Chapter 16

she leaves as part of the furnishings of her bed "of gold of swan," two pairs of sheets of Raine (Rennes), and a pair of fustian. Anne Boleyn's list of clothes contains "Bokerams, for lining and taynting," gowns, sleeves, cloaks, and beds. Rock, lxxxvi. Renouard, in his "Romaunce Dictionary," quotes the following: "Vestæ de Polpia e de Bisso qui est bacaram." For the antiquity of this fabric, see Herr Graf'schen's Catalogue of Textiles from the Fayoum.

[190] See Yates, p. 300, citing "Herod's silver apparel."

[191] "Indian Arts," ii. p. 237.

[192] Rock, p. xxv. Yates (p. 3) says they cut their gold for wearing apparel into thin plates, and did not draw it into wire, as it is translated in the Vulgate (Exodus xxxix.). The ephod made by Bezaleel was of fine linen, gold, violet, purple, and scarlet, twice dyed, with embroidered work. This tradition must have guided the artist who designed the ephod in the National Museum at Munich, in the seventeenth century, for a prince boy-bishop.

[193] Quintus Curtius says that many thousands, clothed in these costly materials, crowded out of Damascus to meet Alexander.

[194] There is a very ancient local tradition at Shŭsh, that A.D. 640, in the reign of the Kaliph Omar, the body of the prophet Daniel was found, wrapped in cloth of gold, in a stone coffin; and, by order of the victorious general, it was placed in one of glass, and moored to the bridge which spanned the branch of the Euphrates flowing between the two halves of the city, so that the waters flowed over it. See "Chaldea and Susiana," by Loftus, and Sir G. W. Gore Ouseley's translation of a Persian version of "The Book of Victories." Alexander is said to have been buried in a glass coffin. (See Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," ii. p. 102, note †.)

[195] Yates, pp. 367-70; Rock, p. xxvi.

[196] "Aura intexere eadem Asiâ invenit Attalus Rex unde nomen Attalicis."--Pliny, viii. c. 48, and Yates, p. 371. The reign of Attalus II. was B.C. 159-188.

[197] "And they did beat the gold into plates, and cut it into wires, and work it into the blue, and the purple, and the fine linen."--Exod. xxxix.

[198] See Yates, p. 371; and Bock, xxxiii.

[199] Pliny, xxxiii. In the Museum at Leyden there is a shred of gold cloth found in a tomb at Tarquinia, in Etruria. This is a compactly woven covering over bright yellow silk.

[200] Gold wire is still worked through leather at Guzerat. See Birdwood, p. 284, Ed. 1880. Marco Polo mentions this embroidery 600 years ago. Bk. iii. chap. xxvi. (Yule). The hunting cuirass of Assurbanipal (pl. 1) appears to be so worked, and of such materials. Also see Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," vol. iii. p. 130. This gold for weaving was beaten into shape with hammers.

[201] Pope Eutichinus, in the third century, buried many martyrs in golden robes.

[202] "Liber Pontificalis," t. ii. p. 332.

[203] See Rock, pp. xxvii, xxxv; and Parker's "Use of the Levitical Colours," p. 49.

[204] See Yates, p. 376.

[205] Rock, p. xxxv. The toga picta, or trabea, part of the official dress of her sons.

[206] Hoveden's "Annal." p. 481, Ed. Savile; Rock, p. xxx.

[207] See "Archæologia," 1880, pp. 317, 322; also Pl. 74, No. 20 (_post_).

[208] Bock, "L. Gewänder," taf. ix. vol. i.

[209] Rock, p. xxxvii.

[210] Ciclatoun, according to Rock, p. xxxix, is a common Persian name for such tissues in the East. This, in common with nasick, nak, and many other beautiful tissues, was wrought in gold with figures of birds and beasts.--Yule's "Marco Polo," ed. 1875, i. p. 65.

Dr. Rock quotes the old ballad,--

"In a robe right royall bowne, Of a red ciclatoune, Be her fader's syde; A coronall on her hede sett, Her clothes with byrdes of gold were bette All about for pryde."

[211] In St. Paul's in London there was formerly an amice adorned with the figures of two bishops and a king, hammered out of silver, and gilt. Dugdale, ed. 1818, p. 318. See also Rock, pp. xxix-xxxii.

[212] Museum at Berne.

[213] A piece of Venetian work to be seen at the South Kensington Museum is an altar frontal, worked in coral, gold beads, seed pearls, and spangles. All jewellers' work, including enamel, was much admired and introduced into their embroideries. (See Rock's Introduction to Catalogue of the Kensington Museum, pp. civ-cviii, ed. 1870.)

[214] On this gorgeous piece of Italian art there are added a number of buttons (for we can give them no other name), with crosses and hearts under crystal, which seem to have belonged to another period and workmanship, or else are to be attributed to a superstitious feeling on the part of the maker, who placed these Christian signs, perhaps, surreptitiously, and for the good of his own soul.

[215] The Museum of National Art at Munich has a fine collection of gold and silver, spangled, and black bead head-dresses, now mostly antiquated, though in peasant dress it yet survives.

[216] It is embroidered in gold, with red silk and gems; and I have elsewhere said that it probably issued from the Hotel de Tiraz at Messina.

[217] Terry, in his "Voyage to the East Indies," speaks of the rich carpets (p. 128): "The ground of some of these is silver or gold, about which such arabesques in flowers and figures as I have before named are most excellently disposed."

[218] These of late years have been the most gorgeous objects at exhibitions of old needlework, and the ambition and despair of collectors.

[219] Gold thread was also made of gilt paper, equally by the Moors and the Japanese.

[220] In Aikin's "Life of James I.," p. 205, we have a curious account of the monopoly of gold thread, that had been granted, with others, to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The thread was so scandalously debased with copper as to corrode the hands of the artificers, and even the flesh of those who wore it. This adulterated article they sold at an exorbitant price, and if they detected any one making a cheaper or better article, they were empowered to fine or imprison them, while a clause in their patent protected themselves. The manufacturers of this base metal thread were two Frenchmen, Mompesson and Michel, and Edward Villiers, the Marquis' brother, was one of the firm. Doubtless they drove for a time a roaring trade, as gold embroideries were then universally worn, both by men and women; but the House of Commons interfered, and the monopoly was abolished.

[221] Mitre of white satin, with two figure subjects in flat gold--the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and that of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

[222] The School of Gold Embroidery at Munich produces work of a richness and precision which has, perhaps, never been excelled. The raised parts of the design are first cast in soft hollow "carton," and the gold is worked on it and into the recesses with the help of a fine stiletto, which pioneers the needle for each stitch. This is embroidery "on the stamp," but without padding.

[223] Bock, "L. Gewänder," vol. i. p. 48. Prizes are offered at Lyons for the best mode of manufacturing gold and silver thread that will not tarnish.

[224] Yates says, pp. 160-162: "Whether silk was mentioned in the Old Testament cannot, perhaps, be determined. After fully considering the subject, Braunius decides against silk being known to the Hebrews in ancient times ('De Vestitu Heb. Sacerdotum,' i. c. viii.)." The contrary opinion is founded on the passage, "I clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with badger-skins. I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk" (_meshi_).--Ezekiel xvi. But the translation is disputed.

[225] "Code of Manu," xi. 168; xii. 64. Yates, "Textrinum Antiquorum," p. 204.

[226] Auberville, "Ornement des Tissus," p. ii.

[227] Yates (pp. 173, 174) believes that "Cos" should always be read for Cios, about which there seems to be some confusion. Chios has also been substituted for the name of "Cos," the island.

There is no doubt that the Roman ladies obtained their most splendid garments from Cos--perhaps of wool as well as of silk.

[228] Birdwood, "Textile Arts of India," ii. p. 269.

[229] Yates, "Textrinum Antiquorum," p. 204.

[230] Yates, "Textrinum Antiquorum," note (*), p. 184. Aristotle (fourth century B.C.), however, had already given evidence respecting the use of silk, which was adopted and repeated by Pliny, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Basil. Aristotle tells the story of Pamphile. One thousand years later Procopius (sixth century A.D.) says the raw material was then brought from the East, and woven in the Phœnician cities of Tyre and Berytus. See Yates, pp. 163, 164.

[231] Ibid., note (*), p. 184.

[232] Yates, "Textrinum Antiquorum," p. 181.

[233] I have mentioned this already, to prove the antiquity of the art of embroidery. Here I repeat it in reference to the first mention of silk. (See p. 38 _ante_.)

[234] "Bibliothèque Orientale de M. Herbelot," ed. 1778, vol. iii. p. 19.

[235] Auberville, p. 2; Yates (pp. 172, 173) calls her Si-ling, wife of Hoang-ti, and quotes the "Resumé des Principaux Tractes Chinois," traduits par Stanislas Julien, 1837, pp. 67, 68.

[236] Auberville, "Histoire des Tissus," pp. 2-4; "Du Halde," vol. ii. pp. 355, 356 (8vo edition, London, 1736).

[237] Related by Klaproth, the Russian Orientalist.

[238] Yates, p. 238. "History of Khotan," translated by M. Abel Rémusat, pp. 55, 56.

[239] Khotan or Little Bucharia would, in common parlance, be included in Serica; and therefore silk exported thence to Europe would have been perfectly described as coming from the Seres. Yates, p. 231, 232.

[240] Yates, p. 231.

[241] While in Europe the arts of daily use and decoration were struggling for life after many interruptions and revolutions, the civilization of Japan, which is nearly contemporary with Christianity, spent itself in perfecting to the most exquisite finish the arts which had been imported from China and Corea. Japan also inherited the power and the tradition of concealment, and so Europe remained unconscious, until the last century, of the miraculous arts which a semi-barbarous people were cultivating--_not_ for commercial purposes. Auberville, "Tissus," pp. 2-4.

[242] Yates, pp. 175-184.

[243] Yates, p. 176. The silken flags attached to the gilt standards of the Parthians inflamed the cupidity of the army of Crassus. The conflict between them took place 54 B.C. About thirty years after this date, Roman luxury had reached its zenith--

"The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering arm O'er land and sea, where'er heaven's light extends."

"Petronius Arbiter," c. cxix.

After these words he says that among the richest productions of distant climes, the Seres sent their "new fleeces."

[244] Yates, p. 183.

[245] "Holosericum," whole silk; "subsericum," partly cotton, hemp, or flax. The longitudinal threads or warp, cotton; the cross threads, silk. Rock, "Textile Fabrics," p. xxxvii (ed. 1870).

[246] Yates, p. 195.

[247] Yates, p. 198. For the value of the denarius, see Waddington, "Edit. de Diocletien," p. 3.

[248] Gruter, tom. iii. p. 645; Yates, p. 205.

[249] Yates, p. 246. The words "silk" and "satin" are spoken of by Yates as having two derivations--the one imported to us through Greece and Italy, the other from Eastern Asia, through Slavonia, by the north of Europe.

[250] Yates, p. 231; who remarks, p. 203, that the laws of Justinian are not directed against the use of silk as a luxury, but rather as appropriating it as an imperial monopoly and source of revenue.

[251] Tom. ii. p. 106 (ed. 1630). See Yates, p. 213.

[252] Yates, p. 214.

[253] Auberville, Plate 4. Amongst these are what he calls "Consular silks." These are, or may be, included in the palmated class, as they are evidently woven for triumphal occasions. One of the most remarkable has every mark of Oriental design. It represents a picture in a circle, repeated over and over again, of a warrior in his quadriga. Black or coloured slaves drive the horses, either running beside them or standing upon them; and other slaves carry beasts on their shoulders, and are stooping to give them drink at a trough. The space between the circles is filled in with the tree of life, growing out of its two horns. The colours are purple and gold. He places this between the first and seventh centuries (see pl. 34).

[254] There are, however, a few that have not had the security of the tomb, and yet have survived, such as the chasuble and maniple at Bayeux, of the seventh century, and Charlemagne's dalmatic.

[255] Roger de Wendover, "Chronica," t. iv. p. 127, ed. Coxe. Quoted by Rock from Ralph, Dean of St. Paul's. See Rock, Introduction, p. lv.

[256] Roger de Wendover, "Chronica," t. iv., ed. Coxe; also Yates, "Textrinum Antiquorum," pp. 243, 244.

[257] In the twelfth century. Semper, i. p. 38.

[258] See illustration from the portrait of Sultan Mahomet II., by Gentil Bellini. _Ante_, p. 146, Plate 33.

[259] See Semper, p. 157.

[260] The Sicilian type of design in silk-weaving was carried into Germany about the end of the second period. We are informed by Auberville that there existed at that time a manufacture of ecclesiastical stuffs at Leipzig, from which he gives us fine examples.

[261] See Bock's "Liturgische Gewänder," vol. ii. Taf.