. lately bought by the British Museum—this churchman is gratefully recorded as the giver to their convent of several precious ornaments, of which this very cope seemingly is one. It was the custom for a gild, or religious body, to bestow some rich church vestment upon an ecclesiastical advocate who had befriended it by his pleadings before the tribunals, and thus to convey their thanks to him along with his fee. After such a fashion this cope could have easily found its way, through Dr. Graunt, from Warwickshire to Middlesex. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign it went along with the nuns as they wandered in an unbroken body through Flanders, France, and Portugal, where they halted. About sixty years ago it came back again from Lisbon to England, and has found a lasting home in the South Kensington Museum.

197

Web for Orphreys; ground, crimson silk; design, the Assumption, in yellow silk and gold thread. Florentine, 15th century. 2 feet 2½ inches by 1 foot 2¾ inches.

The same sort of stuff frequently occurs in this collection, and the present specimen, which consists of two breadths sewed together, is the same as the one fully described in No. 4059. In its present shape it may have served as a back hanging to a little praying-desk in a bed-room.

198

A Crimson Velvet Stole, with crosses and fringes of green silk. Spanish, 16th century. 6 feet 8 inches by 2½ inches, and 5½ inches.

The pieces of crimson velvet out of which this stole was made, not so many years ago, are of a deep warm tone of colour, and soft rich pile; both so peculiar to the looms of Spain. The velvet must have been in use for church purposes before this stole was made out of it.

1207

A Crimson Velvet Stole, with crosses of poor gold lace, and fringes of crimson silk. Spanish, 16th century. 7 feet 7 inches by 3 inches, and 8 inches.

Like the foregoing stole in quality of velvet.

254-55.

Two Crimson Velvet Maniples, with crosses and fringes of green. Spanish, 16th century. 1 foot 6½ inches by 3 inches, and 5 inches.

These were to match the like kind of stole.

524

A Crimson Velvet Maniple, with crosses of gold and fringes of crimson silk. Spanish, 16th century. 1 foot 5½ inches by 3¼ inches, and 6½ inches.

733

A Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, yellow silk; design, in velvet pile, pomegranates, and conventional floriations, enclosing an oval with a quatrefoil in the middle. Spanish, late 16th century. 1 foot 6 inches by 7 inches, and by 1 foot 2 inches.

This raised velvet must have been for household decoration, and may have been wrought at Almeria.

902

Cut-Work for furniture purposes; ground, yellow silk; design, vases of flowers formed in green velvet; the flowers in places embroidered in white and light blue floss-silk. French, 17th century. 9 feet 9 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

This specimen well shows the way in which such strips for pilasters were wrought. At first the green velvet seems the ground, which, however, is of amber yellow silk, but the velvet is so cut out and sewed on as to give the vases and their flowers the right form, and sometimes is made to come in as foliage. The flowers, mostly fleurs-de-lis and tulips, are well finished in white silk, shaded either by light blue in the first, or pink in the second instance, where, however, there are only five instead of six petals; and the whole is edged in its design with yellow silk cord.

910

An Altar Frontal, silk and thread; ground, yellow; design, vases and conventional artichokes, amid floriations, all in crimson silk, and trimmed at the lower side with cut-work, in a flower pattern, of various-coloured silks, edged with yellow cord. Italian, early 17th century. 6 feet by 2 feet 8½ inches.

The silk in this stuff is small in comparison with the thread, which, however, is so well covered as to be kept quite out of sight in the pattern. The fringe, six inches in depth, is left quite open.

911

A Bed-Quilt; ground, green silk; design, in the middle the goddess Flora, around her large flowers and branches, amid which are birds (doves?), and hares climbing up the boughs, all in floss-silk of very showy colours, with a deep border of flowers, worked upon dark net. Italian, 18th century. 8 feet 3 inches by 6 feet.

Such coverlets were, as they still are, used for throwing over beds in the day-time. The flowers, both on the silk and the netting, are so embroidered as to show the same, like East Indian needlework, on both sides. The love for lively colour, not to say garishness, was such as to lead the hand that wrought this piece to render the branches of some of the parts parti-coloured in white and crimson. Other specimens of embroidered net may be seen at Nos. 623, 624, 4462.