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.
[Illustration: 7795.
SILK DAMASK,
Italian---- 16th century.]
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.
[Illustration: 8264
SILK AND GOLD TISSUE,
Sicilian, 14th century.
Vincent Brooks Day & Son, Lith.
]
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.
[Illustration: 8265
LINEN AND SILK TEXTILE,
Spanish, 14th century.
Vincent Brooks Day & Son, Lith.]
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.