Chapter 4

Raw materials--Revelations of the microscope--Hemp--Jute-- Honduras grass--Spartum--Pinna silk--Hair--Leather-- Feathers--Asbestos--Coral--Pearls--Beads--Wool--Classical notices of wool--Careful improvement of wool by the ancients--Tanaquil--Homeric woollen carpets--Crimson textile fragments--Scandinavian woollen garments--Qualities of wool--English wool--Goats' hair--Flax--Lake cities-- Byssus--Fine linen of Egypt--The Atrebates--Embroidery on linen--Cotton--Indian origin--Carbasa--Buckram--Cotton fabrics--Gold--Silver--Gold brocades--Jewish--Indian-- Chinese--Dress of Darius--Attalus--Attalic textiles-- Agrippina's golden garments--St. Cecilia's mantle--Roman tombs--Gold wire--Anglo-Saxon tomb--Childeric's tomb--Proba's gold thread--Golden wrappings from tombs of Henry I. and Henry III.--Gold embroideries and jewellers' work of Middle Ages--Spangles--Enamels--Purl--Modern schools of gold embroidery--Silk--Pamphile of Cos--Early specimens of silk stuffs--Chinese silks--The Seres--Mela--Seneca--M. Terrien de la Couperie--Empress Si-ling-chi--Princess of Khotan--Euripides--Lucan--Pliny--Silk in Rome--Ælius Lampridius--Flavius Vopiscus--Tailor's bill--Justinian's codex--Imperial monopoly--Paul the Silentiary--Bede--King John's apparition--Greek and Sicilian manufactories of silk--Distinctive marks of different periods--Lyons--Spain-- Italy--Flemish towns--Marco Polo--Satin--Welsh poem, "Lady of the Fountain"--Chaucer--Velvet--Transference of work to new materials 118