act iv. scene ii.) Queen Katherine say to Griffith “Farewell--when I am

dead--strew me over with maiden flowers, that all the world may know I was a chaste wife to my grave,” he tells of an olden custom still kept up among us, and more fully carried out in Wales and the Western parts of England, where the grave of a dear departed one is weekly dressed by loving hands with the prettiest flowers that may be had. The symbolism of colours is learnedly treated by Portal in his “Couleurs Symboliques.”

The readers of those valuable inventories of the chasubles, copes, and other liturgical silk garments which belonged to Exeter cathedral and that of London, about the middle of the thirteenth century, will not fail to observe that some of them bore, amongst other animals, the horse, and fish of different sorts, nay, porpoises figured on them: “una capa de palla cum porphesiis et leonibus deauratis,”[444] “due cape de palla cum equis et avibus,”[445] “unum pulvinar breudatum avibus, piscibus et bestiis,”[446] “capa de quodam panno Tarsico, viridis coloris cum pluribus piscibus et rosis aurifilo contextis.”[447] Even here, under No. 8229, p. 151, we have from the East a small shred of crimson silk, which shows on it a flat-shaped fish. If to some minds it be a subject of wonderment that, amid flowers and fruits, not only birds and beasts--elephants included--but such odd things as fish, even the porpoise, are to be found represented upon textiles chosen for the service of the altar, they should learn that all such stuffs were gladly put to this very use for the symbolism they carried, by accident, about them. Then, as now, the clergy had to say, and the people to listen daily to that canticle: “O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; O ye angels of the Lord, O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, O ye fowls of the air, O all ye beasts and cattle, bless ye the Lord and magnify Him for ever!” Not merely churchmen, but the lay folks, deemed it but fitting that while the prayer above was being offered up, an emphasis should be given to its words by the very garment worn by the celebrant as he uttered them.

[443] Test. Vet. i. 228.

[444] Oliver’s Exeter, p. 299.

[445] Ibid.

[446] St. Paul’s, p. 316.

[447] Ibid. p. 318.

SECTION VIII.--LITERATURE AND LANGUAGES.

For those who bestow their attention upon Literature and Languages, this collection must have, at times, an especial value, whichever way their choice may lead them, whether towards subjects of biblical, classic or mediæval study: proofs of this, we think, may be gathered, up and down the whole of this “Introduction.” With regard to our own country, we deem it quite impossible for any one among us to properly know the doings, in private and in public, throughout this land in by-gone days, or to take in all the beauty of many a passage in our prose writers, much less understand several particulars in the poetry of the middle ages, without an acquaintance, such as may be made here, with the textiles and needlework of that period.

To the student of languages, it may seem, at first sight, that he will have nothing to learn by coming hither. When he looks at those two very curious and interesting pieces, Nos. 1297, p. 296; 1465, p. 298, and has read the scrolls traced upon them, he may perhaps, if he be in search of the older forms of German speech, have to change his mind: of the words, so often to be met with here, in real or pretended Arabic, we say nothing. To almost every one among our English students of languages there is one inscription done in needlework quite unreadable. At No. 8278, p. 170, going round the four sides of this liturgical appliance, are sentences in Greek, borrowed from the ritual, but hidden to the Greek scholar’s eye, under the so-called Cyrillian character.

Toward the second half of the ninth century, a monk, known in his cloister under the name of Constantine, but afterwards, when a bishop, as Cyrillus, became earnestly wishful of bringing all the many tribes of the Sclavonic race to a knowledge of Christianity; and warming in the heart of his brother Methodius a like hope, they both bethought themselves, the sooner to succeed, of inventing an alphabet which should be better adapted for that purpose than either the Greek or the Latin one; and because its invention is owing, for the greater part, to St. Cyril, it immediately took, and still keeps, its name from him, and is now denominated Cyrillian. Of this invention we are told by Pope John VIII. to whom the two brothers had gone together, to ask authority and crave his blessing for their undertaking: “Letteras Sclavonicas, a Constantino quodam philosopho repertas, quibus Deo laudes debitæ resonant. Ep. ad Svaplukum, apud Dobrowsky, Institutiones Linguæ Slavicæ.” This great and successful missionary took not any Gothic, but a Greek model for his letters, as is shown by Dobrowsky. The Sclaves who follow the Greek rite, use the Cyrillian letters in their liturgical books, while those of the same people who use the Latin rite employ, in their service, the Glagolitic alphabet, which was drawn up in the thirteenth century. The probability is that this latter--a modification of the Cyrillian, is no older than that period, and is not from the hand, as supposed by some, of St. Jerom.

A short time ago, the Sclaves celebrated with great splendour the thousandth anniversary of St. Cyril, to whom they owe their Christianity and their alphabet; and among the beautiful wall paintings lately brought to light in the lower church of St. Clement at Rome, by the zealous labours of Father Malooly, an Irish Dominican, the translation of St. Cyril’s body from the Vatican, to that church, is figured.

SECTION IX.--HERALDRY,

And how the appearance of it, real or imagined, under any shape, and upon vestments, was made available, after different ways, in our law-courts, ask for and shall have a passing notice.

At the end of the fourteenth century, there arose, between the noble houses of Scrope and Grosvenor, a difference about the legal right of bearing on their respective shields the bend _or_ on a field _azure_; and the suit was carried to the Court of Honour which sat at Westminster, and commissioners were sent about the country for the purpose of gathering evidence.

Besides a numerous body of the nobility, several distinguished churchmen were examined; and their depositions are curious. John, Abbot of St. Agatha, in Richmondshire, said the arms (_Azure_, a bend _or_, the bearing of the Scrope family who contended against its assumption by the Grosvenors) were on a corporas case belonging to the church of his monastery, of which the Scropes were deemed the second founders.[448] John de Cloworthe, sub-prior of Wartre, exhibited before the commissioners an amice embroidered on red velvet with leopards and griffons _or_, between which are sewn in silk, in three pieces, three escochens with the entire arms of Sir Richard Scrope therein, viz.--_azure_ a bend _or_.[449] William, Prior of Lanercost, said they had in their church the same arms embroidered on the morse of a cope.[450] Sir Simon, parson of Wenslay (whose fine grave brass may be seen in the “Church of Our Fathers,”[451]) placed before the commissioners an albe with flaps, upon which were embroidered the arms of the Scropes entire, &c.[452] The Scropes were the patrons of that living. Thomas de Cotyngham, prior of the Abbey of St. Mary, York, said that they had vestments with the Scrope arms upon them.[453] Sir John de Manfeld, parson of the Church of St. Mary sur Rychille, in York, said that in the church were diverse vestments on which were sewn, in silk, the entire arms of Scrope.[454] Sir Bertram Mountboucher said that these arms of the Scropes were to be seen on vestments, &c., in the abbey and churches where Sir R. Scrope was born.[455] Not the least remarkable individual who bore evidence on the subject was the poet Chaucer, who was produced on behalf of Sir Richard Scrope. When asked whether the arms _azure_, a bend _or_, belonged, or ought to belong to the said Sir Richard? said yes, for he saw him so armed in France, &c., and that all his time he had seen the said arms in banners, glass, paintings and vestments, and commonly called the Arms of Scrope.[456] For the better understanding of all these evidences the reader should look at No. 8307, p. 185, an amice with its old apparel still on it. The “flaps” of an alb are now called apparels; and an old one, with these ornaments upon it, both at the cuffs as well as before and behind, is in this collection, No. 8710, p. 268 of the Catalogue. The two fine old English apparels here, No. 8128, p. 146, show how shields with heraldry could be put along with Scriptural subjects in these embroideries. The monumental effigy of a priest --a Percy by birth--in Beverley Minster, exhibits how these apparels, on an amice, were sometimes wrought with armorial bearings. Of “corporas cases,” there are several here, and pointed out at pp. 112, 144, 145, and 194 of the Catalogue.

[448] Scrope and Grosvenor Rolls, ed. Sir H. Nicolas, t. ii. p. 275.

[449] Ibid. p. 278.

[450] Ibid. p. 279.

[451] T. i. p. 325.

[452] Scrope and Grosvenor Rolls, ed. Sir H. Nicolas, t. ii. p 330.

[453] Ibid. p. 344.

[454] Ibid. p. 346.

[455] Ibid. p. 384.

[456] Ibid. p. 411.

Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenets, and mother of Lord Montague and Cardinal Pole, was, like her son the peer, beheaded, and at the age of seventy, by their kinsman Henry VIII. This fact is recorded by Collier;[457] but Miss A. Strickland mentions it more at length in these words:--Cromwell produced in the House of Lords, May 10th, by way of evidence against the aged Countess of Salisbury, a vestment (a chasuble no doubt) of white silk that had been found in her wardrobe, embroidered in front with the arms of England, surrounded with a wreath of pansies and marigolds, and on the back the representation of the host with the five wounds of our Lord, and the name of Jesus written in the midst. The peers permitted the unprincipled minister to persuade them that this was a treasonable ensign, and as the Countess had corresponded with her absent son (Cardinal Pole) she was for no other crime attainted of high treason, and condemned to death without the privilege of being heard in her own defence.[458] The arms of England, amid the quarterings of some great families, are even now to be found upon vestments; a beautiful one was exhibited here, A.D. 1862, and described in the Loan Catalogue, p. 266; another fine one is at present at Abergavenny. With regard to the representation of the “Host with the five wounds of our Lord,” &c. this is of very common occurrence in ecclesiastical embroidery; and in this very collection, on the back orphrey to the splendid chasuble, No. 8704, p. 264 of this Catalogue, we find embroidered the crucifixion, and a shield _gules_, with a chalice _or_ and a host _argent_ at top, done in Flanders full half a century before the “Pilgrimage of Grace” in our northern counties had adopted such a common device upon their banner when the people there arose up against Henry VIII.

[457] Eccles. Hist. t. v. p. 51, ed. Lathbury.

[458] Queens of England, iii. p. 68.

To a Surrey, for winning the day at Flodden Field, King Henry VIII. gave the tressured lion of the royal arms of Scotland to be borne upon the Howard bend as arms of augmentation. In after years, the same Henry VIII. cut off a Surrey’s head because he bore, as his House had borne from the time of one of their forefathers, Thomas de Brotherton, Edward I.’s son, the arms of the Confessor, the use of which had been confirmed to it by Richard II. If, like Scrope, Surrey had bethought himself of vestments, even of the few we have with the royal arms upon them, and assumed by other English noblemen, perhaps those liturgic embroideries might have stood him in some good stead to save his life. Had the poor aged Countess of Salisbury been heard, she might have shamed her kinsman the king not to take her life for using upon her church furniture emblems, then as now, employed upon such appliances throughout all Christendom.

For the genealogist, the lawyer, the herald, the historian, such of these old liturgical garments as, like the Syon cope, bear armorial shields embroidered upon them, will have a peculiar value, and a more than ordinary interest. Those emblazonries not only recall the names of men bound up for ever with this land’s history, but may again serve, as they once before have served, to furnish the lost link in a broken pedigree, or unravel an entangled point before a law tribunal.

SECTION X.--BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY.

By all those for whom, among other allurements drawing them on in their studies of Botany and Zoology, one is the gratification they feel in learning how many of the subjects belonging to these two sections of the natural sciences were known, and how they used to be depicted during the middle ages, this large collection of textiles figured so often with birds, beasts and flowers, will be heartily welcomed.

Our Zoological Society prides itself, and in justice, with treating the Londoners with the first sight of a live giraffe; but here its members themselves may behold, Nos. 8591-91A, p. 224; 8599, p. 228, the earliest known portrait of that curious quadruped sketched upon Sicilian silks of the fourteenth century.

We once listened to a discussion between English sportsmen about the travels of the pheasant from its native home by the banks of the river Phasis at Colchis, and the time when it reached this island. Both parties agreed in believing its coming hither to have been somewhat late. Be that as it may, our country gentlemen will see their favourite bird figured here, No. 1325, p. 60.

About the far-famed hunting cheetahs of India, we have heard, and still hear much; and on pieces of silk from eastern looms, in this collection, they are often to be seen figured.

With regard to the way in which all kinds of fowl, as well as animals are represented on these stuffs, there is one thing which we think will strike most observers who compare the drawing of them here with that of the same objects among the illuminations in old MSS. The birds and beasts on the textiles are always very much better rendered than in the wood-cuts to be found in our old black-letter books, from Caxton’s days upwards, especially in such works as that of Æsop and the rest. Figures of animals and of birds in manuscripts are hardly better, as we may see in the prints of our own Sir John Maundevile’s Travels, and the French “Bestiaire d’Amour,” par R. de Fournival, lately edited by C. Hippeau. Scarcely better does their design fare in illuminated MSS. Belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, and now in the library at Alnwick castle is the finest Salisbury missal we have ever beheld. This tall thick folio volume was, some time during the end of the fourteenth century, begun to be written and illuminated by a Benedictine monk--one John Whas--who carried on this gorgeous book as far as page 661. From the two Leonine verses which we read there, it would seem that this labour of love carried on for years at early morn in the scriptorium belonging to Sherbourne Abbey, Dorsetshire, had broken, as well it might, the health of the monk artist, of whom it is said:--

“Librum scribendo Ion Whas monachus laborabat; Et mane surgendo multum corpus macerabat.”

Among his other tastes, this Benedictine had that for Natural History, and in the beautifully illuminated Kalendar at the beginning of this full missal, almost every month is pointed out by the presence of some bird, or fish, or flower, peculiar to that season, with its name beneath it,--for instance, “Ys is a throstle,” &c. However much the thrush’s song may have cheered him at his work at Spring-tide peep of day, Whas did not draw his bird with half the individuality and truthfulness which we find in birds of all sorts that are figured upon Sicilian stuffs woven at the very period when the English Benedictine was at work within the cloisters of his house in Dorsetshire--a fact which may lead the ornithologist to look with more complacency upon those textiles here patterned with Italian birds.

For Botany, it has not gone so well; yet, notwithstanding this drawback, there are to be seen figured upon these textiles plants and trees which, though strangers to this land and to Europe, and their forms no doubt, oddly and clumsily represented, yet, as they keep about them the same character, we may safely believe to have a true type in nature, which at last by their help we shall be able to find out. Such is the famous “homa,” or “hom,”--the sacred tree--among the ancient followers of Zoroaster, as well as the later Persians. It is to be seen figured on many silks in this collection of real or imitated Persian textiles, woven at various periods during the middle ages.

From the earliest antiquity a tradition came down throughout middle Asia, of some holy tree--perhaps the tree of life spoken of as growing in Paradise.--Gen. ii. 9. Some such a tree is very often to be seen sculptured on Assyrian monuments; and, by the place which it holds there, must have been held in peculiar, nay religious veneration. Upon those important remains from Nineveh, now in the British Museum, and figured in Mr. Layard’s fine work, it appears as the object of homage for the two men symbolized as sacerdotal or as kingly personages, between whom it invariably stands. It is to be found equally figured upon the small bucket meant for religious rites,[459] as embroidered upon the upper sleeve of the monarch’s tunic.[460] From Fergusson’s “Palaces of Nineveh, and Persepolis restored,” we learn that it was frequently to be found sculptured as an architectural ornament. When seen done in needlework upon dresses, the two animals--sometimes winged bulls, sometimes gazelles--which its umbel of seven flowers is separating, are shown with bended knees, as if in worship of it. Always this plant is represented as a shrub, sometimes bearing a series of umbels with seven flowers sprouting, each at the end of a tangled bough; sometimes as a stunted tree with branches growing all the way up right out of a thick trunk with ovated leaves; but the height never looks beyond that of a good sized man. Never for one moment can it be taken as any conventionalism for a tree, since it is as distinct an imitation of a particular plant, as is the figure of the palm which occurs along with it. To us, it has every look of belonging to the family of Asclepiadeæ, or one of its near kindred.

The few Parsees still to be found in East India, are the only followers of Persia’s olden religious practices; and in his “Essays on the sacred writings, language, and religion of the Parsees,” Haug tells us,[461] that those people yet hold a certain plant--the Homa, or hom?--to be sacred, and from it squeeze a juice to be used by them in their religious services. To our seeming, those buckets in the left hand of many an Assyrian figure were for holding this same liquor.

Can the “hom” of the old Persians be the same as the famous Sidral Almuntaha which bears as many leaves inscribed with names as there are men living on the earth? At each birth a fresh leaf bearing the name of the newly born bursts out, and, when any one has reached the end of his life, the leaf withers and falls off.[462]

Though unable to identify among the plants of Asia, which was the “hom” or tree of life, held so sacred by the Assyrians and later Persians, we know enough about that king of fruits--the “pine-apple”--as to correct a great mistake into which those have fallen who hitherto have had to write about the patterns figured on ancient or mediæval textiles. In their descriptions, we are perpetually told of the pine-apple appearing there; and at a period when the Ananas, so far from having been even once beheld in the old world, had never been dreamed of. Among the Peruvians our pine-apple, the “Nanas,” was first found and seen by Europeans. Hardly more than two hundred years ago was a single fruit of it brought to any place in the old world. A little over a century has it been cultivated here in England; and, as far as our memory goes, a pine-apple, fifty years ago, had never been planted in any part of Italy or Sicily, nor so much as seen. Writing, October 17, 1716, from Blankenburg, and telling her friend all about a royal dinner at which she had just been, Lady Mary Wortley Montague says:--“What I thought worth all the rest (were) two ripe Ananasses, which, to my taste, are a fruit perfectly delicious. You know they are naturally the growth of Brazil, and I could not imagine how they came here, but by enchantment. Upon enquiry, I learned that they have brought their stoves to such perfection, &c. I am surprised we do not practise in England so useful an invention.”[463] As turnips grow in England, so do artichokes all over middle and south Italy, as well as Sicily, large fields are full of them. Put side by side with the pine-apple, and its narrow stiff leaves, the artichoke in bloom amid its graceful foliage, shows well; and every artistic eye will see that the Sicilian weaver, so fond of flowers and nice foliage for his patterns, must have chosen his own vegetable, unfolding its beauties to him at every step he took, and not a fruit of which he had never heard, and which he had never looked upon.

In his description of fruits or flowers woven on a textile, let not the youthful or unwary writer be led astray by older men with a reputation howsoever high for learning other than botanical. Some years ago we were reading with great delight a tale about some things that happened in the third century, and near Carthage. Though avowedly a fiction, most of its incidents were facts, so admirably put together that they seemed to have been drawn by the pen of one who had lived upon the spot. But taking one of his personages to a walk amid the hills running down to the shores of North Africa, the writer leads him through a narrow glen tangled over head, and shaded with sweet smelling creepers and climbers, among which he sees the passion-flower in full bloom. Now, as every species--save one from China of late introduction--that we have of this genus of plants, came to the old world from the new one, to speak of them as growing wild in Africa, quite fourteen hundred years before they could have been seen there, and America was known, is spoiling a picture otherwise beautifully sketched.

[459] Layard’s Discoveries at Nineveh, abridged, p. 46.

[460] Ibid. p. 245.

[461] Pp. 132, 239.

[462] The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud, or Biblical Legends of Mussulmans compiled, &c., by Dr. G. Weil, pp. 183, 184.

[463] Letters, t. i. p. 105, London, 1763.

* * * * *

With some, there perhaps may be a wish to know what was the origin of this collection.

As is set forth, in the “Church of Our Fathers,”[464] some thirty years ago there began to grow up, amid a few, a strong desire to behold a better taste in the building of churches, and the design of every ecclesiastical accessory. Our common sympathies on all these points brought together the late Mr. A. Welby Pugin, and him who writes these lines, and they became warm friends. What were the results to Pugin through our intercourse he himself has acknowledged in his “Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture,” p. 67. To think of anything and do it, were, with Pugin, two consecutive actions which followed one another speedily. While at Birmingham Hardman was working in metal, after drawings by Pugin, and putting together a stained-glass window from one of his cartoons, a loom at Manchester, which had been geared after his idea, was throwing off textiles for church use, and orphreys, broad and narrow, were being wove in London: the mediæval court at Hyde Park, in the year 1851, was the gem of our first Exhibition. Going back, a German lady took from England a cope made of the textiles that had been designed by Pugin. This vestment got into the hands of Dr. Bock, whose feelings were, as they still are, akin to our own in a love for all the beauties of the mediæval period. While so glad of his new gift, it set this worthy canon of Aix-la-Chapelle thinking that other and better patterns were to be seen upon stuffs of an old and good period, could they be but found. He gave himself to the search, and took along with him, over the length and breadth of Europe, that energy and speed for which he is so conspicuous; and the gatherings from his many journeys, put together, made up the bulk of a most curious and valuable collection--the only one of its kind--which has found an abiding home in England, at the South Kensington Museum. Thus have these beautiful art-works of the loom become, after a manner, a recompense most gratefully received, to the native land of those men whose action, some thirty years ago, indirectly originated their being brought together.

Before laying down his pen, the writer of this Catalogue must put on record his grateful remembrances of the kindness shown so readily by M. Octave Delepierre, Secretary of Legation and Consul-General for Belgium, in rendering those inscriptions of old German upon that curious piece of hanging, No. 1297, p. 296, as well as upon another piece of the same kind, No. 1465, p. 298. For the like help afforded about the same, together with those several long inscriptions upon No. 4456, p. 92, the writer is equally indebted to Dr. Appell; and, without the ready courtesy of the Rev. Eugene Popoff, the writer could not have been able to have given the Greek readings, hidden under Cyrillian characters, worked by the needle all around the Ruthenic Sindon, No. 8278, p. 170.

17, Essex Villas, Kensington.

[464] T. i. pp. 348, &c.

A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE

OF THE COLLECTION OF CHURCH VESTMENTS, DRESSES,

SILK STUFFS, NEEDLEWORK, AND TAPESTRIES

IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.

CONTENTS OF THE BOOK.

_Part the First._

Page

CHURCH-VESTMENTS, SILK-STUFFS, NEEDLEWORK AND DRESSES 1

_Part the Second._

TAPESTRY 294

_The Brooke Collection._

NEEDLEWORK AND DRESSES 312

_Lent by Her Majesty, and by the Board of Works._

TAPESTRY 324

INDEX I. Alphabetical 339 INDEX II. Geography of Textiles 355

ILLUSTRATIONS.

No. Page

84. HOOD OF A COPE. Embroidered (Coloured plate). _Flemish, 16th century_ _Frontispiece_ 3

1269. SILK AND GOLD DAMASK. _Sicilian, 14th century_ 37

1362. SILK DAMASK. (Coloured plate.) _North Italian, 16th century_ 74

1376. PART OF THE ORPHREY OF A CHASUBLE. _German, 15th century_ 82

1376. PART OF THE ORPHREY OF THE SAME CHASUBLE. _German, 15th century_ 82

4068. STRIP OF RAISED VELVET. (Coloured plate.) _North Italian, 16th century_ 90

7004. SILK DAMASK. _Italian, late 16th century_ 113

7039. SILK DAMASK. _Byzantine, 14th century_ 123

7043. SILK DAMASK. _Sicilian, 15th century_ 125

7795. SILK DAMASK (BACK OF A BURSE). _Italian, 16th century_ 145

8264. SILK AND GOLD TISSUE. _Sicilian, early 14th century_ 166

8265. LINEN AND SILK TEXTILE. _Spanish, late 14th century_ 166

8331. LACE EMBROIDERY. _Milanese, late 16th century_ 197

8605. SILK DAMASK. _Italian, 14th century_ 230

8607. SILK DAMASK. _Sicilian, 14th century_ 231

8626. SILK DAMASK. _Italian, end of 14th century_ 239

8667. SILK AND GOLD EMBROIDERY. PORTION OF AN ORPHREY. (Coloured plate.) _German, 15th century_ 252

8702. SILK AND LINEN DAMASK. _Florentine, 16th century_ 264

8704. PART OF THE ORPHREY OF A CHASUBLE. _Flemish, very late 15th century_ 264

9182. PART OF THE ORPHREY OF THE SYON MONASTERY COPE. _English, 13th century_ 275

PART THE FIRST.

_Church-vestments, Silk-stuffs, Needlework, and Dresses._

64.

Chinese Mandarin’s Tunic of Ceremony embroidered in various coloured flos-silks and gold upon an orange-red satin. Chinese. 4 feet high by 6 feet round, modern.

Sprawling all in gold and lively colours, both before and behind, upon this rich garment of state, is figured, with all its hideousness, the imperial five-clawed dragon, before which, according to the royal fancies of that land, the lion turns pale and the tiger is struck with dumbness. In the ornamentation the light blue quantity of silk is very conspicuous, more especially upon the broad lower hem of this robe.

78.

Chasuble of crimson velvet, with both orphreys embroidered; the velvet, pile upon pile, and figured with large and small flowers in gold and colour, and other smaller flowers in green and white; the orphreys figured with the Apostles and the Annunciation. Florentine, late 15th century. 4 feet 3½ inches by 2 feet 5½ inches.

Like most other chasubles, this has been narrowed, at no late period, across the shoulders. The velvet is very soft and rich, and of that peculiar kind that shows a double pile or the pattern in velvet upon velvet, now so seldom to be found. On the back orphrey, which is quite straight, is shown St. Peter with his keys; St. Paul with a sword; St. John blessing with one hand, and holding a chalice, out of which comes a serpent, in the other; St. James with a pilgrim’s hat and staff: on the front orphrey the Annunciation, and St. Simon holding a club, but his person so placed, that, by separating the archangel Gabriel from the Blessed Virgin Mary, a tau-cross is made upon the breast; St. Bartholomew with a knife, and St. James the Less with the fuller’s bat. For their greater part, the Gothic niches in which these figures stand, are loom-wrought; but these personages themselves are done on separate pieces of fine canvas and are applied over spaces left uncovered for them. Another curious thing is that in these applied figures the golden parts of the draperies are woven, and the spaces for the heads and hands left bare to be filled in by hand; and most exquisitely are they wrought, for some of them are truly beautiful as works of art.

79.

Cope, crimson velvet, with hood and orphrey embroidered, &c. Florentine, late 15th century. 9 feet 5½ inches by 4 feet 6 inches.

This fine cope is of the same set a part of which was the beautiful chasuble No. 78, and, while made of precisely the same costly materials, is wrought with equal care and art. Its large fine hood is figured with the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the infant Church, represented by the Blessed Virgin Mary amid the Apostles, and not merely this subject itself, but the crimson colour of the velvet would lead us to think that the whole set of vestments was intended for use on Witsunday. On the orphrey, on the right hand, the first saint is St. John the Baptist, with the Holy Lamb; then, Pope St. Gregory the Great; afterwards, an archbishop, may be St. Antoninus; after him a layman-saint with an arrow, and seemingly clad in armour, perhaps St. Sebastian; on the left side, St. George with banner and shield; under him St. Jerome, below whom, a bishop; and lowermost of all St. Onuphrius, hermit, holding in one hand a cross on a staff, in the other a walkingstick, and quite naked, saving his loins, round which he wears a wreath of leaves. All these subjects are admirably treated, and the heads done with the delicacy and truth of miniatures.

84.

Hood of a Cope, figured with the Adoration of the Wise Men. Flemish, 16th century. 1 foot 8½ inches wide, 1 foot 4½ inches deep.

This is one of the best preserved and the most beautiful works of the period in the collection, and is remarkable for the goodness of the gold, which is so plentifully bestowed upon it. It is somewhat large, and the three long hooks by which it used to hang are still attached, while its fine green and yellow silk fringe is a pleasing specimen of such a kind of decoration.

540.

Purse in crimson velvet, embroidered with comic masks, and mounted in chased steel damascened in gold. Attached is a crimson Band with a Buckle of cut and gilt steel. Milanese, 16th century. 11½ inches by 11 inches.

The rich crimson velvet is Genoese; the frame, an art-work of the Milan school, is figured with two monsters’ heads, and two medallions, one containing a naked youth seated, the other a nude female figure standing. On the front of the bag are applied two embroideries in gold and coloured silk, one an owl’s head, the other that of a full-faced grotesque satyr; on the back is another satyr’s side-face. At one time, such bags or ornamental purses, under the name of “gibecières” in France and England, but known in Italy as “borsa,” were articles of dress worn by most people; and “the varlet with the velvet pouch” will not be forgotten by those who have read Walter Scott’s novel of “Quentin Durward.” The expressions, in English of “cut-purse,” in Italian “taglia borse,” for a pickpocket, are well illustrated by this gay personal appendage.

623.

Piece of Edging; ground, purple thread-net; pattern, bunches of flowers, of two sorts alternated, in various coloured flos-silks. Italian, 18th century. 5 feet 5 inches by 5 inches.

Intended for a border to a dress or to a bed-quilt, and no attention shown to the botanical exactness of the flowers, most of which are seemingly tulips. A large coverlet is edged with a broad piece of needlework, after this manner, in the collection.

624.

Piece of Edging; ground, purple thread-net; pattern, large flowers, mostly the same, embroidered in various coloured flos-silks, within scrolls and foliage. Italian, 18th century. 8 feet 3 inches by 11 inches.

Probably by the same hand as the foregoing piece, and equally care-less of botanical exactness in the flowers.

625.

Cushion-cover, oblong, centre in striped cherry-coloured silk, the border of open work embroidered in various coloured flos-silks upon a net of purple thread. Italian, 18th century. 2 feet 6 inches by 2 feet.

The only difference in the way of the stitchery is that the geometrical pattern shows the same on both sides.

626.

Quilt for a Bed; ground, an amber-coloured cotton, figured with a net-work of ovals and squares in diapered raised crimson velvet, the ovals filled in with a floriation of crimson and green raised velvet; the squares, with a small vase having a flower-bearing tree, crimson raised velvet. This is the centre, which is bordered by a like kind of stuff 11 inches deep; the ground, primrose yellow; the pattern, ovals, enclosing a foliage bearing crimson and amber-tinted flowers, and placed amid boughs bearing the same coloured flowers; on both edges this border has three stripes--two crimson raised velvet, the third and broader one a pattern in shades of purple--all on a light yellow ground; at the ends of the quilt hangs a long party-coloured fringe of linen thread; the lining of it is fine Chinese silk of a bright amber, figured with sprigs of crimson flowers, shaded yellow and white. Genoese, 17th century. 5 feet 11 inches by 3 feet 10½ inches.

627.

Quilt for a Bed; ground, brown canvas; pattern, all embroidered scales or scollops jagged like a saw, and overlapping each other in lines, some blue and green shaded white or yellow, some amber. The border is a broad scroll of large flowers, among which one at each corner, the fleur-de-lis, is conspicuous. This again has a scollop edging of flowers separated by what seem two Cs interlaced. French, 17th century. 7 feet 8 inches by 5 feet 8 inches.

673.

Chasuble of green silk, figured with animals and scrolls in gold, with an embroidered orphrey at back, and a plain orphrey in front. Sicilian, early 13th century. 3 feet 9¾ inches by 2 feet 2 inches.

This very valuable chasuble is very important for the beauty of its stuff; but by no means to be taken as a sample in width of the fine old majestic garment of that name, as it has been sadly cut down from its former large shape, and that, too, at no very distant period. Though now almost blue, its original colour was green. The warp is cotton, the woof silk, and that somewhat sparingly put in; the design showing heraldic animals, amid gracefully twining branches all in gold and woven, is remarkably good and free. The front piece is closely resembling the back, but, on a near and keen examination, may be found to differ in its design from the part behind; on this we see that it must have consisted of a lioncel passant gardant, langued, and a griffin; on that on the part in front, a lioncel passant, and a lioncel passant regardant. When the chasuble was in its first old fulness, the design on both parts came out in all its minuteness; now, it is so broken as not to be discernible at first. In front the orphrey is very narrow, and of a sort of open lace-work in green and gold; on the back the orphrey is very broad, 1 foot 1½ inches, and figured with the Crucifixion, the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on our Lord’s right hand, St. John the Evangelist on His left; below, the Blessed Virgin Mary crowned as a queen and seated on a royal throne, with our Lord as a child sitting on her lap; lower still, St. Peter with two keys--one silver, the other gold--in his left hand, and a book in the right; and St. Paul holding a drawn sword in his right, and a book in his left; and, last of all, the stoning of St. Stephen. All the subjects are large, and within quatrefoils; as much of the body of our Lord as is uncovered on the Cross, and the heads, hands, and feet in the other figures, as well as those parts of the draperies not gold, are wrought by needle, while the golden garments of the personages are woven in the loom.

This very interesting chasuble has a history belonging to it, given in “The Gentleman’s Magazine,” t. lvi. pp. 298, 473, 584, by which we are taught to believe that it has always been in England; belonging once to it were a stole and maniple, upon which latter appliance were four armorial shields, which would lead to the idea that it had been expressly made for the chapel of Margaret de Clare, Countess of Cornwall, who is known to have been alive A.D. 1294. That time quite tallies with the style of the stuff of which this chasuble is made; and though now so worn and cut away, it is one of the most curious in this or any other country, and particularly valuable to an English collection.

675.

Piece of the Bayeux Tapestry; ground, white linen; design, two narrow bands in green edged with crimson (now much faded) with a very thin undulating scroll in faded crimson, and green between them. English, 11th century. 3¼ inches by 2½ inches.

Though done in worsted, and such a tiny fragment of that great but debated historical work, it is so far a valuable specimen as it shows the sort of material as well as style and form of stitch in which the whole was wrought. In the “Vetusta Monimenta,” published by the Society of Antiquaries, plate 17, shows, in large, a portion of this embroidery where the piece before us is figured; and, from the writing under it, we learn that it was brought away from Bayeux by Mrs. Stothard, when her husband was occupied in making drawings of that interesting record. There is not the slightest reason for believing that this embroidery was the work of Matilda, or any of her ladies of honour, or waiting maids; but all the probabilities are that it was done by English hands, may be in London by order, and at the cost, of one or other of three knights from Bayeux, who came over with William, on whom he bestowed much land in England, as we have already shown in the Introduction to this Catalogue, § 4.

698.

Door-curtain, ground, yellow and gold; pattern, in rich raised green velvet, two small eagles with wings displayed, and between them a large vase, out of which issues a conventional flower showing the pomegranate, surmounted by a modification of the same fruit amid wide-spreading foliations. Milanese, 16th century. 8 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 6 inches.

Though the golden threads of the ground in this magnificent stuff are much tarnished, still this piece is very fine, and may have been part of some household furniture wrought at the order of the Emperor Charles V, whose German eagle is so conspicuous in the design, while the pomegranate brings to mind Spain and Granada.

699.

Piece of Embroidery; ground, a brown fine linen, backed with strong canvas; pattern, female figures, monkeys, flowers, shells, &c. in coloured worsteds. French, late 17th century. 8 feet 9 inches by 8 feet 3 inches.

This large work is admirably done, and a fine specimen both of the taste with which the colours are matched, and the stitchery executed; and it may have been intended as the hanging for the wall of a small room.

700.

Lady’s dress, white silk; embroidered with flowers in coloured silks and gold and silver threads. Chinese, 18th century. 4 feet 2½ inches.

Worked by order, very probably of some European dame, at Macao or Canton, and exactly like No. 713 in design and execution. The gold and silver, as in that, so in this specimen, are much tarnished.

701.

Lady’s Dress, sky-blue satin; brocaded with white flowers, in small bunches. French, late 18th century. 4 feet 7 inches.

702.

Christening Cloak of green satin, lined with rose-coloured satin. Chinese. 5 feet 8½ inches by 3 feet 6¾ inches.

A fine specimen, in every respect, of Chinese manufacture; the satin itself is of the finest, softest kind; whether we look at the green or the light rose-colour, nothing can surpass either of them in tone and clearness. Few European dyers could give those tints.

In its present form this piece constituted an article to be found, and even yet seen, in very many families in Italy, Germany, and France, and was employed for christening occasions, when the nurse or midwife wore it over her shoulders, like a mantle, for muffling up the new-born babe, as she carried it, in state, to church for baptism. In this, as in other specimens of the Museum, there was a running string at top by which it might be drawn tight to the neck. Those who have lived abroad for even a short time must have observed how the nurse took care to let a little of this sort of scarf hang out of the carriage-window as she rode with baby to church. The christening cloth or cloak was, not long since, in use among ourselves.

703.

Christening Cloak of bright red satin. Italian, 18th century. 5 feet by 5 feet 11 inches.

The material is rich, and of a colour rather affected for the purpose in Italy.

704.

Christening Cloth or Cloak of murrey-coloured velvet. Italian, 17th century. 8 feet by 5 feet 5 inches.

The pile is soft and rich, and its colour, once such a favourite in the by-gone days of England, of a delicious mellow tone. Like Nos. 702 and 703, it robed the nurse as she went to the baptismal font with the new-born child, and has the string round the neck by which it could be drawn, like a mantle, about her shoulders.

705.

Lady’s Dress of brocaded satin; ground, dull red; pattern, slips of yellow flowers and green leaves. Italian, late 18th century. 4 feet 10½ inches.

The satin is rich, but the tinsel, in white silver, tawdry.

706.

Skirt of a Lady’s Dress of brocaded silk; ground, white; pattern, bunches of flowers in pink, blue, yellow, and purple, amid a diapering of interlaced strap-design in white flos-silk. French, 18th century. 3 feet 3 inches.

Good in material, but in pattern like many of the stuffs which came from the looms of the period at Lyons.

707.

Christening Scarf of white brocaded silk. Lucca, 17th century. 5 feet square.

Of a fine material and pleasing design.

708.

Piece of green Silk Brocade; pattern, lyres, flowers, ribbons with tassels. French, 18th century. 5 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 8 inches.

709.

Skirt of a Lady’s Dress; ground, bright yellow, barred white; pattern, a brocade in small flowers in gold, green, and red sparingly sprinkled about. Italian, 18th century. 7 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 4 inches.

A pleasing specimen of the time.

710.

Piece of White Silk, brocaded with flowers in white flos-silk, and in silver, between bands consisting of three narrow slips in white. French, 17th century. 5 feet by 4 feet 6 inches.

When the silver was bright and untarnished, the pattern, so quiet in itself, must have had a pleasing effect.

711.

Christening Scarf of silk damask; ground, light blue; pattern, flowers in pink, white, and yellow. Levant, 18th century. 5 feet 5 inches by 5 feet.

Garish in look, still it has a value as a specimen of the loom in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean; the blue diapering on the blue ground shows, in the architectural design, a Saracenic influence.

712.

Piece of Damask Silk; ground, crimson; pattern, flowers and vases in white and green. Italian, 17th century. 8 feet 9 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

Rich in substance, and intended for hangings in state rooms.

713.

Skirt of a Lady’s Dress; white silk embroidered with flowers in coloured silks, and gold and silver. Chinese, 18th century. 3 feet.

Though well done, and by a Chinese hand, very likely at Canton or Macao, for some European lady, it is far behind, in beauty, the Chinese piece No. 792.

714.

Christening Cloak of yellow silk damask; pattern, bunches of flowers. Lucca, 17th century. 7 feet 10 inches by 5 feet.

Like other such cloaks, or scarves, it has its running string, and is of a fine rich texture.

715.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, dove-coloured white; pattern, large foliage in pale green. Italian, 18th century. 4 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 8 inches.

A fine material, and the bold design well brought out.

716.

Christening Cloak of pink satin damask. Italian, 18th century. 4 feet 8 inches by 4 feet 6 inches.

The little sprigs of fruits and flowers are well arranged; and the pomegranate is discernible among them.

717.

Piece of Silk Brocade; ground, stone-white chequered silk; pattern, deep blue garlands and bunches of flowers, both dotted with smaller flowers in silver. Italian, 17th century. 3 feet 8 inches by 3 feet.

718.

Piece of Embroidered Silk; ground, sky-blue; pattern, leaves, flowers, and fruit, in white silk. Italian, 18th century. 3 feet 8 inches by 3 feet.

The embroidery is admirably done, and the pomegranate is there among the fruit.

719.

Door-curtain, crimson worsted velvet; pattern, flowers and foliage. Italian, 17th century. 10 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 3 inches.

A very fine and rich specimen of its kind, and most likely wrought at Genoa.

720.

Piece of Silk; ground, white; pattern, flowers and foliage, embroidered in gold thread and coloured silks. Chinese, 18th century. 3 feet 2½ inches by 1 foot 6½ inches.

Another specimen of Chinese work done for Europeans, and most likely after an European design; in character resembling other examples in this collection from the same part of the world.

721.

Piece of Silk; ground, white; pattern, flowers and pomegranates embroidered in gold and coloured silks. Neapolitan, 17th century. 3 feet 3 inches by 1 foot 5 inches.

The design is rich, the flowers well-raised, and the gold unsparingly employed.

722.

Cradle-coverlet; white satin quilted, after a design of fruits, and branches of leaves upon a chequer pattern. French, 18th century. 3 feet 2½ inches by 3 feet.

Among the fruits the symbolic pomegranate is not forgotten, perhaps as expressive of the wish that the young mother to whom this quilt may have been given by a lady friend, might have a numerous offspring, hinted at by the many pips in the fruit.

723.

Door-curtain of silk damask; ground, crimson; pattern, scrolls in gold foliage, and flowers in coloured silks. Italian, early 17th century. 6 feet 7 inches by 3 feet 5 inches.

This is a fine rich stuff; it is lined with purple satin, and must have been very effective when in use.

724.

Chasuble of woven silk; ground, white; pattern, floral scrolls in green, and lined pink; the cross at the back and the two stripes in front in gold lace of an open design. French, 18th century. 4 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 5 inches.

The open-worked lace is good of its kind.

725.

Altar-frontal of crimson velvet, ornamented on three sides with a scroll ornamentation in gold, and applied; and with seven armorial bearings all the same. French, 17th century. 6 feet 1 inch by 2 feet 6½ inches.

The armorial shield, as it stands at present, is--_azure_ a cross ankred _sable_ between two fleur-de-lis _argent_. On looking narrowly at the azure velvet on which these charges are worked, it is evident that something has been picked out, and, in its place, the sable-cross has been afterwards wrought in, thus explaining the anomaly of colour upon colour not in the original bearing. The applied ornaments in gold are in flowers and narrow gold lace, and of a rich and effective manner.

726.

Cradle-coverlet of white satin; embroidered in white, with a roving border of flowers, and fringed. French, 18th century. 3 feet 5½ inches by 2 feet 8 inches.

Rich in its material, and nicely wrought.

727.

Skirt of a Lady’s Dress; sky-blue satin, quilted round the lower border with a scroll of large palmate leaves, and bunches of flowers, with an edging of fruits, in which the pomegranate may be seen. Italian, 18th century. 8 feet 9 inches by 3 feet.

The pattern in which the quilting comes out is very tasteful; and the body of this skirt has an ornamentation in quilting of a cinquefoil shape, and made to lap one over the other in the manner of tiles.

728.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, bright yellow silk ribbed; pattern, white plumes twined with brown ribbons, and bunches of white flowers. Lucca, 17th century. 8 feet 10 inches by 7 feet.

Of rich material and wrought for household use.

729.

Door-curtain of yellow silk damask; pattern, strap-work and conventional foliage. Italian, 17th century. 7 feet 2 inches by 5 feet.

A bold design, and wrought in a good material.

730.

Cope of brocaded silk; ground, orange-red; pattern, foliage, and bunches of flowers amid white garlands, in coloured silks. French, 18th century. 10 feet 10 inches by 5 feet 6 inches.

The hood and morse are of the same stuff, which was evidently meant to be for secular, not liturgical, use.

731.

Door-curtain of crimson damask silk; pattern, a large broad conventional floriation. Italian, 17th century. 10 feet by 8 feet 10 inches.

732.

Curtain of pale sea-green damask; pattern, large leaves and flowers. Italian. 17 feet 8 inches by 13 feet 7 inches.

The satiny ground throws up the design in its dull tone extremely well; and the whole is edged with a border of narrow pale yellow lace, figured with small green sprigs.

750.

Table-cover; ground, fine ribbed cream-coloured linen; pattern, flowers, butterflies, and birds, embroidered in various-coloured flos-silks. Indian, 17th century. 7 feet by 5 feet 6 inches; fringe 3 inches deep.

The curiosity of this piece is that, like many such works of the needle from India, the embroidery shows the same on both sides; and there is evidently a Gothic feeling in the edgings on the borders of the inner square.

786.

Scull-cap of white satin; quilted after an elaborate running design. English, 17th century, 10½ inches diameter.

Tradition tells us that this scull-cap belonged to our King Charles the First, and says, moreover, that, at his beheading, it was worn by that unfortunate King. The style of design would not, as far as art-worth can speak, invalidate such a history of this royal ownership. Its lining is now quite gone.

792.

Piece of Chinese Embroidery; ground, greyish white satin; pattern, girls, flowers, birds, fruits, and insects in various-coloured flos and thread silks, and gold. 11 feet by 1 foot 7 inches.

Justly may we look upon this specimen as one among the best and most beautiful embroideries wrought by the Chinese needle known, not merely in this country, but in any part of Europe. Putting aside the utter want of perspective, and other Chinese defective notions of art, it is impossible not to admire the skilful way in which the whole of the piece before us is executed. In the female figures there seems to be much truthfulness with regard to the costume and manners of that country; and the sharp talon-like length of finger-nails affected by the ladies there is conspicuously shown in almost every hand. The birds, the insects, the flowers are all admirably done; and the tones of colour are so soft and well assorted, and there is such a thorough Chinese taste displayed in the choice of tints--tints almost unknown to European dyers--that the eye is instantly pleased with the production. The embroidery itself is almost entirely well raised.

839.

Piece of Velvet Hanging; ground, crimson velvet; pattern, large conventional flowers and branches in yellow applied silk. Italian, 17th century. 6 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 8 inches.

This piece is rather a curiosity for the way in which its design is done. On the plain length of velvet a pattern was cut, and the void spaces were filled in with yellow silk, and the edges covered with a rather broad and flat cording, and the whole--that is, velvet and silk--gummed on to a lining of strong canvas, having the cord only stitched to it.

840.

Piece of Applied Work; ground, crimson velvet; pattern, large conventional flowers in yellow satin. Italian, 17th century. 2 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 3 inches.

Here the same system is followed, but the ground is yellow satin uncut, the crimson velvet being cut out so as to make it look the ground, and the real ground the design, both are, as above, gummed on coarse canvas.

841.

Piece of Velvet Hanging; ground, yellow silk; pattern, scrolls and flowers in applied crimson velvet. Italian, 17th century. 6 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

Executed exactly as No. 840. In all likelihood these three pieces served as hangings to be put at open windows on festival days--a custom yet followed in Italy.

842.

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, pale yellow silk; pattern, in raised velvet, a fan-like floriation in crimson and green. Florentine, 16th century. 3 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 1 inch.

A specimen of rich household decoration.

843.

Raised Velvet; ground, creamy white satin; pattern, the artichoke amid wide-spreading ramifications in crimson raised velvet. Genoese, 17th century. 2 feet 1 inch by 1 foot 8½ inches.

Intended for household furniture. When hung upon the walls of a large room this stuff must have had a fine effect.

882.

Skirt of Female Attire; ground, coarse white linen; pattern, a broad band of blue worsted, figured with flowers and animals in white thread, and the broad edging of crochet work. German, 17th century. 3 feet 8½ inches by 2 feet 8 inches deep.

This piece of embroidery must have been for secular personal use, and not for any ecclesiastical employment, and very likely was part of the holyday dress of some country girl in Germany or Switzerland. The blue embroidery, though of a bold well-raised character, is coarse; so, too, is the lace below it.

1029.

An Algerine Embroidered Scarf; ground, very thin canvas; pattern, a modification of the artichoke form, and ramifications in various-coloured flos-silks, and parted by short bands of brace-like work in white flos-silk. 2 feet 3¾ inches by 1 foot 3¾ inches.

Neither old, nor remarkable as an art-work.

1030.

Table-cover of linen, embroidered in white thread, with flowers, vases, trophies, and monograms. French, 18th century. 4 feet 4 inches by 3 feet 10 inches.

This beautifully-executed piece of needlework is richly deserving a notice from those who admire well-finished stitchery, which is here seen to advantage. In the centre is a basket with wide-spreading flowers, upon each side of which is a military trophy consisting of cannon-balls, kettle-drums, other drums, knights’ tilting-lances, halberts, swords, cannon, trumpets, all gracefully heaped together and upholding a herald’s tabard blazoned with a leopard rampant, by the side of which, and drooping above, are two flags, one showing the three fleurs-de-lis of France, and the other with a charge that is indistinct; and the whole is surmounted by a full-faced barred helmet wreathed with a ducal coronet, out of which arises a plume of ostrich feathers; on the other sides are two elegantly-shaped vases full of flowers. At each of the four corners of this inner square is the monogram A. M. V. P. T. between boughs, and surmounted by a ducal coronet; and at every corner of the border below is a flaming heart pierced by two arrows, while all about are eagles with wings displayed and heads regardant, seemingly heraldic.

1031.

Piece of Silk Brocade; ground, white; pattern, large red flowers seeded yellow, and foliage mostly light green. Lyons, 18th century. 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

A specimen of one of those large showy flowered tissues in such favour all over Europe during the last century, as well as in the earlier portion of the present one, for church use. The example before us, in all probability, served as a bishop’s lap-cloth at solemn high mass; for which rite, see “The Church of our Fathers,” i. 409.

1032.

Piece of Silk and Silver Brocade; ground, a brown olive; pattern, large flowers, some lilac, but mostly bright crimson, intermixed with much silver ornamentation. Lyons, 18th century. 2 feet 8½ inches, by 1 foot 8½ inches.

Another specimen of the same taste as No. 1031, but even more garish. Like it, it seems to have served the purpose of a liturgical lap-cloth, or, as it used to be called, a barm-cloth.

1033.

Lectern-veil; ground, yellow satin; pattern, conventional flowers in applied velvet in blue, green, and crimson. Italian, early 17th century. 6 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 8 inches.

In fact the whole of this liturgical veil for the deacon’s book-stand is of the so-called “applied style;” that is, of pieces of satin and of velvet cut out to the required shape, and sewed on the canvas ground, and the edges bordered with a cord of silk, mostly white; and altogether it has a rich appearance.

1035.

Bed-coverlet; ground, white thread net; pattern, flowers in white thread. Spanish, 17th century. 6 feet 5 inches by 5 feet 3½ inches.

This specimen of netting and crochet needlework displays much taste in its design of flowers, among which the rose and the pomegranate are very conspicuous. It was wrought in four strips joined together by narrow linen bands, and the whole edged with a shallow fringe.

1037, 1037A.

Pieces of Stuff for Silk Sashes; pattern, perpendicular bars, some whity-brown figured with gold and silver flowers, some plain olive green, and bordered on both edges of the stuff with bands of whity-brown ornamented with sprigs of gold flowers. Oriental, 16th century. 2 feet 4½ inches, by 11 inches.

The trimming and cross, done in tinsel, show that its last European use was for the church; in the East, such silken stuffs, in long lengths, are worn about the waist by men and women as a sash or girdle.

1038.

Chasuble-back; ground, green satin; design, scrolls in raised red silk thread. 18th century. Satin, French. 3 feet 8 inches by 2 feet 2 inches.

Very likely the satin formed some part of a lady’s gown, and for its richness was given to the church for making vestments. As a ritual garment it could not have looked well, nor is its gaudy red embroidery in good taste for any ecclesiastical purpose.

1039.

Waistcoat-pattern, embroidered and spangled. Second half of the 18th century. French. 10 inches by 7½ inches.

Of such stuffs were gentlemen’s vests made in Paris under Louis XV., and in London at the beginning of George III.’s reign.

1194, 1195.

Orphreys for a Chasuble; ground, crimson silk; design, an angel-choir in two rows amid wreaths, of which the flowers are silver and the leaves gold, some shaded green; on the back orphrey are two heraldic bearings. German, very late 15th century.

This beautifully-wrought specimen of Rhenish needlework, most likely done at Cologne, consists of twenty-six small figures of winged angels robed in various liturgical vestments, and playing musical instruments of all sorts--some wind, some stringed. Of these celestial beings several wear copes over their white albs; others have over their albs narrow stoles, in some instances crossed upon the breast as priests, but mostly belt-wise as deacons: other some are arrayed in the sub-deacon’s tunicle, and the deacon’s dalmatic: thus vested they hold the instrument which each is playing; and no one but a German would have thought of putting into angels’ hands such a thing as the long coarse aurochs’ horn wherewith to breathe out heavenly music. On the front orphrey are ten of such angels; on the one made in the shape of a cross, for the back of the chasuble, there are sixteen. At both ends of the short beam or transom of this cross we find admirably-executed armorial bearings. The first blazon--that to the left--shows a shield _gules_ an inescutcheon _argent_, over all an escarbuncle of eight rays _or_, for CLEVES; dimidiated by, _or_ a fess checky _argent_ and _gules_, for MARCK; surmounted by a helmet _argent_ crested with a buffalo’s head cabosed _gules_, having the shut-down bars of the helmet’s vizor thrust out through the mouth of the animal, which is crowned ducally _or_ the attire _argent_ passing up within the crown; and the mantlings _gules_. As if for supporters, this shield has holding it two angels, one in a tunicle, the other in a cope. The second shield--that on the right hand,--shows _gules_ an inescutcheon _argent_, over all, an escarbuncle of eight rays _or_, crested and supported as the one to the left, thus giving, undimidiated, the blazon of the then sovereign ducal house of CLEVES.

All these ornaments, armorial bearings, angels, flowers, and foliage, are not worked into, but wrought each piece separately, and afterwards sewed on the crimson silk ground, which is the original one; they are “cut work.” The angels’ figures are beautifully done, and their liturgic garments richly formed in gold, as are the leaves and stems of the wreaths bearing large silver flowers. From its heraldry we may fairly assume that the chasuble, from which these handsome orphreys were stripped, belonged to the domestic chapel in the palace of the Dukes of Cleves, and had been made for one of those sovereigns whose wife was of the then princely stirring house of De la Marck.

As was observed, while describing the beautiful Syon Cope, No. 9182, the nine choirs of angels separated into three hierarchies is indicated here also; and the distinction marked by the garments which they are made to wear in these embroideries; some are clothed in copes, others in tunicles, the remainder, besides their narrow stoles, in long-flowing white albs only--that emblem of spotless holiness in which all of them are garmented, as with a robe of light. The bushiness of the auburn hair on all of them is remarkable, and done in little locks of silk.

For a student of mediæval music, this angel-choir will have an especial interest; but, to our thinking, neither this, nor any other production of the subject, whether wrought in sculpture, painting, or needlework, hitherto found out on the Continent, at all comes up in beauty, gracefulness, or value, to our own lovely minstrel-gallery in Exeter Cathedral, or the far more splendid and truly noble angel-choir sculptured in the spandrils of the triforium arches in the matchless presbytery at Lincoln Minster. A cast of the Exeter minstrel-gallery is put up here on the western wall of the north court, and among the casts lent by the Architectural Society are those of the angels in Lincoln.

Of the musical instruments themselves, we see several in these two pieces of cut-work. Beginning with the back orphrey, marked No. 1194 at top, the first of the two angels is playing with the fingers of both hands an instrument now indiscernible; the second, the lute; below them one is beating a tabour with a stick; the other is turning the handle of the gita, our hurdy-gurdy. After these we have an angel blowing a short horn, while his fellow angel strikes the psaltery. Then an angel robed as a deacon in alb, and stole worn like a belt falling from his right shoulder to under his left arm, sounding the sistrum or Jew’s harp, and his companion fingers with his right hand a one-stringed instrument or ancient monochord. In the last couple, one with a large bow is playing the viol, a long narrow instrument with several silver strings.

On the orphrey,--made in the shape of a cross and worn on the back of the chasuble, No. 1195,--the first angel plays the pan-pipes; the second, a gittern, or the modern guitar; the next two show one angel, as a deacon in dalmatic, jingling an instrument which he holds by two straps, hung all round with little round ball-like bells; and his companion, robed in alb and stole crossed at the breast like a priest, ringing two large hand-bells; lower down, of the two angels both vested as deacons, one blowing a large, long curved-horn, like that of the aurochs, the other, the shalmes or double-reeded pipe. Below these, one in alb and stole, belt-wise as a deacon, blows a cornamuse or bag-pipe; the other, as deacon, the aurochs’ horn. Then a deacon angel has a trumpet; his fellow, a priest in alb and crossed stole, is playing a triangle; last of all, one plays a tabour, the other the monochord. So noteworthy are these admirable embroideries, that they merit particular attention.

1233.

A stole; ground, very pale yellow silk; design, an interlacing strap-work in the greater part; for the expanding ends, a diamond in gold thread, with a fringe of silk knots alternately crimson and green; the lining, thin crimson silk. English or French, 13th century. 9 feet 9 inches by 1¾ inches in the narrow parts, and 2½ inches in the expanded ends.

Another of those specimens of weaving in small looms worked by young women in London and Paris, during the 13th century, which we have met in this collection. As the expanded ends are formed of small pieces of gold web they were wrought apart, and afterwards sewed on to the crimson silk ground. The design of the narrow part has all along its length, at its two edges, a pair of very small lines, now brown, enclosing a dented ornament. As a liturgical appliance, this stole, for its perfect state of preservation, is valuable; Dr. Bock says that a stole called St. Bernhard’s, now in the church of our Lady at Treves, as well as another curious one in the former cathedral at Aschaffenburg, are in length and breadth, just like this.

1234.

Tissue of Silk and Cotton; the warp, cotton; the woof, silk; ground, green; design, so imperfect that it can hardly be made out, but apparently a monster bird in yellow, lined and dotted in crimson; standing on a border of a yellow ground marked with crosses and mullets of four points. Syrian, late 12th century. 6¾ inches by 4½ inches.

When perfect this stuff must have been somewhat garish, from its colours being so bright and not well contrasted.

1235.

Tissue of Silk and Cotton; the warp, silks of different colours; the woof, fawn-coloured fine cotton; design, stripes, the broader ones charged with wild beasts, eagles, and a monster animal having a human head; the narrow bands showing a pretended Arabic inscription. Syrian, 13th century. 13 inches by 2 inches.

So very torn and worn away is this piece that the whole of its elaborate design cannot be made out; but enough is discernible to prove an Asiatic influence. The monster, with the human face staring at us, calls to mind the Nineveh sculptures in the British Museum.

1236.

Silk Damask; ground, crimson silk; pattern, in gold thread, two very large lions, and two pairs, one of very small birds, the other of equally small dragons, and an ornament not unlike a hand looking-glass. Oriental, 14th century. 2 feet 5½ inches by 2 feet ½ inch.

A piece of this same stuff is described under No. 7034 in this catalogue; and Dr. Bock, in his useful work, “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” t. i. plate iv. has figured it.

1237.

Tissue of Silk; ground, dull reddish deep purple; design, a lozenged diapering. South Italian, 13th century. 6½ inches by 5½ inches.

So thin is this web that we may presume it was meant as a stuff for lining garments of a richer texture.

1238.

Piece of Linen, or the finest byssus of antiquity. Egyptian. 5½ inches by 3 inches.

Whether this very curious example of that rare and fine tissue known in classic times, and later, as byssus, was of mediæval production in Egypt, or found in one of the ancient tombs of that land, would be hard to determine. Another equally fine and no less valuable specimen may be seen in this collection, No. 8230.

From Dr. Bock we learn that the sudary of our Lord, given to the Abbey of Cornelimünster, near Aix-la-Chapelle, by the Emperor Louis the Pious, circa A.D. 820, was much like the present example.

1239.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, creamy white; design, broad-banded lozenges, enclosing a two-headed displayed eagle, and a pair of birds addorsed, each within an oval. Greek, 11th century. 10¾ inches by 7½ inches.

It is said to have been a fragment of the imperial tunic belonging to Henry II, Emperor of Germany; and not unlikely. If wrought for the occasion, and a gift from his imperial brother-Emperors of Constantinople, Basil and Constantine, worthy was it for their sending and of his acceptance, since the silk is rich, the texture thick, and the design in accordance with the ensigns of German royalty. In shreds, and ragged as it is, we may prize it as a valuable piece.

1240.

Piece of Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, a yellowish green; design, large elliptical spaces filled in with Saracenic figurations. The warp is of green cotton, the woof, of pale yellow silk. South of Spain, 14th century. 16½ inches by 4¾ inches.

This strong stuff most likely came from the looms of Granada.

1240A.

Piece of Silk and Cotton.

Another piece of the same texture.

1241.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, blue; design, circles filled in with conventional ornamentation in crimson (now faded). Greek, 13th century. 15¼ inches by 7½ inches.

In some very small parts of the pattern, at first sight, indications appear of four-footed animals, but the outlines are a fortuitous combination. This stuff is poor in material, and the design not very artistic.

1242.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, light green; design, a Saracenic pattern formed by lines in long lozenges. South of Spain, 14th century. 9¾ inches by 7 inches.

Much like in tint and style of pattern the fine specimen at No. 1240. In both the Moslem’s sacred colour of green may be noticed, and the two pieces may have been woven at Granada.

1243.

Damask, silk and linen; ground, crimson and yellow stripes; design, on the crimson stripes, circles enclosing a lion rampant, and six-petaled flowers, in yellow; on the yellow, one stripe with flowers in white silk, the other with flowers in gold, now faded black. Syrian, 14th century. 7½ inches by 6¾ inches.

The quality of this damask is coarse, from the great quantity of thread of a thick size wrought up in it. The design has no particular merit.

1244-1244C.

Pieces of Damask; ground, gold; design, in crimson silk, broad round hoops, marked with a golden floriation, and enclosing a lion passant, the spaces between the hoops filled in with a floriated square topped by fleur-de-lis. Sicilian, 14th century. Each piece about 4½ inches square.

When whole the design of this rich stuff must have been effective, and the fragments we here have prove it to have been sketched in a bold free style. Unfortunately, so bad was the gold that, in places, it has turned green. The warp is of a thick linen thread, but, though it gives a strength to the texture, is not to be perceived upon its face.

1245.

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson silk; design, a net-work formed by cords twined into circles enclosing four V’s, put so as to form a cross, and the meshes filled in alternately with a flower and a leaf, each surrounded by a line like an eight-petaled floriation, all in gold thick thread. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 inches by 4¾ inches.

The way in which the pattern affects the form of a cross in its design is remarkable.

1246.

Silk Damask; ground, brick-red; design, within broad-banded squares, ornamented with stars and flowers, a large double-headed eagle with wings displayed. Greek, 13th century. 12½ inches by 8 inches.

Being so very thin in texture, it is not surprising that this stuff is in such a tattered condition. When new, it must have been meant, not for personal wear, but rather for church purposes, or household use, as the hanging of walls. Its design is not happy, and the ornamentation about the eagle thick and heavy.

1247.

Narrow Web for Orphreys; ground, a broad stripe of crimson silk between two narrow ones of green; design, a succession of oblong six-sided spaces in gold, filled in with a sort of floriated cross having sprouting from both ends of the upright beam, stalks bending inwards and ending in a fleur-de-lis, all in red silk. French, 13th century. 3¾ inches by 1-⅞ inches.

Of this kind of textile, wrought by women in a small loom, we have before us in this collection several specimens; and what was done by poor females at the time in England and France, it is likely was performed by industrious women elsewhere. The fleur-de-lis upon this fragment leads us to think of France; but Dr. Bock informs us that laces much like this in pattern were observed upon the royal robes in which two princes of the imperial house of the Hohenstaufen were clad for their burial, when their graves were opened in the cathedral of Palermo.

1248.

Piece of Silk and Gold Brocade; ground, blue silk; design, a broad border with large pretended Arabic letters, and a griffin(?) segreant, both in gold. Sicilian, early 13th century. 8¼ inches by 4-⅞ inches.

The heraldic monster-bird here, supposed to be a griffin, is drawn and executed in a very spirited manner.

1249.

Linen, embroidered, in gold and silk, with the figure of a king. German, late 12th century. Diameter 6¾ inches.

The figure of this grim-bearded personage is carefully worked, and the gold employed is good though thin. Upon his head he wears a crown, such as are figured upon the monuments of the time; the face is badly drawn, but the ermine lining of his mantle is carefully represented.

1250.

An Orphrey; ground, gold; design, various subjects from Holy Writ, with borders; the whole length figured with monsters, floriations, and an inscription. French, 13th century. 4 feet 2 inches by 7 inches.

In all probability this orphrey belonged to the back of a chasuble, and, as such, the subjects figured in it would find an appropriate place there; but it ought to be observed that, in reality, it is made up of four portions, the two narrow bands, besides the long and the short lengths of the middle or broad parts which they border. At top we have the Crucifixion, wherein each of our Lord’s feet is fastened by its own separate nail. On one side of His head is the sun, on the other the moon; St. Mary and St. John are standing on the ground beside Him; and, at the cross’s foot, looks out a head, that of Adam, which, whether from accident or design, has very much the shape of a lion’s with a shaggy mane; one of the symbols belonging to our Lord is a lion, in token of the resurrection. Some way down a female, crowned and wimpled, bears in both her hands, which are muffled in a veil, a golden-covered cup,--very likely Mary Magdalen, with her vessel full of costly spikenard for anointing our Saviour’s feet against the day of His burying. Opposite to her is St. Michael, spearing Satan, an emblem of the great atonement, as is shown under No. 9182, while describing the Syon Cope. Lower down we have the three women or, as they are sometimes called, Maries, with their sweet spices, and the angel telling them of the uprising of our Redeemer. Lower yet, our Lord’s Ascension is represented by showing Him seated in majesty with both His arms outstretched, within an almond-shaped glory. On the second or shorter length, and, as far as the Gospel history is concerned, out of its due place, we behold the Annunciation, and a little under that subject a row of four nimbed and seemingly winged heads, like those of the cherubim, may be symbols of the four evangelists. At each side of these subjects runs a border of gold wrought with lions crowned, and imaginary winged monster-animals separated by graceful floriations; and on one of these borders, at the lower end, is worked this inscription--“Odilia me fecit,” in nicely shaped letters. This female name was common in Auvergne, where St. Odilo, the sixth abbot of Cluni, was born, a son of the noble house of Mercœur, and, to our thinking, it is very likely this Odilia was a daughter of one of the lords of that once great family in the South of France.

So worn away is this curious orphrey that often the several subjects figured on in the loom, and not by the needle, can be hardly made out till held in various lights.

1251.

Printed Silk Taffeta; ground, very light purple; design, a scroll, block-printed in deeper purple, and edged black. Sicilian, 13th century. 8¾ inches by 6 inches.

The boughs, sprouting into a sort of trefoil, are gracefully twined with a bold free hand; and the scroll reminds us of much of the like sort of ornament found, in this country, on various art-works of its time. As an early specimen of block-printing upon silk, it is valuable and rare.

1252.

Part of an Altar-Frontal, embroidered, in coloured threads, upon coarse canvas; design, within a medallion, the ground, light blue and broad border, fawn-colour, a figure, seated, holding in his left-hand a staff, and having on his knee an open book inscribed,--“Ego sum Liber Vite.” The figure is clothed in a girded white tunic, and a mantle now fawn-coloured; but the head is so damaged that the personage cannot be recognized; the probability is that it represents our Lord in majesty, having the staff of a cross in one hand and giving His blessing with the other. German, early 12th century, 12¾ inches by 10 inches.

1252A.

Part of an Altar-Frontal; design, the busts of two winged and nimbed angels, within round arches, bearing between them a white scroll with these words--“Deus Sabaoth.” This was a portion of the frontal mentioned above. German, early 12th century. 17 inches by 7¼ inches. In both pieces the parts now fawn-coloured have faded into such from crimson.

1253.

Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; design, in light green, a sprinkling of fleur-de-lis amid griffins, in pairs, rampant, regardant. Sicilian, 14th century. 10 inches by 8 inches.

The pattern is not of that spirited character found on many of the earlier specimens of the Sicilian loom; the griffins, especially, are weakly drawn. The fleur-de-lis would signify that it was wrought for some French family or follower of the house of Anjou.

1254.

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; design, a diapering of birds pecking at a cone-like ornament ending in a fleur-de-lis, all in yellow. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 inches by 4 inches.

A very thin stuff with a pattern of a small but pretty design. What the birds are with their long square tails is hard to guess; so, too, with respect to the ornament between them, like a fir-cone purfled at its sides with crockets, and made to end in a flower, which may have some reference to the French family of Anjou, once reigning in Sicily. The stuff itself is poor and may have been woven for linings to richer silks.

1255.

Shred of Silk Damask; ground crimson; design, seemingly horsemen separated by a large circular ornament in one row, and the gable of a building in the other, in yellow and blue. Greek, 12th century. 8 inches by 6¼ inches.

Though this stuff be thin and poor, the design, could it be well seen, would be curious. The circle seems a leafless but branchy tree, with a low wall round it; and the gable is full of low pillared arches with voids for windows in them.

1256.

Fragments of Narrow Orphrey Web; ground, crimson; design, in gold ramified scrolls, with beasts and birds. English or French, 13th century, 10½ inches by 3 inches.

This very handsome piece is another specimen of the small loom worked by young women, as before noticed; and may have served either for sacred or secular use. The band is parted into spaces by a thin chevron, and each division so made is filled in with tiny but gracefully-twined boughs, among which some times we have a pair of birds, at others a pair of collared dogs; at top another arrangement took place, but no more of it remains than the body of a lion.

1257.

Silk and Thread Tissue; ground, stripes of red, green, and yellow; design, rows of circles, large and small, with a conventional flower between, the large circles red, the small ones merely outlined in white. Greek, 13th century. 8¼ inches by 6 inches.

Even when new it must have been flimsy, and could have served but for a lining. Of exactly the same design, but done in other and fewer colours, a specimen now at Paris is figured in the “Mélanges d’Archéologie,” tome iii. plate 15.

1258.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, yellow; design, a net-work with six-sided meshes, each filled in with flowers and foliage in deep dull purple. Italian, late 13th century. 14 inches by 10 inches.

The well-turned and graceful foliation to be seen in architectural scroll-work, on monuments raised at the period, enters largely into the design; and for its pattern, though poor for the quantity of its silk, this specimen is very good.

1259.

Piece of a Napkin; ground, nicely diapered in lozenges, all white; design, horizontal dark brown stripes, with a lined pattern in white upon them. Flemish, 16th century. 24 inches by 13 inches.

Most likely Yprès sent forth this pleasing example of fine towel linen.

1260.

Embroidery for liturgical use; ground, dark blue silk; design, our Lord, as the “Man of Sorrows,” within a quatrefoil flowered at the barbs in gold thread sewed on with crimson silk. Italian, 15th century. 6 inches square.

The figure of our Redeemer, wrought upon linen with white silk, much of which is worn away, is holding His wounded hands cross-wise, and a scourge under each arm. From His brows, wreathed with thorns, trickle long drops of blood; and the whole, with the large bleeding gaping wound in His side, strikingly reminds us of the wood-cut to be found at the beginning of our Salisbury Grails, or choir-books, with those anthems sung at high mass, called graduals. In England such representations were usually known under the name of “S. Gregory’s Pity,” as may be seen in “The Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 53. This embroidery is figured by Dr. Bock, in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” I. Band, 11. Lieferung, pl. 14.

1261.

The Embroidered Apparel for an Amice; ground, crimson flos-silk, now faded; design, large and small squares, green, blue, and purple, filled in with gold, and modifications of the gammadion, in white or crimson silks. German, 14th century. 14 inches by 5¼ inches.

This apparel is made out of three pieces, and stiffened with parchment; and is bordered by a narrow but effective lace of a green ground, bearing circles of white and red, parted by yellow. The brown canvas upon which it is worked is very fine of its kind; and the gold, which is of a good quality, is of narrow tinsel strips. From age, or use, the design is worn away from a great portion of the ground, and the pattern was a favourite one for liturgical appliances up to the 16th century.

1262.

Maniple; embroidered, in various-coloured silk, upon brown canvas; design, a net-work in bright crimson, the lozenge-shaped meshes of which, braced together by a fret, are filled in with a ground alternately yellow charged with modifications of the gammadion in blue, and green, with the same figure in white voided crimson. The extremities are cloth of gold, both edged with a parti-coloured fringe, and one figured with a lion in gold on a crimson field. German, 14th century. 3 feet 11 inches by 3 inches.

1263.

Napkin of linen embroidered in white thread; ground, plain white linen; design, a conventional rectangular floriation, filled in with other floriations, and in the middle an eight-petaled flower, and in the square intervening spaces outside a fleur-de-lis shooting out of each corner, all in white broad thread. German, late 14th century. 23 inches by 13¼ inches.

Like many other examples of the kind, the present one can show its elaborate and beautifully-executed design only by being held up to the light, when it comes forth in perfection.

1264.

Silk Damask; ground, crimson; design, a net-work in broad bands of yellow silk and gold wrought like twisted cords, and the meshes, which are wreathed inside with a green garland bearing green and white flowers, filled in with a conventional artichoke in yellow silk mixed with gold thread, and edged with a green and white border. Spanish, early 16th century. 17 inches by 15½ inches.

As a furniture-stuff, this must have been very effective; and from the under side being thickly plastered with strong glue, the last service of the present piece would seem to have been for the decoration of the wall of some room.

1265.

Silk Damask; ground, deep blue, or violet; design, a sprinkling of small stars and rows of large angels, some issuing from clouds and swinging thuribles in the left hand, others kneeling in worship with uplifted hands, bearing crowns of thorns, and the last row kneeling and holding up before them a cross of the Latin shape. Florentine, late 14th century. 21½ inches by 13 inches.

From its form this piece seems to have been cut off from a chasuble; and the stuff itself, it is likely, was woven expressly for the purple vestments worn in Lent, and more particularly during Passion time. At No. 7072 another portion of the same damask is described.

1266.

Triangular Piece of Yellow Silk; ground, light yellow; design, a netting filled in with eight-petaled roses and circles enclosing other flowers, all in white. Greek, 14th century. 9½ inches.

Lined as it is with stout blue canvas, this piece may have been in liturgical use, and, in all likelihood, served as the hood to some boy-bishop’s cope.

About the boy-bishop himself and his functions, according to our old Salisbury Rite, see “Church of Our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 215.

1267.

Tissue, silk upon linen; ground, white; design, broad circles filled in with floriated ornamentation, bearing in the middle a five-petaled purple flower. Italian, early 14th century. 7 inches by 3 inches.

1267A.

Another Piece of the same Tissue. 12¼ inches by 2¼ inches.

The thread in the warp of this stuff is more than usually thick; and so sparingly is the silk employed on its pattern, that in its best days it could have looked but poor.

1268.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, yellow silk mixed with cotton; design, a sprinkling of eight-rayed voided stars, in dusky purple. Italian, 14th century. 5 inches by 2½ inches.

A thin stuff for linings.

1269.

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, light fawn-colour in silk; design, a large conventional flower enclosing another flower of the same character, which is filled in with a double-headed eagle displayed, and the spaces between the large flowers diapered with foliage shooting from a sort of fir-cone, at the top of which are birds in pairs hovering over the plant and having a long feather drooping from the head, all in gold thread. Sicilian, early 14th century. 10¾ inches by 9¾ inches.

Though not so spirited in the drawing of its pattern, and the gold so poor and bad that it has become almost lost to the eye, this stuff is a valuable item in the collection. The eagle, with its double head, and wings displayed, would lead to the belief that it had been wrought to the order of some emperor of Germany, or for some Sicilian nobleman who cherished a love for the house of Hohenstaufen.

1270.

Part of a Maniple; ground, cloth of gold; design, in needlework, St. Blase and St. Stephen. English or French, 13th century. 12 inches by 6½ inches.

Both with regard to its golden cloth, and the figures upon it, this piece is very valuable. The stuff is of that kind which our countryman, John Garland, tells us was wrought by young women at his time, and shows, in its grounding, a pretty zig-zag pattern. The two kneeling figures, though done in mere outline of the scantiest sort, display an ease and gracefulness peculiar to the sculpture and illuminations in England and France of that period. St. Blase is shown us vested in his chasuble and mitre--low in form--with a very long grey beard, and holding a comb in one hand--the instrument of his martyrdom; St. Stephen is robed as a deacon, and kneeling amid a shower of large round stones, pelted at him on all sides.

1271.

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, light green silk; design, griffins passant and fleur-de-lis in one row, fleur-de-lis and slipped vine-leaves arising from two tendrils formed like the letter C, and put back to back, all in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 12 inches by 7½ inches.

The whole of this pattern is thrown off with great freedom, and an heraldic eye will see the boldness of the griffins. The vine-leaves are as crispy as any ever seen upon such stuffs, and the whole does credit to the royal looms of Palermo, where it was probably wrought at the command of the prince, for himself, or as a gift to some French royalty. An exactly similar stuff to this may be found at No. 7061; and it is said that the robes now shown at Neuburg, near Vienna, are traditionally believed to have been worn, at his marriage, by Leopold the Holy.

1272.

Silk and Cotton Stuff; ground, light purple cotton; design, small but thick foliage, interspersed with birds of various kinds, in pairs and face to face, in amber-coloured silk. Sicilian, 14th century. 9½ inches by 7 inches.

Though so small in its elements, this is a pleasing design, and extremely well drawn, like all those from Palermo.

1273.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, of cotton, a light orange; design, within a ten-cusped circle, and divided by the thin trunk of a tree, two cocks, face to face, all in gold thread, upon a purplish crimson ground, and between the circles an ornamentation in which a small crown tipped with fleur-de-lis, over a lion passant gardant, is very frequent in gold. Sicilian, late 14th century, 10¼ inches by 3 inches.

Though such a mere rag, this piece is so far valuable, as it shows that France then got her silken stuffs from Sicily, and, in this instance, perhaps sent her own design with her Gallic cock, and her fleur-de-lis mingled so plentifully in it. How or why the lion is there cannot be explained.

1274.

Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; design, parrots, and giraffes in pairs, amid floriated ornamentation, all, excepting the parts done in gold, of the tint of the ground. Sicilian, 13th century. 20½ inches by 10½ inches.

Upon an egg-shaped figure, nicely filled in with graceful floriated ornaments, stand two parrots, breast to breast, but with heads averted, which (as well as their pinion-joints, marked by a broad circle crowded with little rings on their wings, and legs and claws) are wrought in threads of gold, all now so tarnished as to look as if first worked in some dull purple silk. Their long broad perpendicular tails have the feathers shown by U shaped lines, looking much like the kind of ornamentation noticed under Nos. 8591, 8596, 8599. Below, and back to back, or--as some may choose to see them--affronted, and biting the stems of the foliage, are two giraffes, with one leg raised--may be better described as tripping. They are specked all over with quatrefoil spots, and have head and hoofs done in gold, now faded to black. This stuff is as beautiful in design as substantial in its material, being all of good fine silk; though so poor and sparing was the gold upon the thread, that it has quite faded. From the curve at the upper end, this piece seems to have been cut out of an old chasuble.

1275.

Silk Damask (made up of four pieces); ground, brown, once purple; design, in gold thread and coloured silks, griffins, eagles, and flowers. Sicilian, early 13th century. 19½ inches by 19¼ inches.

At top we have a row of griffins looking to the east, mostly wrought in gold, but relieved on coloured silks, and having at the pinion-joints of the wing that singular circle, filled in with a small design; then a row of conventional flowers in red, crimson, green, and white, and, last of all, a row of eagles at rest, done mostly in gold, slightly shaded with green, and looking west. The beasts and birds are admirably drawn, and when the stuff was new it must have been very fine and effective, though now the gold looks shabby.

1276.

Stole, of silk and gold damask; ground, purple silk; design, mostly in gold, pricked out with green silk, a floriated oval, filled in with a pair of young parded leopards, addorsed regardant, and wyverns regardant in couples. Sicilian, late 13th century. 8 feet 4 inches by 3 inches, not including the expanded ends.

This is a magnificent stuff; but the stole itself could have been made out of it only in the middle of the 17th century.

1277.

The Hood of a Cope; silk and gold; ground, fawn-coloured silk; design, bands, in gold thread, alternately broad, figured with harts couchant, and flowers with an oblique pencil of rays darting down; and narrow, marked with rayless flowers. Underlying the latter gold band is a very broad one of silk, figured in green, with collared dogs running at speed towards a small swan, with sprigs of flowers, green and white, between them. Sicilian, late 13th century. 14½ inches by 13½ inches.

The very pointed shape of this hood is somewhat unusual in the form of this part of a cope, as made during mediæval times, in England. The stuff is of a spirited design, and shows a curious element in its pattern, in those golden flowers with their pencils of rays.

1278.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, black; design, a lion rampant amid trees, all in light green. Sicilian, 14th century. 15 inches by 7¾ inches.

Very few examples occur with ground coloured black, yet the bright green of the design goes well upon its sombre grounding. The animal and also the leaves and trees around him are all admirably and spiritedly drawn, and one regrets that a pattern of such merit should have been lost upon such poor materials.

1279.

Silk and Gold Damask; ground, bright green silk; design, in gold, conventional artichokes, large and small, and harts, and demi-dogs with very large wings, both animals having remarkably long manes streaming far behind them. Sicilian, 14th century. 27 inches by 14 inches.

This beautifully and richly wrought stuff, with its fantastic design drawn with such spirit, must have been, when seen in a large piece, very pleasing. Its last use was in a chasuble of rather modern cut, to judge from its present shape.

1280.

Small Bag to hold relics; ground, gold; design, all embroidered by needle, white rabbits(?) segreant, peacocks in couples, face to face, with the rabbits between them, two hearts and rows of black or purple spots, like women’s heads, one in the middle surrounded by a wreath of eight crimson stars, with small green flower-bearing trees, and the whole field sprinkled with letters, now, from the ill condition of the embroidery, not to be read. German, 16th century. 4½ inches square.

1281.

Part of a Liturgical Ornament; silk upon linen; ground, crimson, faded; design, in yellow flos-silk, beasts and birds. Syrian, late 13th century. 2 feet 6 inches by 7½ inches.

It does not seem to have last served as either stole or maniple, but, apparently, was part of an altar curtain of which two were hung, one at each side of the sacred table. Lions and dogs seated and eagles perched amid flowers and foliage form the pattern, which is not as well figured as those usually are which came from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

1282.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, green; design, large ovals filled in with foliation, enclosed with a net-work of garlands, the fruits of which might be mistaken for half-moons. North Italy, 14th century. 13½ inches by 7½ inches.

On better material, for the quantity of its silk is small, and in happier colours, this stuff might have been very pretty.

1283.

Silk Damask; ground, amber yellow; design, a hart, in gold, lodged beneath green trees in a park, the paling of which is light green, with a bunch of the corn-flower, centaurea, before it. Sicilian, 14th century. 7½ inches by 5½ inches.

1283A.

Silk Damask; ground, amber yellow; design, the sun in its splendour, an eagle in gold, a green tree. Sicilian, 14th century. 7¼ inches by 5½ inches.

1284.

Silk Damask; ground, amber yellow; design, a hart, in gold, lodged beneath green trees in a park, the paling of which is light green, with a bunch of the corn-flower before it. Sicilian, 14th century. 7 inches by 6½ inches.

1284A.

Silk Damask; ground, amber yellow; design, a running hart, in gold, amid foliage. Sicilian, 14th century. 8 inches by 4½ inches.

The last four pieces are, in fact, but fragments of the same stuff, and when put together make up its original pattern, and beautiful it must have seemed when beheld as a whole; the bird and animals are done with much freedom and spirit; so likewise the foliage: but two of the portions, by being more exposed to the light, are much faded, in such a manner that the green in them has almost fled. As usual, so poor was the golden thread that the bird and animals now look almost black, but here and there, with a good glass, shimmerings of gold may be found upon them. To some eyes the sun may look like a rose surrounded by rays. At one time or another an unfeeling hand has most plentifully sprinkled all these four pieces with flowers made from gilt paper stamped out, and pasted on the staff with stiff glue. The silk, especially the yellow, of this tissue was mixed with very fine threads of cotton.

1285.

One of the Ends of a Stole, embroidered in beads; ground, dark blue; design, very likely the head of an apostle, in various coloured and gold beads. Venetian, late 12th century.

So like both in design, execution, and materials to the portion of an orphrey, No. 8274, that it would seem this piece was not only worked by the self-same hand, but formed a part of the self-same set of vestments. The places, now bare, in the nimb and neck, were, no doubt, once filled in with fine seed-pearls that have been wantonly picked out. The other end of the same stole to which this belonged is the following.

1286.

Exactly like the foregoing; but if in its fellow piece seed-pearls are not to be seen, here they are left in part of the nimb, but especially over the left eye. Of the large piece with the head of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we have spoken at length, No. 8274.

1287.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, light yellow silk; design, a reticulation of vine-branches bearing grapes and leaves, and enclosing butterflies, an armorial shield having a royal crown over it, all in light purple cotton. Sicilian, early 14th century. 17½ inches by 15½ inches.

The design in all its elements is so like many other specimens wrought by the looms of Palermo at the period, that we are warranted to presume it came from that great mart of silken stuffs during the middle ages. So thin in its texture, it must have been meant for the lining of a heavier material. Père Martin has figured, in his very valuable “Mélanges d’Archéologie,” t. iv. plate xxii, a piece of silk, now in the Museum of the Louvre, almost the same in pattern, but differing much in colour, from the specimen before us. In the specimen at Paris little dogs and dragons, both in pairs, come in, but here they are wanting; so that we may learn that, to give variety to the pattern, parts were changed. Upon the shield there is a charge not unlike a star, rather oblong, of six points.

1288.

Damask, silk and cotton; ground, deep bluish green; design, pairs of monsters, half griffin, half elephant, in gold, a conventional flower in light green, enclosing a pair of wings in gold, and pairs of birds amid foliation, with short sentences of imitated Arabic here and there. Sicilian, early 14th century. 14 inches by 11 inches.

This is a fine and noteworthy production of the Palermitan loom, and shows in its pattern much fancy and great freedom of drawing; for whether we look at those very singular griffin elephants, sitting in pairs--and gazing at one another, or the two birds of the hoopoe family, with a long feather on the head, or the two gold wings conjoined and erect, so heraldically tricked, with that well-devised flower ending in a honeysuckle scroll, an ornament sprinkled all about, we cannot but be pleased with the whole arrangement. The combination of elephant and griffin in ornamentation is almost, perhaps quite, unique. The pretended Arabic points to a locality where once Saracenic workmen laboured, and left behind them their traditions of excellency of handicraft. In Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pl. ix. may be seen this curious stuff figured.

1289.

Part of a Maniple, silk damask; ground, fawn-coloured; design, an ovate foliation amid monster beasts and birds, all in light blue silk, excepting the heads of the birds; the feet and heads of the animals done in gold. Sicilian, late 13th century. 13¼ inches by 7 inches.

1289A.

Part of a Maniple, silk damask; ground, fawn-coloured; design, an ovate foliation amid small lions and large monster beasts and birds, in light blue silk, excepting the small lions all in gold, and the heads and claws of the others in the same metal. Sicilian, late 13th century. 21½ inches by 6½ inches.

The two articles were evidently parts of the same maniple; a liturgical appliance of such narrow dimensions that we cannot make out the entire composition of the very fine and admirably drawn design upon the stuff, out of which it was cut originally. From what is before us we perceive that there were a pair of small lions, face to face, all in gold, a pair of wyverns segreant in green, a pair of griffins passant, with heads of gold, and a pair of other large animals, antelopes, with their horned heads and cloven hoofs in the same metal; slight indications of the fleur-de-lis here and there occur.

1290.

A bishop’s Liturgical Shoe, of silk and gold damask; ground, crimson silk; design, eagles, in couples, at rest, in gold, amid foliations in green silk; a small piece on the left side of the heel is of another rich stuff in gold and light green. Italian stuff, 14th century. 11½ inches.

Such old episcopal liturgic shoes are now great rarities; and a specimen once belonging to one of our English worthies, Waneflete, is given in the “Church of our Fathers,” t. ii. p. 250; it is of rich silk velvet, wrought with flowers, and still kept at Magdalen College, Oxford, built and endowed by that good bishop of Winchester. In the present example we have, in its thin leather sole for the right foot, a proof that making shoes right and left was well known then.

1291.

Silk and Gold Damask; ground (now very faded), crimson silk; design, animals, all in gold, and flowers in gold, pricked out, some in green, others in purple silk. Sicilian, 14th century. 14½ inches by 8½ inches.

The animals are large antelopes couchant, and smaller ones in the like posture, within flowers, along with large oddly-shaped wyverns with the head bent down; the flowers are roses, and a modification of the centaurea, or corn-flower. Though the gold be tarnished, the pattern is still rich.

1292.

Taffeta, silk and cotton; ground, dull crimson cotton; design, reticulated foliage with a conventional artichoke in the meshes, all in pale blue. Spanish, 15th century. 7½ inches by 6¾ inches.

1292A.

Taffeta, silk and cotton; ground, dull crimson cotton; design, reticulated foliage with a conventional artichoke in the meshes, all in pale blue. Spanish, 15th century. 5½ inches by 5¼ inches.

As poor in material as in design, and evidently manufactured for linings to silks of richer substances.

1293.

Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, bright crimson silk; design, floriated circles filled in with a pair of griffins rampant, addorsed, regardant, and the spaces between the circles ornamented with a floriated cross, all in yellow cotton. Sicilian, 14th century. 9¼ inches by 7 inches.

A good design bestowed upon somewhat poor materials. At first the yellow parts of the pattern had their cotton thread covered with gold, but of such a debased quality and so sparingly, too, that it has almost all disappeared, and, where seen, has tarnished to a dusky black.

1294.

Silk Damask; ground, purple; design, large fan-like leaves, between small fruits of the pomegranate, in dead purple. Spanish, late 15th century.

Upon this specimen there was sewed an inscription, now so broken as not to make sense, and from the style of letter, of the floriated form, done in red and gold thread upon purple canvas, as is all the scroll-work about it, some German hand must have wrought it.

1295.

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

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

1296.

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

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

1297.

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

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

1298, 1298A.

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

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

1299.

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

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

1300.

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

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

1301.

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

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

1302.

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

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

1303.

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

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

1304.

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

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

1305.

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

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

1306, 1306A.

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

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

1307.

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

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

1308.

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

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

1309.

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

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

1310.

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

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

1311.

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

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

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

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

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

1312.

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

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

1313.

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

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

1314.

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

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

1315.

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

1316.

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

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

1317.

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

1318.

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

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

1319.

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

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

1320.

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

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

1321.

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

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

1322.

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

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

1323.

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

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

1324.

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

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

1325.

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

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

1326.

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

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

1327.

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

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

1328.

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

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

1329.

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

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

1330.

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

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

1331.

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

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

1332.

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

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

1333.

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

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

1334.

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

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

1335.

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

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

1336.

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

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

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

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

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

1337.

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

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

1338.

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

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

1339.

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

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

1340.

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

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

1341.

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

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

1342.

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

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

1343.

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

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

1344.

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

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

1345.

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

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

1346.

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

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

1347.

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

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

1348.

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

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

1349.

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

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

1350.

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

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

1351.

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

1351A.

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

1351B.

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

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

1352.

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

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

1352A.

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

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

1352B.

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

1353.

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

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

1354.

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

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

1355.

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

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

1356.

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

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

1357.

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

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

1358.

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

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

1359.

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

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

1360.

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

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

1361.

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

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

1362.

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

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

1363.

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

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

1364.

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

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

1365.

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

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

1366.

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

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

1367.

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

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

1368.

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

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

1369.

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

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

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

1370.

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

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

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

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

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

1371.

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

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

1372.

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

1372A.

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

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

1373.

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

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

1374.

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

Tame in its design, and easy in its execution.

1374A. ’64.

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

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

1375. ’64.

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

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

1376.

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

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

1375.

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

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

1376.

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

1378.

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

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

1379.

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

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

1547, 1548.

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

All well and heraldically done.

1622.

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

2864A.

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

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

2865.

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

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

4015.

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

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

4016.

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

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

4018.

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

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

4024.

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

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

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

4513-4516.

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

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

4045.

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

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

4046, 4046A.

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

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

4059.

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

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

4061.

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

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

4062.

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

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

4068.

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

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

4069.

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

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

4070.

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

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

4209, 4210.

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

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

4216.

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

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

4456.

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

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

“ALS . MAN . ZALT . FUNFZEHN . HUNDERT . JAHR. DARZU . NOCH . ACHTZIG . UND . FUNF . ZWAR. HAT . DER . EDEL . UND . VEST . HEINRICH. VON . GEISPITZHEIM . DIE . TUGENTREICH. ANNA . BLICKIN . ZUM . GMAL . ERKORN. WELCHE . VON . LIGTENBERG . GEBORN. BEID . ALTES . ADELICHS . GESCHLECHT. ZUSAMMEN . SICH . VERMEHLT . RECHT. DAMIT . NUHN . IN . IHREM . EHESTANDT. VLEISIG . HAUSHALTUNG . WURDT . ERKANDT. HAT . SIE . IHREM . TUNCKERN . ZU . EHRN. DEN . HAUSRAHT . WOLLEN . ZIRN . UND . MEHRN. DARUMB . MIT . IHRER . EIGNEN . HANDT. DIES . UND . NOCH . VIEL . ZIERLICHS . GEWANDT. ZU . IHRER . GEDACHTNIS . GEMACHT. MIT . BEIDER . NECHSTEN . ANGHEN . ACHT. MIT . GOTT . IHRH . TUNCKERN . D . KINDER . ZART. AUCH . SIE . ERHALTE . BEI . WOHLFAHRTH. DARNEBEN . VERLEIHEN . GEDULT. DAS . WIR . BEZAHLN . DER . NATUR . SCHULT. NACH . VOLLPRACHTEM . LANGEN . LEBEN. UNS . ALLEN . DIE . EWIG . FREUD . GEBEN. AMEN. OBGMELTER . HEINRICH . DICHTET . MICH.

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

Amen.

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

“NUN . FOLGET . AUCH . BEI . DIE . ZEIT . UND . JAHR. DARIN . ICH . ZUR . WELT . GEPOHREN . WAR. DES . WEN . MEIN . DREI . DOCHTERLEIN. AUCH . SONN . ZUR . WELT . GEPOHREN . SEIN. ALS . MAN . ZALTT . FUNFF . ZEHEN . HUNDERT . LII. ERFREUWET . MEIN . MUTTER . MEIN . GESCHREI. AN . DEM . JAR . ACHTZIG . FUNFF . HER . NACH. ICH . MEINEM . JUNCKERN . EIN . DOCHTER . PRACHT. EMILIA . CATHARIENA . IST . IHR . NAHM. VON . JUGENT . GERECHT . UND . LOBESAM. ZWEI . JHAR . DAR . NACH . IM . JANNER . HART. MICH . GOT . WIEDERUM . ERFREUET . HAT. MIT . EINER . DOCHTER . ZART . UND . FEIN. SIE . DRINCKT . WASER . UND . KEINEN . WEIN. MAGDALENA . ELISABETH . GENNANT. JHREM . VATER . WERTH . GAR . WOHL . BEKANNT. NACH . GEHENTS . JAHR . ACHTZIG . ACHT. MEINEN . SON . REICHART . AN . DAS . LICHT . GEPRACHT DAS . WAR . DEM . VATER . GROSSE . FREUWDT. GOT . SEI . GELOBT . IN . EWIGKEIT. DAS . VOLGT . JAHR . ACHTZIG . UND . NEUN. BRACHT . ICH . ZUR . WELT . DIE . ZWILING . MEIN. HANS . CASPARN . ERST . DRAUFF . EMICHEN . BALDT. DAS . SICH . ERFREUDT . DER . VATER . ALT. DAS . GESCHACH . DEN . IZ . HORNUNGS . DAG. GOTS . ALLMACHT . NOCH . VIEL . MEHR . VERMAG. ZU . LETZ . IM . JAHR . NEUNTZIG . UND . DREI. ANNA . MARGARETHA . KAM . AUCH . HERBEI. DEN . ZWOLFFTEN . FEBRUARIUS. DAMIT . ICH . DISSE . SACH . BESCHLUSZ. O . IHR . HERTZ . LIEBE . KINDTER . MEIN. ICH . LASZ . EUCH . MIR . BEFOHLEN . SEIN. BEHTET . ALLENS . MORGENS . OHN . UNDER . LASZ. IN . FROLIGKEIT . HALT . GNAE . MASZ. ACH . IHR . HERTZ . LIEBE . KINDTER . MEIN. MACHT . EUCH . MIT . GOTTES . WORT . GEMEIN. SO . WIRT . EUCH . GOT . DER . HER . ERHALTEN. DAS . IHR . EWEREM . VATER . NOCH . MIT . EHRN . [some letters wanting] DISEN . SPRUCH . MERCKT . EBEN. SO . WIRT . EUCH . GOT . GLICK . UND . SGEN . GEBN.

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

“DISZ . HAB . ICH . EUCH . LIEBE . KINDER . MEIN. IN . REIMEN . BRINGEN . LASZEN . FEIN. AUFF . DAS . IR . WUST . EUWERS . ALTERS . ZEIT. DURCH . DIESE . MEINER . HANDT . ARBEIT. WELCHS . ICH . EUCH . ZUR . GEDECHTNIS . LAS. UND . BITT . EUCH . FREUNDLICH . ALLER . MASS. SEIDT . UFFRICHTIG . IN . ALLEN . SACHEN. DAS . WIRT . EUCH . GOSZ . UND . HERLICH . MACHN. THUT . IEDEM . EHR . NACH . SEINEM . STANDT. DAS . WIRT . EUCH . RUMLICH . MACHEN . BEKANDT. UND . IHR . HERTZ . LIEBE . SONE . MEIN. WOLT . EUCH . HUTEN . VOR . VERIGEM (feurigem) . WEIN. DRINCKT . DEN . WEIN . MIT . BESCHEIDENHEIT. DA . SICHS . GEBURTT . DAS . PEHUT . VOR . LEIDT. UND . IHR . HERTZ . LIEBE . DOCHTER . MEIN. LAST . EUCH . ALLE . TUGENT . BETOLEN . SEIN. BEWART . EUHER . EHR . HAPT . EUHR . GUT . ACHT. BEDENCKT . ZU . VOR . JDE . SACH. DAN . VOR . GETHAN . UND . NACH . BEDRACHT. HAT . MANCHEN . WEIT . ZURUCK . GEBRACHT. DAS . MITELL . DIS . ALLES . ZU . GEPEN. IST . DIE . FORCHT . GOTTES . MERCKT . MICH . EBEN. GOTTS . FORCHT . BRINGT . WEISHEIT . UND . VERSTANT. DAR . DORCH . GESEGNET . WIRDT . DAS . LANDT. GOTS . FORCHT . MACHT . REICH . BRINGT . FRED . U . MUHT. ERFRISCHT . DAS . LEBEN . UND . DAS . BLUT. GOTES . FORCHT . BEHUTT . VOR . ALLEM . LEIDT. UND . IST . EIN . WEG . ZUR . SELIGKEIT. GOTTES . FORCHT . IST . DAS . RECHT . FUNDAMENT. DARUFF . DES . MENSCHEN . GLICK . BEWENDT. UND . IST . EIN . HAUPTMITTEL . ALLER . DUGENT. WER . SICH . DER . ANIMPT . IN . DER . JUGENT. DEM . GEHT . SEIN . ALTER . AN . MIT . EHREN. UND . SEIN . GLICK . WIRD . SICH . TAGLICH . MEHREN. DAR . DURCH . DER . MENSCH . ZUM . SELIG . ENDT. LETZLICH . GELANGT . ACH . HER . UNS . SENDT. DEIN . HEILIGER . GEIST . DER . UNS . THUT . EINFREN. ZU . SOLCHER . FORCHT . DIE . WOL . EUCH . RIHREN. EWER . HERTZ . UND . SIN . IHR . SOLICH . FORCHT. ERGREIFFEN . KONT . UND . GOT . GEHRCHT. AMEN . DAS . WERDT . WARH . G . GOTT . DIE . ERH.

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

“Amen. Give to God all honour.”

“ALS . MAN . ZALT . FUFZEHN . HUNDERT . JAHR. UND . NEUNTZIG . NEUN . DARZU . JST . WAR. DEN . ERSTEN . APRIL . NACH . MITNACHT. GLEICH . UMB . EIN . UHR . OFFT . ICHS . BETRACHT. DER . ALLERLIEBSTE . JUNCKER . MEIN. GENANDT . HEINRICH . VON . GEISPITZHEIM. ZU . DIR . O . GOTT . AUS . DIESER . WELT. ERFORDERT . WIRT . ALS . DIRS . GEFELLT. SEIN . ALTER . WAR . SECHZIG . UND . ACHT. DIE . WASSER . SUCHT . IHN . UMGEPRACHT. DEN . WOLLEST . O . GOTT . GNED . GEBEN. SEIN . PFLEGEN . NACH . DEM . WILLEN . DEIN. JCH . SEIN . BETRUEBTE . NACHGELASSEN . ANN. BLICKIN . VON . LIECHTENPERG . GENANDT. HAB . MIT . NICHT . UNDER . LASSEN . WOLLEN. SONDERN . EIN . SOLICHES . HIE . MELDEN . SOLLEN. IN . DIESEM . TUCH . MIT . MEINER . HANDT. DAMIT . ES . WERD . MEINEN . KINDERN . BEKANDT. DIESES . MEIN . GROSSES . LEID. WELCHES . MIR . VON . GOTT . WARD . BEREIT.

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

“DEN . FUNFFTEN . AUGUST . BALDT . HERNACH. WIEDERUM . SICH . FUGT . EIN . LEIDIG . SACH. MEIN . JUNGSTER . SON . EIMCH . EIN . ZWILLING. VON . DIESER . WELT . ABSCHIEDT . GAB . GEHLINGS. DARDURCH . WARDT . MIR . MEIN . LEID . GEMERT. UND . ALLE . HOFFNUNG . UMBGEKERTH. ACH . GOTT . LAS . DICHS . MIENER . ERBARMEN. UND . KOM . ZU . TROST . UND . HILFF . MIR . ARMEN. HILF . TREUWER . GOT . UND . STEH . BEI . MICH. TROST . MICH . MIT . DEINEM . GEIST . GNEDIGGLICH. UND . BEHUT . MIR . MEIN . LIEBE . KINDT. SO . BISZ . NOCH . GESUND . UEBRIG . SINT. UND . SCHAFF . O . GOT . DAS . WIR . ZUGLICH. DICH . SCHAU . DEN . IM . HIMMEL . EWIGLICH. DARZU . HILFF . UNS . GNEDIGKLICH. ACH . HER . VER . GIEB . ALL . UNSER . SCHULT. HILFF . DAS . WARTEN . MIT . GEDULT. BIES . UNSER . STUNTLIN . NACHT . HERBEI. AUCH . UNSER . GLAUBE . STETZ . WACKER . SEI. DEIN . WORT . ZU . DRAUWEN . TESTIGKLICH. BIS . WIR . ENDT . SCHLAFFEN . SELIGKLICH.

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

4457.

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

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

4458.

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

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

4459.

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

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

4460.

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

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

4461.

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

Free in design and easy of execution.

4462.

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

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

4522.

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

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

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

4643.

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

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

4644.

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

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

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

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

4645.

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

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

4646.

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

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

4647.

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

4648.

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

4649.

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

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

4661.

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

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

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

4665.

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

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

4666.

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

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

4667.

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

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

4894.

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

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

5662.

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

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

5663.

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

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

5664, 5664A.

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

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

5665.

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

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

5666.

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

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

5670-5676.

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

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

5677.

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

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

5678.

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

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

5723.

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

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

5728.

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

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

5788.

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

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

5900.

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

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

5958.

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

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

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

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

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

6998.

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

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

7004.

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

A pleasing design, but the gold is very scant.

7005.

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

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

7006.

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

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

7007.

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

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

7008.

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

Pleasing in its quiet tone, and good design.

7009.

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

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

7010.

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

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

7011.

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

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

7012.

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

A texture for personal attire which must have looked well.

7013.

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

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

7014.

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

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

7015.

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

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

7016.

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

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

7017.

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

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

7018.

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

The same stuff occurs at other numbers in this collection.

7019.

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

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

7020.

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

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

7021.

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

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

7022.

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

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

7023.

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

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

7024.

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

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

7025.

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

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

7026.

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

7027.

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

7028.

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

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

7029.

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

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

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

7030.

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

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

7031.

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

Both silk and gold are good in this simple pattern.

7032.

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

Designed on Moorish principles, and coarse in its workmanship.

7033.

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

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

7034.

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

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

7035.

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

Poor in design as well as material.

7036.

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

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

7037.

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

Of poor stuff, but of a rather pleasing design.

7038.

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

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

7039.

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

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

7040.

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

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

7041.

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

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

7042.

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

A tissue showing a Saracenic feeling.

7043.

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

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

7044.

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

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

7045.

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

7045A.

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

7046.

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

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

7047.

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

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

7048.

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

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

7049.

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

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

7050.

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

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

7051.

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

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

7052.

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

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

7053.

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

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

7054.

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

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

7055.

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

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

7056.

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

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

7057.

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

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

7058.

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

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

7059.

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

An extraordinary but not pleasing pattern.

7060.

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

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

7061.

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

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

7062.

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

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

7063.

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

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

7064.

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

7064A.

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

Equally serviceable for personal or ecclesiastical use.

7065.

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

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

7066.

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

7067.

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

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

7068.

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

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

7069.

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

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

7070.

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

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

7071.

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

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

7072.

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

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

7073.

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

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

7074.

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

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

7075.

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

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

7076.

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

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

7077.

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

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

7078.

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

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

7079.

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

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

7080.

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

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

7081.

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

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

7082.

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

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

7083.

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

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

7084.

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

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

7085.

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

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

7086.

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

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

7087.

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

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

7088.

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

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

7089.

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

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

7090.

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

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

7091.

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

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

7092.

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

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

7093.

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

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

7094.

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

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

7095.

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

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

7099.

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

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

7218.

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

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

7219.

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

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

7468.

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

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

7674.

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

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

7788.

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

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

7789, 7790.

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

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

7791.

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

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

7792.

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

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

7793.

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

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

7794.

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

7795.

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

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

7799.

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

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

7813.

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

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

7813A.

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

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

7833.

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

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

7900.

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

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

8128.

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

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

In the upper apparel, we have the birth and childhood of the mother of our Lord, as it is found in one of the apocryphal books of the New Testament, entitled,--“Evangelium de Nativitate S. Mariae,” which the Latins got from the Greeks, as early, it would seem, as the second or third age of the Church. Though of no authority, this book was in especial favour with our countrymen, and it was not unfrequently noticed in their writings; hence, no doubt, the upper apparel was suggested by that pseudo-gospel. In its first compartment, we behold a middle-aged lady, richly clad, having a mantle of gold, lined with vair or costly fur, about her shoulders, seated on a cushioned stool with a lectern, or reading-desk before her, and upon it an open book of the Psalms, with the beginning of the fiftieth written on its silver pages,--“Miserere mei, Deus,” &c., and outstretching her hands towards an angel coming down from the clouds, and as he hails her with one hand, holds, unrolled, before her eyes, a scroll bearing these words:--“Occurre viro ad portam.” This female is Ann, wife of Joachim, and mother of Mary; and the whole is thus set forth in the Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti; where the angel, who appeared to her while she was at prayer, is said to have spoken these words:--“Ne timeas, Anna, neque phantasma esse putes.... Itaque surge, ascende Hierusalem, et cum perveneris ad portam quæ aurea, pro eo quod deaurata est, vocatur, ibi pro signo virum tuum obvium habebis,” &c.--_Evangelium de Nativitate S. Mariae_, c. iv. in COD. APOCRY. ed. Thilo, pp. 324, 325. This passage is thus rendered in that rare old English black-letter book of sermons called “The Festival,” which was so often printed by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and other early printers in London:--“Anne was sory and prayed to God and sayde, Lorde, that me is woo. I am bareyne, and I may have noo frute ... and I knowe not whyther he (Joachim my husband) is gone. Lorde have mercy on me. Whene as she prayed thus an angell come downe and comforted her, and sayd: Anne, be of gode comfort, for thou shalt have a childe in thyne olde age, there was never none lyke, ne never shall be ... and whan he (Joachim) come nye home, the angell come to Anne, and bade her goo to the gate that was called the golden gate, and abide her husbonde there tyll he come. Thene was she glad ... and went to the gate and there she mete with Joachim, and sayd, Lord, I thanke thee, for I was a wedow and now I am a wyfe, I was bareyne and now I shall bear a childe ... and whan she (the child) was borne, she was called Mary.”--_The Festival_, fol.