The value of such a collection of textile fabrics as that at South
Kensington can scarcely be overrated. Without such aid it is not
possible for the painter or the historian to bring before his own mind,
much less bring before another’s, a true representation of ancient
ceremonies and pageants. Whether his subject be a coronation or a royal
marriage, a queen’s “taking her chamber,” a progress, or a funeral,
he cannot correctly set forth the splendour or the details of the
occasion, unless he can refer to existing examples of the cloths of
gold, the figured velvets, the rich embroidery, or the splendid silks,
which used to be worn of old. Take for example nos. 1310 and 8624. Upon
these are figured stags with tall branching horns, couchant, chained,
upturning their antlered heads to sunbeams darting down upon them amid
a shower of rain; and beneath the stags are eagles. This Sicilian
textile, woven about the end of the fourteenth century, brings to
one’s mind the bronze recumbent figure of a king in Westminster abbey.
It is that of Richard the second; made for him before his downfall,
and by two coppersmiths of London, Nicholas Broker and Godfrey Prest.
This effigy, once finely gilt, is as remarkable for its beautiful
workmanship as for the elaborate manner in which the cloak and kirtle
worn by the king are diapered all over with a pattern, copied from
the silken stuff out of which those garments must have been cut for
his personal wear while living. The pattern consists of a sprig of
the planta genesta, the humble broom plant--the haughty Plantagenet’s
device--along with a couchant hart chained and gazing straight
forwards, and above it a cloud with rays darting up from behind. These
were Richard’s favourite cognizances: the one from his grandfather
Edward the third; the other from his mother Joan of Kent. It is very
probable that the king’s dress was of the same kind of silk Sicilian
textile as the examples just referred to: and that those very examples
are portions of pieces wrought, perhaps at Palermo, for the court of
Richard. They are of the same date and they show his devices; the
chained hart and the sunbeams issuing from a cloud.
The seemliness, not to say comfort, of private life was improved by
the use of textiles. Let the historian contrast the custom even in a
royal palace, during the middle ages, with that now followed in every
tradesman’s home. Then straw and rushes were strewed in houses upon the
floor in every room; and Wendover, in his life of St. Thomas, speaks of
the king’s courtiers platting knots with the litter, and flinging them
with a gibe at a man who had been slighted by the prince. Not quite
a hundred years later when Eleanor of Castile came to London for her
marriage with our first Edward she found her lodgings furnished, under
the directions of the Spanish courtiers who had arrived before her,
with hangings and curtains of silk around the walls, and carpets spread
upon the ground. This offended some of the people; more of them, as
Matthew Paris records, laughed at the thought that such costly things
were laid down to be walked upon.
Take, again, the famous Syon cope. Not only is it full of interest to
writers upon liturgies and rituals but of even more to the herald and
genealogist. Covered as its orphreys are with armorial bearings, this
cope carries with it evidences as important and as valuable as any
contemporary roll of arms; and no inquirer into the pedigrees of the
ancient families of the Percies or Ferrers, of Cliffords or Botelers,
and of many others, can afford to neglect it.
We have several records of evidence in courts of law taken from
heraldic embroideries upon robes and vestments. In the famous
controversy between the houses of Scrope and Grosvenor, in the
fourteenth century, inquiries were made and proofs were offered on both
sides as to the right of bearing upon their shields the bend _or_ upon
a field _azure_. Witnesses produced at Westminster corporas cases,
copes, and albs embroidered with the arms of Scrope. Chaucer was one of
the witnesses; and said he had seen those arms on banners and vestments
and commonly called the arms of Scrope. Again; the fact that in her
wardrobe was found a vestment embroidered with the royal arms was
brought forward to prove the charge of treason against the old countess
of Salisbury, the mother of cardinal Pole; and for which crime she was
condemned.
Collections of ancient textiles are of still greater use to students
of ecclesiastical history and church rituals than even to the secular
historian. It is probable that the greater number of the specimens
which now exist formed originally portions of sacred vestments and
furniture for altars. Formerly so common, fragments even of such cloths
and robes have become of very great rarity, especially in England;
where for the last two or three centuries the use of the numerous old
church vestments and decorations has entirely ceased.
Again, for example: the three cases nos. 5958, 8329, and 8327 are of
the kind known as the “capsella cum serico decenter ornata” of the
mediæval writers; small cases or boxes decently fitted up with silk;
or the “capsula corporalium,” the box in which were kept the corporals
or square pieces of fine linen, required for service during holy week.
The name as well as the use of this appliance is very old, and both are
spoken of in the very ancient ‘Ordines Romani’ edited by Mabillon. One
of these, in the rubric for Good Friday, speaks of the Host as having
been kept in the corporal’s case or box: “in capsula corporialium.” In
England, such small wooden boxes covered with silks and velvets richly
embroidered were once employed for the same purpose: and several are
mentioned in the Exeter inventories.
The two pyx-cloths, nos. 8342 and 8691, have an especial interest for
the student of mediæval liturgy. There was a custom during the middle
ages in England, as well as in France and several other countries on
the continent, of keeping the Eucharist hung up over the high altar
beneath a canopy, within a pyx of gold, silver, ivory, or enamel,
mantled with a fine linen cloth or veil. This veil for the pyx was
sometimes embroidered with golden thread and coloured silks. Such an
one is mentioned in the records of the Exchequer, edited by Palgrave:
among the valuables belonging to Richard the second in Haverford castle
and sent by the sheriff of Hereford to the exchequer, at the beginning
of the reign of Henry the fourth, were “i coupe d’or pour le Corps Ihu
Cryst. i towayll ove (avec) i longe parure de mesure la suyte.”
Several names were given to this fine linen covering. In the inventory
of things taken from Dr. Caius, and in the college of his own founding
at Cambridge, are “corporas clothes, with the pix and ‘sindon’ and
canopie.” This variety in nomenclature doubtless has led some writers
to state that before Mary queen of Scots laid her head upon the block
she had a “corporal,” strictly so called, bound over her eyes: as it is
given in one of our histories of England, “a handkerchief in which the
Eucharist had formerly been enclosed.” But this bandage must have been
the veil for a pyx. As Mary wrought much with her needle, and specimens
of her work yet remain at Chatsworth and at Greystock, this piece may
have been embroidered by her own hand and perhaps also had been once
used.
One of these old English pyx or Corpus Christi cloths, was found a few
years ago at the bottom of a chest in Hessett church, Suffolk. As it
is a remarkable specimen of the ingenious handicraft of our mediæval
countrywomen it deserves description. To make this pyx-cloth a piece of
thick linen, about two feet square, was chosen, and being marked off
into small equal widths on all its four edges, the threads at every
other space were, both in the warp and woof, pulled out. The checquers
or squares so produced were then drawn in by threads tied on the under
side, having the shape of stars, so well and delicately worked that,
till it had been narrowly looked into, the piece was thought to be
guipure lace. An old alb, no. 8710, and an amice, 8307, having the
apparels yet remaining upon both, are well worth attention on account
of somewhat similar curious ornamental needlework in an intricate
manner. In the middle ages in England it was not unusual to suspend
upon pastoral staffs, just below the crook, a piece of fine linen. We
see them represented on effigies and in illuminations; but existing
examples are of the utmost rarity. Two are at South Kensington: nos.
8279 A, and 8662.
There are also there several specimens of the christening cloaks,
anciently in use. These were not only conspicuous in royal christenings
but, varying in costliness according to the parent’s rank, were handed
down in inventories and wills. At the christening of Arthur prince of
Wales, eldest son of Henry the eighth, “my lady Cecill, the queen’s
eldest sister, bare the prince wrapped in a mantell of cremesyn clothe
of golde furred with ermyn,” etc. Shakespeare makes the shepherd, in
the Winter’s tale, cry out, “Here’s a sight for thee; look thee, a
bearing cloth for a squire’s child!” A well-to-do tradesman, whose will
is printed among the Bury wills, bequeathed in 1648 to his daughter
Rose his “beareing cloath, such ... linnen as is belonginge to infants
at their tyme of baptisme.”
Small square pieces of embroidered linen are sometimes found in country
houses in some old chest, of which the original use is said not to be
now known. But in most cases these were made for children’s quilts; and
very often have the emblems of the evangelists figured at the corners:
reminding us of the nursery rhyme, once common both in England and
abroad--
“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.”
The quilts also for grown people were ornamented in the same way. At
Durham, in 1446, in the dormitory of the priory was a quilt “cum iiij
or evangelistis in corneriis.”
Very few examples now exist of the ceremonial shoe anciently worn by
bishops. These were of velvet, or damask, or strong linen embroidered.
One is preserved at South Kensington, no. 1290: another, once worn by
Waynflete bishop of Winchester, is still at Magdalen college, Oxford.
We learn from the York wills that these shoes were a part of the
episcopal vestments: bishop Pudsey left his mitre, staff, and sandals,
“et cætera episcopalia” to Durham cathedral in 1195. Later the name of
“sabatines” was given them; and archbishop Bowet’s inventory mentions
two pairs: “pro j pare de sabbatones, brouddird et couch’ cum perell’;
pro j pare de sabbatones de albo panno auri.”
Collections of textile fabrics are of the highest value to the
artist. There is none, anywhere, so rich or complete as that at South
Kensington; and before it was purchased for public use, painters were
glad to refer to any scanty collection in private hands, or to old
pictures or illuminated manuscripts, or engravings.
But, now, artists may see pieces of the actual stuffs represented in
the pictures, say, of the national Gallery. For example: in Orcagna’s
coronation of the blessed Virgin the blue silk diapered in gold, with
flowers and birds, hung as a back ground; our Lord’s white tunic
diapered in gold with foliage; the mantle of His mother made of the
same stuff; St. Stephen’s dalmatic of green samit, diapered with
golden foliage, are Sicilian in design and copied from the rich silks
which came, in the middle of the fourteenth century, from the looms
of Palermo. While standing before Jacopo di Casentino’s St. John our
eye is drawn to the orphrey on that evangelist’s chasuble embroidered,
after the Tuscan style, with barbed quatrefoils, shutting in the
busts of apostles. Isotta da Ramini, in her portrait by Pietro della
Francesca, wears a gown made of velvet and gold like the cut velvets at
South Kensington.
So, again, instead of copying patterns taken from the rich cloth of
gold worn by St. Laurence in Francia’s picture, or from the mantle of
the doge in that by Cappaccio, or from the foot-cloths on the steps
in the pictures by Melozzo da Forli, he may find for his authorities
in the same collection existing specimens of contemporary and similar
fabrics.
Not merely artists of a higher class but decorators also may be equally
benefited by the patterns and examples preserved of old wall-hangings
and tapestry. From early times up to the middle of the sixteenth
century our cathedrals and parish churches, our castles and manorial
houses, in short the dwellings of the wealthy everywhere, used to be
ornamented with wall-painting done not in “fresco” but in “secco;”
that is, distemper. Upon high festivals the walls of the churches were
overspread with tapestry and needlework; so, too, those in the halls of
palaces, for some solemn ceremonial.
Warton, in his history of English poetry, gives a passage from
Bradshaw’s life of St. Werburgh written late in the sixteenth century,
from which a few lines are well worth quotation. He is describing how a
large hall was arrayed for a great feast:
All herbes and flowers, fragraunt, fayre and swete
Were strawed in halles, and layd under theyr fete.
Clothes of gold and arras were hanged in the hall
Depaynted with pyctures and hystoryes manyfolde,
Well wroughte and craftely.
The story of Adam, Noe, and his shyppe; the twelve sones of Jacob; the
ten plagues of Egypt, and--
Duke Josue was joyned after them in pycture,
* * * * *
Theyr noble actes and tryumphes marcyall
Freshly were browdred in these clothes royall
* * * * *
But over the hye desse in pryncypall place
Where the sayd thre kynges sat crowned all
The best hallynge hanged as reason was,
Whereon were wrought the ix orders angelicall,
Dyvyded in thre ierarchyses, not cessing to call,
_Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus_, blessed be the Trynite,
_Dominus Deus Sabaoth_, thre persons in one deyte.
Specimens of tapestry of the later mediæval period may not uncommonly
be found: but not so pieces of room hangings, “hallings,” such as those
at South Kensington, nos. 1370, 1297, and 1465. Similar examples are,
we believe, unknown.
We will add a few words only on one other, and that not a trivial,
part of ancient dress; namely, gloves. Formerly these were much more
ornamented than now; and, when meant for ladies’ wear, sometimes
perfume was bestowed upon them. Among the new year’s day presents
to queen Mary, before she came to the throne, was “a payr of gloves
embrawret with gold.” A year afterwards “x payr of Spanyneshe gloves
from a duches in Spayne” came to her; and but a month before,
Mrs. Whellers had sent to her highness “a pair of swete gloves.”
Shakespeare, true to the manners of his day, after making Autolycus
chant the praises of his
Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cyprus, black as e’er was crow;
Gloves, as sweet as damask roses;
puts this into the mouth of the shepherdess: “Come, you promised me a
tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves.” We may find a pair of such
gloves in the South Kensington collection, no. 4665.
It may be proper to add, in conclusion, that the greater part of the
very valuable and extensive collection of mediæval textile fabrics at
South Kensington was collected by Dr. Bock, a canon of Aix la Chapelle;
and purchased from him about the year 1864.
[Illustration: State gloves formerly belonging to Louis XIII.]
INDEX.
PAGE
Acca, silks, 70
Amasis, his linen corslet, 5
Anne of Cleves, her pall of cloth of gold, 41
Areste, cloth of, 74
„ not Arras, 75
Aristotle first mentions silk, 8
Arras, a name for tapestry, 97
Aurelian, refuses his wife a silk robe, 9
Babylon, embroideries, 79
Baldachino, from baudekin, 42
Banner of Strasburg, 92
„ at Lyons, 97
Bath, famous for weaving, 65
Baudekin, a costly stuff, 40
„ origin of name, 40
“Batuz,” its meaning, 90
Block-printed linens, 67
Blodbendes, 11
Blodius, blue colour, 76
Boadicea, her cloak, 3
Bordalisaunder, explained, 72
British bards, distinction of dress, 3
Bruges, her looms famous, 67
Buckram, why so called, 72
Byzantine textiles, 50
„ not good examples at South Kensington, 50
Cadas, or carduus, a silken stuff, 30
Camoca, or camak, how used, 30
Canvas, origin of name, 4
Care-cloth, explained, 72
Carpets, 101
Cecily, Saint, her robe, 16
Cendal explained, 27
Chasubles of stauracin, 37
„ not to be made of fustian, 73
Childeric, his burial garment, 16
Chinese textiles, 49
„ patterned silks, 71
Chrysoclavus explained, 35
Ciclatoun, 18
Cingula, explained, 12
Cloaks for christenings, 108
Cloth of gold, two kinds, 19
„ “stayned”, 101
Cloths of estate, 42
Copper used to imitate gold thread, 21
Cotton, native home, 3
“Colayn” ribbon, 69
Cologne orphrey webs, 69
Colours of silks, mediæval, 75
Corporal, said to be used by Mary of Scotland, 107
Crochet, or “nun’s lace”, 94
Cyclas, a splendid garment, 27
Dalmatic of Charlemagne at Rome, 38
„ Byzantine, 50
Darius, his dress described, 15
Damasks, French, 68
„ why so named, 71
“De fundato,” a pattern on silk, 38
Diaper, a silk, 32
„ possible origin of name, 32
„ the meaning extended, 33
Dorneck, explained, 72
Durham cathedral, vestments, 25, 28
Eastern princes, insignia on their robes, 45
Eagle and other birds, woven on standards, 47
Edward the first, his gift of “cyclases”, 27
Episcopal shoes, 109
Egyptian work of the loom, 5
„ silver and gold wire, 22
„ loom, 79
Embroidery, 79
„ covering ancient dresses, 80
„ raised on book covers, 86
„ involved great labour, 86
English textiles, 64
Exeter cathedral, vestments, 25, 28, 29, 31, 33, 46,
48, 58, 63, 65, 73
Eylesham, famous for linen, 64
“Filatorium,” its meaning, 93
Filfot, explained, 38
Flax, grows wild in Britain, 4
„ earliest history, 4
Flemish textiles, 66
Florence, her silks and velvets, 63
„ specimens at South Kensington, 63
„ cut-work, 88
French silks, 68
Frontal, at Westminster, 90
Fustian, known in 13th century, 31
„ originally from Egypt, 73
„ woven at Naples, 74
Fygury, silks so called, 34
Gammadion, explained, 36
Garland, an Englishman, 11
Gems, etc., sewn on textiles, 89
Genoa, her silks, 59
„ specimens at South Kensington, 60
Gilding, used for textiles, 21
Gloves, embroidered, 111
Gold, used in weaving, 15
„ cloths made of gold alone, 16, 17
„ see “copper”
Greek monks, first bring silkworms, 9
Haconbie church vestments, 67
Hebrew word used improperly for silk, 7
„ embroidery, 79
Heliogabalus, first wore whole-silk, 9
Hemp, native home, 3
Heraldic charges on Sicilian silk, 56
Herod, his dress of woven silver, 22
Holosericum, explained, 24
Honorius, his wife’s robe, 16
Hullings, _i.e._ hangings, 46, 66
Imperial, a rich silk, 39
„ meaning of the name, 40
Indian, ancient splendour of dress, 15
„ textiles, 50
Italy, northern, mediæval silks, 58
Irish cloth, in King John’s time, 66
King Henry the third orders cloth of Areste, 74
„ Edward the second orders English embroidery, 85
„ Richard the second, gifts to Haverford castle, 90
Lama d’oro of Italy, 15
Letters woven on textiles, an ancient practice, 47
Liber pontificalis, a valuable book, 35
Lincoln cathedral, vestments, 23
Looms, upright and horizontal, 64
Lucca, her silks, 58
„ cloths of gold, 58
„ specimens at South Kensington, 59
“Marble” silk, 76
Milan, her textiles, 63
Moresco-Spanish textiles, 53
Mortuary palls, 43
Mummy cloths, 5
„ unmixed linen, 6
Muslin, long used in the east, 74
Muslin, origin of name, 74
Neckham, first describes the silkworm, 13
“Network” on linen, 93
Nuns, anciently, exhorted not to weave coloured robes, 11
„ English, employed in weaving, 64
“Opus” plumarium, 81
„ pectineum, 81
„ Anglicum, 82
„ consutum, 88
„ „ good example at South Kensington, 89
Organzine, explained, 26
Palls, of rich stuffs, 41
„ cloth of, 42
Paul’s (St.) cathedral, vestments, 25, 39, 45, 50, 60, 65, 75
Paper, employed by Japanese for clothing, 1
“Passing” for embroidery, 93
Persian textiles, 49
“Phrygian” work, 79
Plaited woollen stuff among the Britons, 2
Polystauron, why so called, 36
Pyx cloths, at South Kensington, 107
„ curious example, 108
Queen Matilda takes the Abingdon vestments, 83
Quilts for children, 108
Rayns (Rennes) cloths, 68
Rhenish cut-work, 88
Samit, 10, 19
„ explained, 24
Sandal, explained, 27
„ of bishops, 109
Saracenic textiles, 46, 58, 99
Sarcenet, explained, 28
Satin, not unknown in middle ages, 29
„ early names, 29
Sicilian textiles, 54
„ three styles, 54
Silk, 8
„ unknown in ancient Egypt, 8
„ in South Italy, 11th century, 10
Silk, its use at first condemned for garments at Rome, 8
Silver, woven into webs, 21
Skins, employed for clothing, 1
Snood, of the Anglo-saxons, 12
Spangles, how anciently used, 92
Spindle tree, 2
Spinning, ancient daily work of women, 2
Stauracin, origin of name, 36
Stragulatæ, explained, 39
Street hangings, 43
Subsericum, explained, 25
Syndon, explained, 28
Syon Cope, peculiar work, 83
„ its historical value, 105
Syrian textiles, 52
Taffeta, explained, 28
Tapestry, 95
„ Egyptian and Jewish, 95
„ English at Coventry and in Cornwall, 96
„ two kinds of frame, 97
„ of the Spanish armada, 100
„ imitated, 101
Tars, cloth of, probably cashmere, 31
„ „ 76
Textile, meaning of the term, 1
„ the value of collections, 104, &c.
Tiraz, of an Arab palace, 45
Tissue, 20
Translucent silk, used in MSS., 8
Thread, gold, varieties of quality, 23
Tram, explained, 26
U, the letter, used in Italian silks, 56
Velvet, its history obscure, 31
„ vestments, first mentioned in England, 31
„ origin of the name, 31
„ varieties of weaving, 32
„ a peculiar ornament, 63
„ of Flanders, 67
Venetian textiles, 60
„ characteristics, 62
„ linens, 62
Warwick, earl, his banners of satin, 29
„ and dresses, 92
Westminster copes, preserved at Stonyhurst, 63
Wire, gold and silver, for weaving, 22
„ machine for drawing first used, 23
Worcester, famous for cloths, 65
Worms, (silkworms) first brought to Europe, 9
Worsted, in Norfolk, a new method of carding wool there, 65
York cathedral vestments, 67, 72
„ Princess Elizabeth of, her velvet gown, 72
Yprès, not origin of name of diaper, 33
„ linens, 68
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.
EDITED BY WILLIAM MASKELL.
1. TEXTILE FABRICS. By the Very Rev. DANIEL ROCK, D.D. With
numerous Woodcuts.
2. IVORIES, ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. By WILLIAM MASKELL. With
numerous Woodcuts.
3. ANCIENT AND MODERN FURNITURE AND WOODWORK. By JOHN HUNGERFORD
POLLEN. With numerous Woodcuts.
4. MAIOLICA. By C. DRURY E. FORTNUM, F.S.A. With numerous
Woodcuts.
5. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. By CARL ENGEL. With numerous Woodcuts.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
The index was not fully checked for proper alphabetization or correct
page references.
In the List of Woodcuts, the reference to the illustration on page 94
was added by the Transcriber.
Page 19: “ř” represents an “r” with a tilde “~”; “š” represents an “s”
with a tilde “~”.
Pages 19 and 96: Letters preceded by “^” are superscripts.
Pages 36, 37, 38: the illustrations on these pages are multi-part
symbols. In the original book, they were printed in-line with the
surrounding text, but in this eBook, they are shown on lines of their
own.
Page 110: “Isotta da Ramini, in her portrait by Pietro della Francesca”
was printed that way, as was “Cappaccio”.