letter M for Maria--the Blessed Virgin Mary, it would seem that it was

the work of a Christian hand well practised in the Saracenic style of pattern-drawing.

8298.

Piece of Silk; ground, crimson; pattern, a yellow diapering of a rather peculiar form. Spanish, late 14th century. 18 inches by 12 inches.

Rich in its tones, this specimen may have been designed under the influence of Moorish teachings; it is, however, very agreeable.

8299.

Piece of Silk Tissue; the pattern, a large raised diaper, which consists of a centre, in red silk, representing the web of the geometric spider, with the insect resting in the middle, enclosed within the branches of a conventional tree, in silver thread. Italian, early 15th century. 12 inches by 6 inches.

Though the silk ground of this elegant stuff must have been once of a bright crimson tinge, almost the whole of the colour has flown; and the silver thread, of which the beautifully arranged tree is formed, has become so tarnished as to look as if it had been from first a dull olive-green. Such events give a warning to manufacturers about the quality of their dyes, and the purity as well as sort of the metals they may choose to employ. The manner in which the tree and its graceful branches are made to stand well out and above the red grounding is remarkably good; and, altogether, the pattern, composed as it is of a spider in its web, hanging so nicely between the outspread limbs of the tree, is as singular as it is pleasing. Of old, a Lombard family bore, as its blazon, a spider in its web.

8300.

Piece of very rich Crimson Silk and gold Tissue; the large pattern represents a palm-tree rising from a close palisade, within which is a lion seated; from one side shoots a slender branch, to which clings a bird. Italian, late 14th century. 31 inches by 14 inches.

A fine bold pattern, but the gold so tarnished that it looks as if the threads had always been brown. The down-bent eagles, and the shaggy-maned lion couchant regardant at the foot of a palm-tree in a park palisaded, make this heraldic design very pleasing.

8301.

Portion of Linen; border, probably of an altar-cloth, stamped in red and yellow with a geometric pattern composed of circles and leaves. Flemish, 15th century.

The design and colouring of this old piece of printed cloth are so very like those employed upon the glazed paving tiles of the mediæval period, that the idea of the potter’s work immediately suggests itself; though of such poor material, it is a valuable link in the history of textiles.

8302.

Piece of Purple Silk and Gold Tissue; the pattern is formed of angels holding a monstrance, beneath which is a six-winged cherub’s head. Florentine, 14th century. 18 inches by 16 inches.

This is one of the most elaborate and remarkable specimens of the mediæval weavers’ works, and shows how well, even with their appliances, they could gear their looms. The faces of the six-winged cherubic heads, as well as the hands and faces of the seraphim, vested in long albs, were originally shaded by needlework, most of which is now gone. The Umbrian school of design to be seen in the gracefully floating forms of the angels, is very discernible. This rich stuff must have been purposely designed and woven for especial liturgical use at the great Festival of Corpus Christi, and its solemn processions. It may have been employed for hanging the chancel walls, or for altar-curtains; but most likely it overspread the long wooden frame-work or portable table upon which stood, and was thus carried all about the town by two or four deacons, the Blessed Sacrament enclosed in a tall heavy gold or silver vessel like the one shown in this textile, and called a “monstrance,” because, instead of shutting up from public gaze, it displayed the consecrated host as it was borne about among the people. Dr. Bock has figured this stuff in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters.”

8303.

Piece of Linen; pattern, stamped in black with a central stem of conventional branches and flowers, at either side of which are hawks crested, regardant; at one side is a running border of detached portions of scroll-foliage. Flemish, very late 14th century. 13 inches by 6¾ inches.

Any specimen of such printed linen has now become somewhat a rarity, though there are other pieces here, Nos. 7022, 8615.

8304.

Linen Towel, for use at the altar, with deep border embroidered in various coloured silk, with a geometrical pattern interspersed with small figures of birds. Beginning of 15th century. 3 feet by 1 foot 1 inch.

8305.

A Diaconal Stole, embroidered in linen thread and various-coloured silk, with a pattern somewhat like the “gammadion” ornaments, the ends of gold tissue, fringed with silk and linen. German, 14th century. 8 feet 8 inches by 2¾ inches.

For the distinction of the priest’s and the deacon’s stole, and the manner in which either wears it in the celebration of the liturgy, see Hierurgia, p. 434, 2nd edition.

8306.

Piece of Dark brown raised Velvet and Gold Tissue; portion of the robe in which the Emperor Charles IV. was buried at Prague, as it is said. Italian, 14th century. 7 inches by 6½ inches.

8307.

Linen Amice, with its “apparel” of crimson silk, to which are sewed small ornaments in silver and silver-gilt. German, 15th century. 4 feet 2 inches by 1 foot 11 inches.

The example of linen in this amice will, for the student of mediæval antiquities and manufactures, be of great service, showing, as it does, what we are to understand was the kind of stuff meant by canvas in old accounts which speak of that material so often as bought for making albs, surplices, and other linen garments used in the ceremonial of the Church. The crimson ornament of silk sprinkled with large spangle-like plates of silver gilt, and struck with a variety of patterns, is another of various instances to show how the goldsmith’s craft in the middle ages was brought into play for ornaments upon silk and other textiles; and the liturgical student will be glad to see in this specimen an instance, now so very rare, of an old amice, with its strings, but more especially its apparel, in its place; about which see “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. 463.

8308.

Piece of Embroidery in Silk, on linen ground; the subject, partly needlework, and partly sketched in, represents the Adoration of the three Kings. German, 14th century. 12 inches square.

Though in the style of that period, it is roughly done, and by no means a good example.

8309.

Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue; the ground, lilac-blue; the pattern, in gold, represents the Annunciation. Florentine, late 14th century. 17¾ inches by 12 inches.

This is another of those many beautiful and artistic exemplars of the loom given to the world, but more especially for the use of the Church, by North Italy, during the 14th and 15th centuries. The treatment of the subject figured on this fragment--the Annunciation--is quite typical, in its drawing and invention, of the feelings which spread themselves all over the sweet gentle Umbrian school of painting, from the days of its great teacher the graceful Giotto. The lover, too, of ecclesiastical symbolism will, in this small piece, find much to draw his attention to it: the dove, emblem of the Holy Ghost, is in one place flying down from heaven with an olive-branch, and hovers over the head of the Blessed Virgin Mary; in another place, it stands at rest behind her, and bearing in its beak a lily-like flower; the angel Gabriel, clothed in a full, wide-flowing alb, carrying in his left hand a wand--the herald’s sign--tipped with a fleur-de-lis, to show not only that he was sent from God, but for an especial purpose, is on his bended knee before the mother of our Lord, while, with his right hand uplifted in the act of blessing according to the Latin rite, he utters the words of his celestial message. The colour, too, of the ground--lilac-blue, emblematic of what is heavenly--must not be overlooked.

8310.

Fragment of a Vestment for Church use; embroidered in silk and gold, on a dark blue linen ground, with figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Infant, our Saviour, and St. John. German, 15th century. 3 feet 6 inches by 10 inches.

This fine example of the German needle, in its design and treatment, calls to mind the remarkably painted folding altar-piece by Master Stephen Sothener, A.D. 1410, in the chapel of St. Agnes, at the east end of Cologne Cathedral.

8311.

The Apparel for an Amice; the ground, crimson, embroidered in silk; the centre pattern is edged at both sides with inscriptions done in letters of the mediæval form. German, 15th century. 15¼ inches by 3¾ inches.

This apparel for an amice is embroidered in sampler-stitch and style with the names of St. Odilia and St. Kylianus, and the first line of the hymn in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Ave Regina celorum,” as well as the inscription “Mater Regis,” having, except in one instance, a crowned head between each word in the lettering. St. Kilian or Kuln was an Irishman born of a noble house: with two companions, he went to Germany to preach to the unbelieving Franconians, and being made bishop by Pope Conon, he fixed his see at Wurtzburg, where he was martyred, A.D. 688. Dr. Bock has figured it in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” iv Lieferung, pl. iii. fig. 4.

8312.

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, crimson; pattern, flowers and foliage in green, white, and purple. North Italian, middle of 15th century. Attached is a piece of dark blue plush lining of the same date and country. 14¼ inches by 13¼ inches.

As a specimen of a pattern in raised velvet upon a plain silk ground, this fragment is valuable; and the occurrence of roses, both white and red, seeded and barbed, would, at first sight, lead to the thought that its designer had in his mind some recollection of the English Yorkist and Lancastrian strife-stirring and direful badges; but it must have been woven some years before the war of the Roses raged in all its wildness through the length and breadth of this land.

8313.

Purse with cords; white lattice-work on crimson ground, with crimson and yellow pattern in the spaces, four of which on each side are ornamented with gold thread. German, latter half of the 14th century. 5½ inches by 5 inches.

Not only is this little bag nicely embroidered, but it has a lining of crimson sarcenet, and is supplied with platted silken strings of several colours for drawing its mouth close, as well as another silk string made after the same fashion, for carrying it in the hand. In church inventories of the period mention is often found of silk bags holding relics, and from Dr. Bock we learn that in the sacristy of St. Gereon’s, at Cologne, may yet be seen just such another bag, which served, if it does not still serve, as a sort of reliquary. For taking to the sick and dying, the holy Eucharist shut up in a small silver or ivory box, such little bags were and yet are employed, but then they were borne slung round the neck of the priest, which in this instance could not be done, as the cord is too short. Bags for prayer-books are often figured, but this one is too small for such a purpose; its most probable use was that of a reliquary.

8314.

Piece of Velvet; ground of crimson, bordered with green, brown, white, and purple, and striped with bands of gold thread, probably for secular use. Spanish, beginning of the 16th century. 13½ inches by 5 inches.

The pile of this velvet is good, but so bad was the gold, that it has turned black.

8315.

Two Pieces of Embroidery, in silk and gold thread upon white linen; the one shows our Saviour bearing His cross; the other, an inscription with the date 1442. These pieces have been mounted on a piece of crimson damask of a much later date. The embroideries, German, middle of 15th century; the crimson silk, Lyons, late 17th century. 6 inches square.

To all appearance, this figure of our Lord carrying His cross to Calvary, as well as the inscription above it, formed part of the orphrey of a chasuble, and to preserve it, was mounted upon the crimson silk which is stiffened by a thin board; and from the black loop at top it seems it was hung as a devotional picture upon the wall, most likely, of a private oratory or bed-room. As a work of art, the figure of our Lord is beautiful. The head, hands, and feet, as well as the crossed nimbus in gold, the cross, and the ground strewed with flowers, are worked with the needle; while the folds of the white linen garment are all, with but a very few strokes, marked by brown lines put in with the brush. The inscription, quite a separate piece, done in gold upon thin brown silk lined with canvas, reads thus:--Wyderoyd Pastor S. Jac(obi) Colon(iensis). 1442.

In its original state it must have been, as now, “applied,” and not wrought upon the vestment itself, and affords a good hint to those who are striving to bring back the use of such a mode of embroidery in cut work.

8316.

Piece of Silk Embroidery on green silk ground. The pattern is in branches decorated with glass beads, and gilt spangles, flowers in white and red silk, and leaves in red and yellow. German, middle of 15th century. 6 inches square.

Remarkable for the freedom of its design and beautiful regularity of its stitches. The thin green sarcenet upon which the embroidery was originally made is nearly all gone, and scarcely anything like a grounding is to be seen beside the thick blue canvass, which is backed by a lining of the same material, but white. Those small opaque white beads, in all likelihood, came from Venice, where Murano, to this day, is the great manufactory for Africa of the same sort of ornament.

8317.

Napkin, or Towel, in White Linen Diaper, with patterns woven in blue and brown. German, beginning of the 15th century. 19½ inches by 9 inches.

Though not conspicuous for the richness of its material, this linen textile is somewhat a curiosity, as such specimens have now become rare; and it shows how, even in towels, the ornamentation of colour, as well as the pattern in warp and weft, were attended to in the mediæval period.

8318.

Piece of Silk Damask, green, with pattern of pomegranates, crowns, and wreaths of flowers. Flemish, middle of 16th century.

The tastefully-arranged design of this silk would seem to have been a favourite, as we shall again meet it in other specimens, especially at No. 8332.

8319.

Piece of Silk Damask, slate blue ground, with winding borders of cinnamon colour, enclosing pomegranates wrought in gold thread and white silk. Flemish, middle of 16th century, 2 feet 6½ inches by 2 feet.

Though elaborate in design and rich in gold, this piece is not happy in its colours. Its use must have been for the court and palace, but not for the church, and the whole is loom-wrought, and nothing about it done by the needle.

8320.

Orphrey, woven of crimson wool and white linen thread. The pattern is of flowers and leaves on a trellis of branches, in which appear the names of “Jhesus,” “Maria.” German, end of 15th century. 2 feet 8½ inches by 2¾ inches.

In this textile the warp is of white strong linen thread, the woof of crimson wool; and stuffs of such cheap materials were wrought to serve as orphreys to tunicles and dalmatics worn by deacon and sub-deacon at high mass, and in processions, as well as for trimming other adornments for church use; the liturgical girdle neither is, nor ever was made, according to the Latin rite, of so broad a width, nor after such a fashion; in the Greek ritual, broad girdles are in use.

The weavers of laces for carriage-trimming, or the adornment of state liveries, will in this specimen see that, more than three hundred years ago, their craft was practised in Germany; and Cologne appears to have been the centre of such a loom production.

8321.

Piece of Satin Damask, ground of golden yellow, covered with a rich pattern in rose-colour. French (?), middle of the 16th century. 2 feet 10½ inches by 11 inches.

In this specimen we observe how the designs for textiles were gradually losing the conventional forms of the mediæval period.

8322.

Piece of Velvet, dark blue, figured with a pomegranate kind of pattern. Italian, end of the 15th century. 17¾ inches by 14½ inches.

Lucca seems to be the place where this specimen of a deep-piled and prettily designed velvet was produced; and a mediæval conventionality hung about the pencil of its designer, as we may observe in the scrolls or featherings stopped with graceful cusps which go round and shut in those modifications of the so-called pine, really an artichoke, and the pomegranate pattern.

Though equally employed for secular as well as sacred purposes, such velvets, in their latter use, are often found in the remains of copes, chasubles, &c. and altar-frontals.

8323.

Portion of a Chasuble, in figured velvet; the ground, purple, with a pomegranate pattern in yellow, green, and white, with a broad yellow scroll. Genoese, middle of 16th century. 2 feet 3¼ inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

Genoa had earned for itself a notoriety, about this period, for its velvets, wrought in several colours, and the present piece seems no bad specimen of the style. By the warp of cotton and the thin low pile of its silken woof we learn that Genoese velvets varied much in the richness of their materials, and, in consequence, in their cost. This piece was once in a chasuble, as we may see by the bend, to fit the neck, in the upper part.

8324.

Piece of Silk and Linen Tissue; pattern, white crosses on ground of crimson, barred with purple, yellow, and green. German, 16th century. 4 inches square.

This specimen of German trimming, like the one No. 8320, seems to have been made at Cologne, and for the same ecclesiastical uses.

8325.

Piece of Silk-Velvet Damask; green, with pattern of large and small pomegranates in gold. Lucca, latter half of the 15th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 11½ inches.

Among the remarkable specimens of velvet in this collection, not the least conspicuous is the present one, being velvet upon velvet, that is, having, in a portion of it, a pattern in a higher pile than the pile of the ground. By looking narrowly at the larger pomegranate in golden thread within its heart-shaped oval, with featherings bounded by trefoiled cusps, the eye will catch an undulating pattern rising slightly above the rest of the pile; such examples, as distinguished from what is called cut or raised velvet, are very rare. The tone, too, of the fine green, as well as the goodness of the gold, in the ornamentation, enhance the value of this piece, which was once the back part of a chasuble.

8326.

Piece of Silk Damask; white, with the rose and pomegranate pattern woven in gold thread. Spanish, latter half of the 15th century.

This piece, from the looms of Spain, for the beauty of design and the thick richness of its silk, is somewhat remarkable.

8327.

Box covered with crimson raised velvet, having, round the lid, a many-coloured cotton fringe. It holds two liturgical pallæ, both of fine linen and figured--one mounted on pasteboard and measuring 7¾ inches by 7¼ inches, with an altar and two figures; the other, with the Crucifixion and St. Mary and St. John, measuring 9½ inches by 9¾ inches. Inside the lid of this box is an illuminated border of flowers, and the central design is effaced. Velvet, Italian, 16th century, all the paintings very late 15th century, and German. Box, 10 inches by 9½ inches.

As a case for holding “corporals” and “palls,” this box is a curiosity, in its way, of rare occurrence. It must be carefully distinguished from a square sort of case for the “corporal,” and called the “burse.” The corporal is a large square piece of fine linen; and at one time the chalice at mass not only stood upon it but was covered too by its inward border; but for a long period, the usage has been and is to put upon the chalice, instead of any part of the corporal, a much smaller separate square piece of fine linen, often stiffened, the better to serve its purpose, with card-board, like this example; such is a pall, and the one before us is figured, we may say illuminated, with what used to be called, in England, St. Gregory’s Pity; “Church of our Fathers,” i. 53. Upon an altar, around which are the instruments of the Passion, and on one side St. Peter, known by the key in his hand, and on the other the cock on the column, crowing, stands our Lord all bleeding, with the blood trickling into a chalice between His feet. At the foot of the altar kneels, veiled for mass, St. Gregory the Great, behind whom we see, holding a book in both hands, St. Jerome, robed as a cardinal; the whole is framed in a floriated border. The other, and unstiffened “pall,” is illuminated with the Crucifixion after the usual conventional manner, in all respects, that prevailed at the time it was done, that is, somewhere about the year 1490. As specimens on linen these two palls are rather rare. The border of flowers, on vellum, attached to the inside of the lid, is a free, well-coloured, and pleasing example of the Flemish school late in the 15th century. The raised velvet is of a rich crimson tone, and from Lucca or Genoa.

Though, in later times, employed as an ordinary case for the cleanly keeping after service of the corporals or pieces of fine linen, always spread out in the middle of the altar-stone for the host and chalice to rest upon, at mass, its first use seems to have been for reservation of the Blessed Sacrament consecrated on Maundy Thursday to serve at the celebration of the divine office on Good Friday morning, as we have fully set forth in the Introduction § 5, and again while describing a similar box, No. 5958.

In the present specimen all that remains of the vellum illumination, once upon the inside of the lid, is a wreath of painted flowers, within which stood the missing Crucifixion. The absence of that scene is, however, well supplied by the other kind of art-work wrought in colours of the same subject; done, too, after a broad bold manner, upon a square piece of very fine linen, which, as it is moveable, serves now as a lining for the lower inside of this case.

Such ecclesiastical appliances are rare, so much so, that, besides the two in this collection, none is known to be in this country; while very few, even on the Continent, are to be seen at the present day.

8328.

Amice of Linen; with its apparel of crimson velvet, on which are three hexagonal roses woven in gold. Spanish, middle of the 15th century. 3 feet 9 inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

The velvet of the apparel is of a fine rich pile, and the tone of colour light ruby. The flowers, seeded and barbed, are not put in by the needle but woven. Such a liturgical appliance is not now often to be met with in its original state; but, in this instance, it ought to be noticed, that while the amice itself--that is, the linen portion of this vestment--is remarkable for its large size, the velvet apparel sewed on it is broader and shorter than those which we find figured on English ecclesiastical monuments during the mediæval period. The narrow green ferret which hems the apparel is usually found employed as a binding in crimson liturgical garments anciently made in Flanders. Though the velvet was woven in Spain, this linen amice seems to have once belonged to some Flemish sacristy: at one period the connection between the two countries was drawn very close.

8329.

Linen Cloth or Corporal, with an edge on all its four sides; 2¼ inches broad, embroidered in blue, white, and yellow silks. German, late 15th century. 22 inches by 21 inches.

To the student of ecclesiastical antiquities this liturgical appliance will be a great curiosity, from its being so much larger than the corporals now in use; but its size may be easily accounted for. From being put over the altar-cloth, on the middle of the table of the altar, so that the priest, at mass, might place the host and chalice immediately upon it before and after the consecration of the Eucharist, it got, and still keeps the name of “corporale,” about which the reader may consult “Hierurgia,” p. 74, 2nd edition.

The embroidery, seemingly of a vine, is somewhat remarkable from being, like Indian needlework, the same on both sides, and was so done for a purpose to be noticed below. Its greater size may be easily explained. During the middle ages, as in England, so in Germany, the usage was to cover the chalice on the altar, not with a little square piece of linen called a “palla,” two specimens of which are mentioned, No. 8327, but with the corporal itself, as shown in those illuminations copied and given as a frontispiece to the fourth volume of the “Church of our Fathers.” To draw up for this purpose the inner edge of the corporal, it was made, as needed, larger than the one now in use. Moreover, as the under side of the embroidery would thus be turned upwards and conspicuously shown, even on the consecrated chalice, to a great extent; and as anything frayed and ragged--and this single embroidery always is on the under side--would, at such a time, in such a place, have been most unseemly; to hinder this disrespect the embroidery was made double, that is, as perfect on the one side as on the other, giving the design clear and accurate on both, so that whichever part happened to be turned upwards it looked becoming.

8330.

Piece of Silk Damask; green, with pattern of crowns connected by wavy ribbons, in each space is a rose. North Italian, 15th century. 22 inches by 21 inches.

This fine and valuable piece of damask exhibits a very effective design, which is thoroughly heraldic in all its elements. Of these, the first are roselettes--single roses having five petals each--seeded and barbed, and every petal folds inward very appropriately; all about each roselette roves a bordure nebulé, significative in heraldry of a cloud-wreath, above which and just over the flower rests an open crown, the hoop of which is studded with jewels, and bears on the upper rim two balls--pearls--on pyramidal points, and three fleurs-de-lis. To take these roselettes for the Tudor flower would be a great mistake, as it was not thought of at the period when this stuff was manufactured, besides which, it is never shown as a roselette or single rose, but as a very double one. It is not unlikely that this damask was, in the first instance, ordered from Italy, if not by our Edward IV, at least by one of the Yorkist party after the Lancastrian defeat at Mortimer’s Cross: the crown with its fringe of clouds seems to point to the curious appearance in the heavens that day. When once his loom was geared the Lombard weaver would not hesitate to work off stuffs after the same pattern ordered by his English customer and sell them in the Italian markets.

8331.

Piece of Lace in Open Work. The pattern, oblong and octagonal spaces framed in gold thread, and containing stars in silver and flowers in gold, upon a black silk ground. Milanese, end of the 16th century. 14¼ inches by 4½ inches.

During a long time Milan, the capital of rich and manufacturing Lombardy, stood conspicuous among its neighbouring cities for the production of its gold thread, and beautifully wrought laces in that material; and the specimen before us is a pleasing example of this far-famed Milanese handicraft. To all appearance, it once served as the apparel to an amice to be used in religious services for the dead. It seems the work of the loom; and the piece of stout black silk under it was meant, though quite apart from it, to be, as it were, a grounding to throw up more effectively its gold and silver ornamentation.

8332.

Piece of Silk, formerly crimson, but much faded, with elaborate pattern of pomegranates, crowns and wreaths of flowers. Flemish, middle of the 16th century. 19 inches by 17½ inches.

In this piece, though so faded, we have a good specimen of the Bruges loom about the second half of the 16th century, and seemingly from the same workshop which sent forth No. 8318.

8333.

Hood of a Cope, with figures embroidered on a very rich ground of red and gold velvet. Velvet, Florentine; the embroidery Flemish, late 15th century. 16 inches by 15½ inches.

About this period, Florence was noted for its truly rich and beautiful crimson velvets of a deep pile and artistically flowered in gold, and profusely sprigged, or rather dotted, with small loops of golden thread standing well up from the velvet ground; and in this production of Florentine contrivance we have a good example of its speciality.

The needlework is a very favourable specimen of Flemish embroidery, and the management of the three subjects shows that the hand that wrought them was quickened with a feeling love for the school of Hans Memling, who has made Bruges to be the pilgrimage of many an admirer of the beautiful in Christian art. The holy woman, who, according to the old tradition, gave a napkin to our Lord on His way to Calvary, is figured, at top, holding, outstretched before her to our view, this linen cloth showing shadowed on it the head of our Redeemer crowned with thorns and trickling with blood: the Saint became known as St. Veronica, and the handkerchief itself as the “Varnicle.” Just below, we have the Blessed Virgin Mary seated and holding on her knees the infant Saviour, before whom kneels St. Bernard, the famous abbot of Clairvaux, in the white Cistercian habit which he had received from our fellow-countryman, St. Stephen Harding, the founder of the Cistercian Order, about the year 1114. The group itself is an early example of a once favourite subject in St. Bernard’s life, thus referred to by Mrs. Jameson, in one of her charming books:--“It was said of him (St. Bernard) that when he was writing his famous homilies on ‘The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s,’ the Holy Virgin herself condescended to appear to him, and moistened his lips with the milk from her bosom; so that ever afterwards his eloquence, whether in speaking or in writing, was persuasive, irresistible, super-natural.” (Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 142). Lower still, St. Bernard, with his abbot’s pastoral staff, cast upon the ground by his side, is praying, on bended knees, before a crucifix, from off of which our Redeemer has loosened Himself to fall into the arms of the saint, who was so fond of meditating on all the throes of our Lord upon the cross.

8334.

Piece of Crimson Velvet, spangled with gold and silver stars, and embroidered with leaves and flowers in gold thread, once dotted with precious stones. North Italian, end of the 15th century. 14½ inches by 5¼ inches.

The Genoese velvet of this piece is of a very deep ruby tone, deeper than usual; but the way in which it is ornamented should not be passed over by those who wish to learn one among the very effective styles of embroidering. The design consists chiefly of branches gracefully bent in all directions and sprouting out, here and there, with leaves and variously fashioned flowers which, from one example that still holds its tiny round-headed piece of coloured glass set in a silver gilt socket, bore in them mock precious stones, and perhaps seed-pearls. These branches themselves are made of common hempen string, edged on both sides with a thread of gold of a smaller bulk, and the flowers are heightened to good effect by the bright red stitches of the crimson silk with which the gold that forms them is sewed in; and the whole of the design appears to have been worked, first upon a strong canvas, from which it was afterwards cut and appliqué upon its velvet ground. All the space between the boughs is sprinkled rather thickly with six-rayed stars of gold and silver, but the latter ones have turned almost black. This piece was once the apparel for the lower border of an alb.

8335.

Piece of Silk Damask; upon a light blue ground, an elaborate pattern of pomegranates and flowers in pale yellow. Flemish, end of the 16th century. 24½ inches by 21 inches.

Like, in many respects, to another piece of the looms of ancient Bruges, it shows that the Flemings were unfortunate in their mode of dyeing, for this, as well as No. 8332, has faded much in colour, but the pattern is very rich and graceful. This textile is figured by Dr. Bock, in his “History of Liturgical Robes,” vol. i.

8336.

Piece of Silk Net-Work, formerly crimson. The design is evidently circular, and consists of a lozenge filled in with two other very much smaller lozenges touching each other lengthwise. Milanese, end of the 16th century.

This curious little piece of frame-work seems to be another specimen of the lace of Milan, concerning which a notice has been given under No. 8331. Some would take it to be crochet, but it looks as if it came from a loom. To our thinking, it was either the heel or the toe part of a silk stocking. Though of a much finer texture, it much resembles, in pattern, the yellow silk pair of stockings belonging now to the Marquis of Salisbury, but once presented by Lord Hunsdon to Queen Elizabeth, and said to be the first ever made in England.

8837.

Piece of Crimson Raised Velvet, with pattern of pomegranates, flowers and scrolls embroidered in gold thread and coloured silks. Genoese, beginning of the 16th century.

This piece affords a very instructive instance of how velvet textiles were not unfrequently treated. The pattern was first wrought in the weaving, and made the fabric what is now known as cut or raised velvet. Then those parts left bare of the silken pile were filled in by hand-embroidery, done in gold, silver, and silks of various colours, as the fancy of the individual might like, and produced a mixed work similar to the one before us. The velvet itself of this specimen is poor in colour and thin in substance, but the gold thread is of the finest, and admirably put together; and those little specks of the crimson silk employed in sewing it on, help, in no small manner, to heighten its brilliancy and effect.

8338.

Part of an Orphrey; ground, gold thread, with ornamentation, in silk, of a rosette, a tree with flowers, and the inscriptions--“Ave Regina Celorum,” and “Jhesus.” Cologne work, late 15th century. 22½ inches by 3¾ inches.

Much, in style, like No. 8320.

8338A.

Part of an Orphrey, woven in silk upon linen; ground, red; pattern, in gold thread upon blue silk. Cologne work, 15th century. 15½ inches by 4½ inches.

This and the piece immediately preceding afford us one of the peculiarities of the German loom, and, in all likelihood, were woven at Cologne, the great manufacturing centre of Germany in the middle ages. Such webs were wrought for the orphreys of chasubles, copes, and dalmatics, &c. The design is stiff, and wanting in much of the elegance to be found in earlier works of the loom, and, from its sampler-like look, might, at first sight, be taken for needlework.

8339.

Piece of Silk and Linen Damask; pattern, rich, broad and flowing, in crimson, on a gold ground. Genoese, late 16th century. 2 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 11½ inches.

This gives us a fine specimen of Italian weaving in the middle or latter portion of the 16th century. So rich, and so solid in materials, it is as bold as it is, at first sight, attractive in its design, and shows indications of that strap-shaped ornamentation which soon afterwards became so conspicuous in all cut-work, especially so in bookbindings, all over Western Europe. Such stuffs were mostly used for hangings on the walls of state-rooms and the backs of the stalls in churches, as well as for curtains at the sides of altars.

8340.

Piece of Silk Damask; pattern, of the 16th century revival character, in crimson upon a yellow ground; probably a border to some other stuff. Florentine, end of the 16th century, 10½ inches by 5½ inches.

8341.

Piece of Linen and Woollen Damask, white and green; the pattern, birds, oak-leaves, and acorns. North Italian, end of the 16th century. 7 inches by 5 inches.

Though made out of such humble materials as linen-thread and worsted, this charming little piece of stuff cannot fail in drawing upon itself the eye of the observer, by the beauty and elegance which it has about it.

8342.

Linen Napkin, or rather Sindon or Pyx-cloth, the borders embroidered with coloured silks and silver-thread. Perhaps Flemish, 16th century. 18½ inches by 16½ inches.

In more senses than one this small linen cloth is of great value, being, in the first place, a liturgical appliance of the mediæval period, now unused in this form, certainly unique in this country, and hardly ever to be met with on the continent, either in private hands or public collections. According to ancient English custom, the pyx containing particles of the Blessed Eucharist for giving, at all hours of day or night, the Holy Communion to the dying, and kept hanging up over the high altar of every church in this land, was overspread with one of such fine linen and embroidered veils, as may be seen in an illumination from the “Life of St. Edmund, King and Martyr,” in the Harley Collection, British Museum, and engraved in the “Church of our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 206.

The readers of English history will, no doubt, feel an interest in this specimen, when they learn that, with such a linen napkin, Mary Queen of Scots had her face muffled just before she laid her head upon the block: “Then the maid, Kennedy, took a handkerchief, edged with gold, in which the Eucharist had formerly been enclosed, and fastened it over her eyes.” “Pict. Hist. of England, ed. Knight,” t. ii. p. 671. Knight is wrong in saying that the Holy Eucharist had ever been immediately enclosed in this cloth, which is only the veil that used to be cast over the pyx or small vessel in which the consecrated hosts were kept, as we observed in the introduction, § 5.

8343.

Piece of Linen Damask; pattern, of the pomegranate type, with a border of an armorial shield repeated, and the initials C. L. An edging of lace is attached to one end. Flemish, middle of the 16th century. 17¼ inches by 13 inches.

The shield is party per pale; in the first, two bars counter-embattled; in the second, a chevron charged with three escallop shells.

Most likely this small piece of Flemish napery served as the finger-cloth or little napkin with which, when saying mass, the priest dried the tips of his fingers after washing them, the while he said that prayer, “Munda me, Domine,” &c. in the Salisbury Missal; “Church of our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 150. By the rubrics of the Roman Missal, the priest was, and yet is, directed to say, at the ritual washing of his hands, that portion of the 25th Psalm, which begins, verse 6, “Lavabo manus meas,” &c. “Hierurgia,” p. 21; hence these small liturgical towels got, and still keep, the name of Lavabo cloths or Lavaboes, especially in all those countries where the Roman Missal is in use.

8344.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, blue and yellow; pattern, a large conventional flower, with heraldic shields, helmets, and crests. Italian, late 16th century. 1 foot 8½ inches by 13 inches.

The shields show a pale; the helmets are given sidewise with the beaver closed; and the crests, a demi-wyvern segeant, but with no wreath under it, doubtless to show the armorial bearings of the esquire or gentleman of blood, as, according to the readings of English blasonry, he could have been of no higher degree, for whom this stuff had been woven.

8345.

Fragment of an Ecclesiastical Vestment; ground, cloth of gold, diapered with an elaborate flower-pattern. French, middle of the 16th century. 2 feet 1¼ inches by 1 foot 9 inches.

This valuable specimen of cloth of gold is figured, in small red lines, with a free and well-designed pattern, and shows us how much above modern French and Italian toca and lama d’oro were those fine old cloth of gold stuffs which, in the 16th century, became so variously employed for secular purposes. Let the reader imagine a vast round royal tent of such a textile with the banner of a king fluttering over it, and then he may well conceive why the meadow upon which it stood was called “the field of the cloth of gold.”

8346.

Piece of Silk and Linen Damask, green and yellow; pattern, a small conventional flower, probably a furniture stuff. Italian, late 16th century. 10 inches by 7½ inches.

8347.

Piece of Silk Damask, blue and yellow; pattern of flowers. French, late 16th century. 8 inches square.

In the design of the pattern there is evidently a wish to indicate the national fleur-de-lis.

8348.

Portion of a Housing or Saddle-cloth, grey velvet, embroidered with interlaced patterns in silver and gold thread. In one corner is an armorial shield in silver and coloured silks. Spanish, middle of the 16th century. 1 foot 8½ inches by 6½ inches.

Very probably the blazon of the shield on this curious horse-furniture may be the canting arms of its primitive owner; and it is _argent_, a hoopoe _gules_ on a mount _vert_.

8349.

Piece of Silk Damask; green, with the pomegranate pattern. French, end of the 16th century. 2 feet 7 inches by 1 foot 7 inches.

8350.

Embroidered Girdle; pattern, rectangular, in gold and silver threads and crimson silk; there are long gold tassels at the ends. French, late 16th century. 6 feet 3 inches by ⅞ inch.

Most likely a liturgical girdle, for the use of which see “Hierurgia,” p. 426, 2nd edition, and “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 448. Such ecclesiastical appliances are now become great rarities, and though this one is very modern, it is not less valuable on that account. The only other good example known in England is the very fine and ancient one kept, in Durham Cathedral Library, among the remains of those rich old vestments found upon the body of a bishop mistaken, by Mr. Raine, for that of St. Cuthbert. Flat girdles, whenever used in the Latin rite, were narrow; while those of the Greek and Oriental liturgies are much broader.

8351.

Linen Cloth; pattern, a white diaper lozenge. Flemish, end of the 16th century. Shape, oval, diameters 22 inches and 17 inches.

Though of so simple a pattern the design is pleasing, and well brought out.

8352.

Piece of Silk Damask, sky-blue and white; pattern, intersecting ribbons with flowers in the spaces. French, late 16th century. 9¾ inches by 4¾ inches.

A very agreeable specimen of the taste of the period and country, as well as grateful to the eye for the combination and management of its two colours in such a way that neither overmatches the other--a beauty often forgotten by the designers of textiles, but to be found in several other examples of the mediæval loom in this collection.

8353.

Dalmatic of Yellow Silk, damasked with a pattern of the pomegranate form, in raised velvet, of a lightish green tint. The tissue, Italian, late 15th century; the embroidery and inscriptions, German, late 15th century. 7 feet 8 inches by 4 feet 3 inches.

This fine dalmatic--for the liturgical use of which the reader may consult the “Church of our Fathers,” t. i. p. 375--is rather curious for the way in which the two very singular tassels hanging on the back from the shoulders are ornamented. These usual appendages are in this instance made of remarkably long (15 inches) flakes of white, red, and deep-brown silken thread, and, instead of silk nobs at the end of the cords, have large round balls of rock crystal. The orphreys, or stripes, down both sides, before and behind, are 2½ inches broad, woven in gold and charged with squares of flower-bearing trees, and inscribed in blue with “Jhesus,” “Maria.” The fringes on the two lower borders of the dalmatic, 3½ inches deep, are alternately red, green, white, and blue, and those on the sides and around the sleeves are much narrower. The sleeves themselves from being 18 inches wide at the shoulder become as narrow as 12 inches towards the wrist. The two apparels on the upper part, before and behind, are woven in gold, and measure 16½ inches in length, and 5¼ inches in breadth; the one on the back just under the neck is figured with three golden-grounded squares, the centre one ornamented with a crimson quatrefoil, barbed, and enclosing a various-coloured conventional flower; the other two, with a green tree blossomed with red flowers: the apparel across the breast is inscribed with the names, in large blue letters, of “Jhesus,” “Maria.” Half way down the back hangs, transversely, a shield of arms quarterly, one and four _gules_, two bars _argent_, between seven fleurs-de-lis, _or_, three, two, and two; two and three, _sable_ two bars, _argent_: as a crest, a full-forward open-faced helmet, with six bars all gold, surmounted by a pair of horns barred _sable_ and _argent_, with mantlings of the same. This blazon, according to English heraldry, would indicate that the giver of this splendid vestment--and very likely it was only one of a large set--could boast, by showing the golden five-barred full-forward helmet, of royal blood in his pedigree, and was not lower than a Duke in title. Dr. Bock has figured this finely-preserved dalmatic in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pt. vii. fig. 1.

8354.

A Cope of Crimson Raised Velvet; pattern of the so-called pomegranate design. The orphreys and hood embroidered on a golden ground; the latter with the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the former, with various saints. Velvet, Spanish, the embroidery, German, both of the end of the 15th century. 10 feet 8 inches by 5 feet 8 inches.

The velvet, both for its ruby tone and richness of pile, is remarkable, while its design of the pattern is efficiently shown.

The hood which, it should be observed by those curious in liturgical garments, runs right through the orphreys quite up to the neck, is an elaborate and well-wrought piece of needlework; and strongly reminds one of the picture of the same subject--the death-bed of the Mother of our Lord--by Martin Schön, now in the National Gallery. All the Apostles are supposed to be gathered round her; to the right of the spectator stands St. Peter sprinkling her with holy water from the silver sprinkle in his right hand; next to this chief celebrant is St. John, the acolyte, with the holy water stoop in his left hand, and in his right the lighted taper, which he is about to put into the hand of his adopted mother--an emblem of the lighted lamp with which each wise virgin in the Gospel awaited the coming of the bridegroom. Behind him again, and with his back turned, is another apostle, blowing into the half-extinguished thurible, which he is raising to his mouth; the rest of the Apostles are nicely grouped around. The ground of this hood is of rich gold thread, and the figures of the scene are separately wrought and afterwards “applied.” The orphreys, that are rather narrow, measuring only 5½ inches in breadth, are of a golden web and figured, on the right hand side, with St. Mary Magdalen, carrying a box of ointment in her hands; St. Bernadin of Siena, holding a circular radiated disc inscribed with I.H.S. in his right hand, and in his left a Latin cross; St. Bicta--for so the inscription seems to read--bearing the martyr’s branch of palm in her right hand, and a sword thrust through her throat; and St. Kymbertus in a cope, with a crozier in his right hand, and in his left a closed book: on the left hand orphrey, St. Elizabeth, the Queen of Hungary, with a child’s article of dress in one hand, and a royal crown upon her head; St. Severinus, wearing a mitre and cope, and holding in his right hand a crozier, in his left a church; St. Ursula, with the martyr’s palm in one hand; in the other a long large silver arrow, and having six of her martyred virgins at her sides; and St. John Baptist, with the “Lamb of God” on the palm of his left hand, and the forefinger of the right outstretched as pointing to it. The heads of all these figures are done in silk and “applied,” but the hands and diapering of the garments, as well as the emblems, are wrought by the needle, in gold or in silk, upon the golden web-ground of these orphreys. At the lower part of the hood is “applied” a shield--no doubt the armorials of the giver of this fine cope--party per pale--_gules_ two chevronels _argent_, a chief _or_--_azure_ three garbs (one lost), _argent_, two and one.

8355.

Chasuble of Damask Cloth of Gold; the orphreys figured with arabesques in coloured silk upon a golden ground, and busts of saints embroidered in coloured silks within circles of gold. There is a shield of arms on the body of the vestment, on the left side. French, 17th century. 7 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 4 inches.

The cloth of gold is none of the richest, and may have been woven at Lyons; but the orphreys are good specimens of their time: that on the back of this vestment, 4¾ inches in width, and made in a cross, shows a female saint holding a sword in her right hand, and in her left a two-masted boat--perhaps St. Mary Magdalen, in reference to her penitence and voyage to France; St. John with a cup, and the demon serpent coming up out of it; the Empress Helen carrying a cross (?). The orphrey in front, three inches broad, gives us, in smaller circles, St. Simon the apostle with his saw; a female saint (Hedwiges?) holding a cross; and two prophets, each with a rolled-up scroll in his hand. On the back, and far apart from the orphrey, is a shield _argent_ (nicely diapered), a chevron _sable_ between three leaves slipped _vert_, hanging as it does on the left hand, it may be presumed there was another shield on the right, but it is gone. This chasuble, small as it is now, must have been sadly reduced across the shoulders, from its original breadth.

8356.

Piece of Carpet, of wool and hemp; ground, red; pattern, boughs, and flowers, in blue, and the so-called pomegranate, blue with a large yellow flower in the middle; border, two stripes blue barred with yellow, one stripe yellow barred red. Spanish, 16th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 7 inches.

In every way like the following specimen of carpeting, with its warp of hempen thread; and originally employed for the same purpose of being spread up the steps leading to the altar, but more especially upon the uppermost or last one for the celebrant to stand on.

8357.

Piece of Carpet; ground, dark blue; pattern, a large so-called pomegranate design in light blue, spotted with flower-like circles, white and crimson (now faded). At each end it has a border in red, blue, green, white, and yellow lines. Spanish, 16th century. 9 feet 3 inches by 8 feet 6 inches.

The warp, as in the foregoing example, is of hempen thread, the woof of worsted; and this textile was woven in breadths 4 feet 3 inches wide. In all likelihood this piece of carpeting, valuable because very rare now, served as the covering for the steps that led up to the altar, and corresponded to what in some old English church inventories were called pedalia, or pede-cloths:--“Church of our Fathers,” i. 268. Finer sorts were spread on high feast days upon the long form where sat the precentor with his assistant rulers of the choir, or upon the stools which they separately occupied. Ib. ii. 202.

8358.

Liturgical Cloth of grey linen thread, figured all over with subjects from the New Testament, angels, apostles, flowers, and monsters. Rhenish, end of the 14th century. 10 feet by 3 feet.

This curious and valuable piece, of the kind denominated “opus araneum,” or spider-web, is very likely the oldest as well as one among the very finest specimens yet known of that peculiar sort of needlework. The design is divided into two lengths, one much shorter than the other, and reversed; thus evidently proving that its original use was to cover, not the altar, but the lectern, upon which the Evangeliarium, or Book of the Gospels, is put at high mass for the deacon to sing the gospel from: judging by the subjects wrought upon it, and in white, it appears to have been intended more especially for the daily high mass, chaunted in many places every morning in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Beginning at the lower part of the longer length, we see an angel, vested like a deacon, in an appareled and girded alb, playing the violin, then six apostles--St. Simon with the fuller’s bat in his hand, St. Matthias with sword and book, St. James the Greater with pilgrim’s bourdon or staff, St. Jude, or Thaddeus, with club and book, St. Andrew with book and saltire cross, St. Thomas with spear; then another like vested angel sounding a guitar--all of which figures are standing in a row amid oak boughs and flowery branches. Higher up, and within a large quatrefoil encircled by the words:--☩ “Magnificat: Anima: mea: Dominum;” the Visitation, or the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth, both with outstretched hands, one towards the other, the first as a virgin with her hair hanging down upon her shoulders, the second having her head shrouded in a hood like a married woman; they stand amid lily-bearing stems (suggested by the lesson read on that festival from Canticles ii.); in each of the north and south petals of the quatrefoil is a kneeling angel, deacon-vested, holding in each hand a bell, which he is ringing, while in the east and west petals are other like-robed angels, both incensing with a thurible. Outside the quatrefoil are represented within circles at the south-west corner the British St. Ursula--one of the patron saints of Cologne--standing with a book in one hand, and an arrow in the other; at the south-east corner St. Helen (?), with cross and book; at the north-west, St. Lucy with book and pincers; at the north-east, a virgin martyr, with a book and a branch of palm. At each of the angles, in the corners between the petals, is an open crown. Above stands in the middle a double-handled vase, between two wyverns, jessant oak branches. Over this species of heraldic border is another large quatrefoil arranged in precisely the same manner: the angels--two with bells, two with thuribles--are there, so too are the corner crowns, within and encircled by the words ☩ Gloria: in: exc(e)l(s)is: Deo: et: in: terr(a), we have the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, after this manner: seated upon a throne is our Lord in majesty, that is, crowned and holding the mund or ball surmounted by a cross in His left hand; with His right He is giving His blessing to His mother, who is seated also on the same throne, crowned, with her hair about her shoulders, and with hands upraised to Him as in the act of prayer. At the top, to the left, is St. Catherine, with a sword in one hand, a wheel armed with spikes in the other; to the right, St. Dorothy, with a blooming branch in one hand and in the other a basket--made like a cup with foot and stem--full of flowers; below, St. Barbara, with tower and palm-branch, in the left side; on the other, St. Mary Magdalen, with an ointment box and palm. Here the design is reversed, and very properly so, as otherwise it would be, when thrown over the lectern, upside down; and curiously enough, just at this place there is a large hole, caused, as is clear, by this part of the needlework being worn away from the continual rubbing of some boss or ornament at the top of the folding lectern, which most likely was wrought in iron. This shorter length of the design--that portion which hung behind--begins with the double-handled vase and two wyverns, and has but one quatrefoil arranged like the other two in the front part: within the circle inscribed ☩ Ecce: ancilla: Domini: fiat: michi--we see the Annunciation; kneeling before a low reading desk, with an open book upon it, is the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the Holy Ghost under the form of a nimbed dove coming down from heaven, signified by the nebulæ or clouds, upon her; and turning about with arms wide apart, as if in wonderment, she is listening to Gabriel on his knees and speaking his message in those words:--ave: gracia: ple(na), traced upon the scroll, which, with both his hands, he holds before him. In the corners of the petals are, at top, to the left, a female saint, with a cross in one hand, a closed book in the other; to the right, a female saint with palm-branch and book; below, to the left, a female saint--St. Martina, V. M.--with book and a two-pronged and barbed fork; on the right, a female saint with a book, and cup with a lid. As the other end began, so this ends, with a row of eight figures, of which two are angels robed as deacons, one playing the violin, the other the guitar; then come six apostles--St. John the Evangelist exorcising the poisoned cup; St. Bartholomew, with book in one hand and flaying knife in the other; St. Peter, with book and key; St. Paul, with book and sword held upwards; St. Matthew, with sword held downwards, and book; St. Philip, with book and cross.

The figures within the quatrefoils and of the apostles are about seven inches high; those of the female saints--all virgins, as is shown by the hair hanging in long tresses about their shoulders--measure six inches. The spaces between are filled in with branches of five-petaled and barbed roses, and at both ends there originally hung a prettily knotted long fringe. All the female saints are dressed in gowns with very long remarkable sleeves--a fashion in woman’s attire which prevailed at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries.

The exact way in which these now very rare specimens of mediæval needlework used to be employed in the celebration of the liturgy, may be seen, by a glance, on looking at any of those engravings in which are figured a few of those old lecterns; made either of light thin wood, or iron, or of bronze, so as they could be easily folded up: they were thus with readiness carried about from one part to another of the choir, or chancel, even by a boy. When set down the veil was cast over them. Some of our own archæological works afford us good examples of such lecterns; as fine, if not finer, are those two which M. Viollet Le Duc has given in his instructive “Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français,” t. i. pp. 162, 163, especially that from the Hotel de Cluny. Speaking of the coverings for such lecterns, he tells that in the treasury of Sens Cathedral there yet may be found one which is, however, according to his admeasurements, much smaller every way than this piece of curious needlework before us. Whether the one now at Sens be of the 10th or 11th century assigned it, far too early date to our thinking, it cannot, to judge from the coloured plate given by M. Viollet Le Duc, be put for a moment in competition with the present one, as an art-work done by the needle. In our own mediæval records notices of such lecterns may be sometimes found; in the choir of Cobham College, Kent, A.D. 1479, there was such an article of church furniture, “Church of our Fathers,” ii. 201, and doubtless it was usually covered with a veil.

8359.

Chasuble of Silk Damask, green and fawn-coloured, freckled in white with small flowers, inscriptions, and other ornaments; the pattern, in bands, consists of a large fan-like flower-bearing plant, and a double-handled vase, from which shoots up the thin stem of a tree between two hunting leopards collared, and addorsed, with an Arabic inscription beneath the vase, both plant and vase occurring alternately; these bands are separated by a narrower set of bands divided into squares enclosing birds of prey alternately gardant segeant. Syrian, late 13th century. 9 feet 5 inches by 4 feet.

This stuff betrays a few lingering traditions of the Persian style of design, and some people will see in the little tree between those hunting leopards the “hom,” or sacred tree of the olden belief of that country. The material of it is thin and poor, and in width it measures twenty-one inches. The characters under the vase holding the leopards and “hom,” are but an imitation of Arabic, and hence we may presume that it was woven by Jewish or Christian workmen for the European market, and to make it pass better, as if coming from Persia, inscribed as best they knew how, with Arabic letters, or imitations of that alphabet.

8360.

Back of a Chasuble, blue silk wrought all over with beasts and birds in gold beneath trees. The orphrey of crimson silk is embroidered with flowers and armorial shields. The blue silk, Italian, 14th century; the orphrey, German, 15th century. 3 feet 8½ inches by 2 feet 5 inches.

The birds that are shown on this blue-grounded piece of rather shining silk are peahens, standing on green turf sprinkled with white flowers, and three very much larger flowers stand high above their heads; the beasts are leopards, with their skin well spotted, and they seem to be, as it were, scenting and scratching the ground. The orphrey, cross-shaped, and 5½ inches wide, is overspread with gracefully intertwined rose-branches, the leaves of which are of gold shaded green, and the flowers in silver, seeded and barbed. It is blazoned all over with armorial bearings, seemingly of two houses, of which the first is a shield, tincture gone, charged with a lion rampant _or_, langued and armed _gules_; the second, a shield, barry of twelve, _gules_ and _or_, with a lion rampant, _argent_, langued and armed _azure_, in the dexter canton. There are three of each of these shields, and all six are worked on canvas, and afterwards sewed on. On the upright stem of the cross may be read in places the name of “Lodewich Fretie,” the individual who bore those arms and gave the chasuble.

8361.

Dalmatic of blue silk damasked with gold; the pattern consists of alternate rows of oxen, and pelican-like birds amid flowers and foliage. North Italian, late 14th century. 7 feet 7½ inches by 4 feet.

A rather showy piece, and very effective in its pattern, though the gold about the thread with which the design is brought out is sparingly employed, so that it looks more yellow than metallic. The sleeves now but eleven inches long, are slit quite up, and were very likely shortened when the slitting was inflicted on them, and that, within the last hundred years, in compliance with the somewhat modern practice that took its rise in France.

8388.

Piece of Embroidery of our Lord upon His mother’s lap. Florentine, 15th century. 8¼ inches by 5½ inches.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is robed in the usual crimson tunic, and sky-blue flowing mantle, and bearing, as is customary in the Italian schools of art, a golden star figured on her left shoulder. Sitting upon a tasseled cushion, and holding a little bird in His left hand, we have our Lord quite naked, with His crossed nimb about His head. Those who bring to mind that lovely picture of Raphael’s, the so-called “Madonna del Cardellino,” or our Lady of the gold-finch, will see that such an idea was an old one when that prince of painters lived. This piece of needlework was originally wrought for the purpose of being applied, and shows on the back proofs that, in its last use, it had been pasted on to some vestment or altar-frontal.

8561.

Small Piece of Silk; ground, purple; pattern, boughs of green leaves twining amid rosettes, green, some with crimson, some with yellow centres. Sicilian, late 14th century. 6½ inches by 3 inches.

Good in material and pretty in design, though the colours are not happily contrasted.

8562.

Piece of Silk; ground, purple; pattern, circles inclosing, some a tree which separates beasts and birds, some a long stripe which seemingly separates birds, all in yellow. Syrian, 14th century. 1 foot 1½ inches by 7½ inches.

The piece is so faded that with much difficulty its design can be traced, but enough is discernible to show the Persian feelings in it. No doubt the beasts are the cheetah or spotted hunting leopard addorsed and separated by the traditional “hom,” and the birds over them, put face to face, but parted by the “hom,” are eagles.

8563.

Piece of Yellow Silk; pattern, a broad oval, filled in and surrounded with floriations. Florentine, 15th century. 11 inches by 7½ inches.

The once elaborate design, now indiscernible, was brought out not by another coloured silk but by the gearing of the loom; some one, very recently, has tried to show it by tracing it out in lead-pencil.

8564.

Piece of White Silk; pattern, within circles, two birds addorsed, regardant, and separated by a tree. Syrian, 14th century. 12¼ inches by 9 inches.

The satin-like appearance and the creamy tone of this piece make it very pleasing, and in it we find, as in No. 8562, the same Persian influences; here, too, we have the mystic “hom,” put in, no doubt, by Christian hands.

8565.

Piece of Silk Tissue; ground, red; pattern, embroidery in various-coloured silks, gold thread, and coloured small beads. German, 14th century. 3-⅝ inches by 3¾ inches.

In most of its characters this end of a stole is just like those attached to the fine specimen noticed under No. 8588.

8566.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, squares filled in alternately with a pair of animals and flower-like ornaments. Syrian, 13th century. 7 inches by 2 inches.

The old Persian tradition of the “hom” may be seen here dividing the two addorsed regardant lionesses, and the whole design is done with neatness.

8567.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, two popinjays divided by a bowl or cup looking much like a crescent moon, in an octagonal frame-work, all yellow. Spanish, 13th century. 8½ inches by 6 inches.

This stuff is of very light material, which has, however, kept its colour very well.

8568.

Piece of Gold Tissue, embroidered with the needle; ground, gold; pattern, the Archangel Gabriel, with his head, hands, folds of his dress, and lines in his wings done by needle in different coloured silks. Italian, 14th century. 8½ inches by 5 inches.

This beautiful and rare kind of textile, combined with needlework, merits the particular attention of those occupied with embroidery. The loom has done its part well; not so well, however, he or she who had to fill in the lines, especially the spaces for the hands and head, on which the features of the face are rather poorly marked.

8569.

Two Portions (joined together) of Gold Tissue; ground, gold; pattern, in various-coloured silks, of birds, beasts, monsters, and foliage. English or French, 13th century. 13 inches by 2 inches.

Among the monsters, we have the usual heraldic ones that so often occur upon the textiles of that period; but the recurrence of the unmistakable form of the fleurs-de-lis, though sometimes coloured green, persuades us that this piece, entirely the produce of the loom, came from French, very likely Parisian hands, and was wrought for female use, as a band or fillet to confine the hair about the forehead, just as we see must have been the fashion in England at the time from the marked way in which that attire is shown in the illuminations of MSS. and sepulchral effigies of our Plantagenet epoch. Our countryman, John Garland, tells us, as we noticed in our Introduction, that women-weavers, in their time, wove such golden tissues, not only for ecclesiastical, but secular uses; and these two pieces seem to belong to the latter class.

8570.

Portion of an Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; pattern, foliage with fruit and flowers in gold. German, 14th century. 9½ inches by 3¾ inches.

So sparingly was the gold twined about the yellow thread, and of such a debased amalgamation that it has almost entirely disappeared, or where it remains has turned black.

8571.

Portion of Gold Tissue, figured with birds and beasts in gold upon a crimson ground. French or English, late 12th century. 9 inches by 2⅛ inches.

When new this textile must have been very pretty; but so fugitive was its original crimson, that now it looks a lightish brown. Within circles, divided by a tree made to look like a floriated cross, stands a lion regardant, and upon the transverse limbs of the cross, as upon the boughs of a tree, are perched two doves; while the spandrils or spaces between the circles are filled in with fleurs-de-lis growing out of leafed stalks. Though, in after times, it may have been applied to church use, it seems, like the specimen under No. 8569, to have been at first intended for female dress, either as a girdle or head attire.

8572.

Two Portions of Embroidery (joined together), the one showing, on a reddish purple silk ground, figures of birds and animals within circles, all embroidered in gold; the other, a similar ground and pattern within lozenges. German, 14th century. 2 feet 1½ inches by 2 inches.

The figures are heraldic monsters with the exception of the three birds, and are all done with great freedom and spirit; like the preceding piece, this looks as if it had originally been wrought for a lady’s girdle. The present two portions seem from the first to have formed parts of the same ornament, and to have been worked by the same needle.

8573.

Small Fragment of Red Silk, having a narrow border of purple with lozenge pattern, in gold. English or French, 13th century. 2 inches by ¾ inch.

Alike, in its original use, to the foregoing pieces.

8574.

Two Fragments (joined together) of Purple Silk, much faded, with a cotton woof. Byzantine, 12th century. 2½ inches by 1¼ inches.

8575.

Two Fragments (joined together) of Silk and Gold Tissue; ground, light crimson, now quite faded, bordered green; pattern, an interlacing strap-work, in gold. English or French, 13th century. 2 inches by 2 inches.

Like, for use, to the other similar specimens.

8576.

Very small Fragment of Gold Tissue on a red ground. 13th century. 1⅜ inches by ½ inch.

This cloth of gold must have been showy from its richness.

8577, 8577A.

Two small Pieces of Silk, Tyrian purple. Byzantine, 12th century. Each 1¼ inches square.

8578, 8578A.

Two Rosettes, in small gold thread on deep purple silk, bordered by an edging of much lighter purple. 14th century. 1½ inches square; 1 inch square.

8579.

Piece of Silk and Linen Damask; ground, green; pattern, a monster animal within a circle studded with full moons, and a smaller circle holding a crescent-moon studded in like manner. Syrian, 13th century. 1 foot 8¼ inches by 1 foot 2 inches.

This bold and effective design is somewhat curious, exhibiting, as it does, a novel sort of monster which is made up of a dog’s head and fore-paws, wings erect, and a broad turned-up bushy tail freckled with squares, in each of which is an ornament affecting sometimes the shape of an L, sometimes of an F, at others of an A. Around the neck of this imaginary beast is a collar which, as well as the root of the wing, shows imitations of Arabic characters.

8580.

Portion of Gold Embroidery; ground, dark blue silk; pattern, large griffins in gold. Early 13th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 12½ inches.

Pity it is that we have such a small part, and that so mutilated, of what must have been such a fine specimen of the needle. Though the whole pattern may not be made out, enough remains to show that the griffins, which were langued _gules_, stood in pairs and rampant, both figured with two-forked tails ending in trefoils, all worked in rich gold thread.

8581.

Portion of an Orphrey; ground, crimson silk; pattern, stars of eight points, within squares, both embroidered in gold. 14th century. 5½ inches by 2 inches.

This is one of the very few specimens which have pure gold, or perhaps only silver-gilt wire, without any admixture of thread in it, employed in the stars and narrow oblong ornaments in the embroidery, the wire itself being stitched to its grounding by thin linen thread. The large and small squares, as well as the borders, are executed in gold-twisted thread, very poor of its kind. The glittering effect of the pure metal-wire is very telling.

8582.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, conventional peacocks and foliage, in yellow. Syrian, 13th century. 13 inches by 9½ inches.

A good design bestowed upon very thin materials.

8583.

Portion of Gold Tissue; ground, light crimson, now quite faded, edged green; pattern, a diaper of interlacing strap-work. English or French, 13th century. 2½ inches by 1½ inches.

8584.

Portion of Gold Tissue; ground, green, edged crimson; pattern, lozenge-shaped diaper in gold. English or French, 13th century. 7½ inches by 1 inch.

8585.

Portion of Gold Tissue; ground, green, now quite faded; pattern, in gold, almost all worn away, a lozenge diaper. English or French, 13th century. 5 inches by 1½ inches.

This, as well as the other two pieces immediately preceding, were woven by female hands for the binding of the hair.

8586.

Fragment of Silk Tissue; ground, purple; pattern, small squares, green and black, enclosing a black disk voided in the middle. Byzantine (?), 12th century. 7 inches by 2 inches.

This stuff, which was thin in its new state, is now very tattered and its colours dimmed.

8587.

Fragment of Silk Tissue; ground, purple; pattern, a rosette within a lozenge, with a floral border. Italian, 14th century. 4 inches by 2 inches.

8588.

Stole of Gold Tissue, figured with small beasts, birds, and floriated ornaments, bordered on one side by a blue stripe edged with white and charged with ornamentation in gold, on the other, by a green one of a like character, as well as by two Latin inscriptions. The ends, four inches long, are of crimson silk, ornamented with seed-pearls, small red, blue, gold, yellow, and green beads, pieces of gilt-silver, and have a fringe three inches long, red and green. Sicilian, 13th century. 6 feet by 3¼ inches.

As a piece of textile showing how the weavers of the middle ages could, when they needed, gear the loom for an intricacy of pattern in animals as well as inscriptions, this rich cloth of gold is a valuable specimen. Among the ornaments on the middle band we find doves, harts, the letter M floriated, winged lions, crosses floriated, crosses sprouting out on two sides with fleurs-de-lis, four-legged monsters, some like winged lions, some biting their tails, doves in pairs upholding a cross, &c.; and above and below these, divided from them by gracefully ornamented bars, one blue the other green, may be read this inscription,--“O spes divina, via tuta, potens medicina ☩ Porrige subsidium, O Sancta Maria, corp. (_sic_) consortem sancte sortis patrone ministram. ☩ Effice Corneli meeritis (_sic_) prece regna meri. ☩ O celi porta, nova spes mor. (_sic_) protege, salva, benedic, sanctifica famulum tuum Alebertum crucis per sinnaculum (_sic_) morbos averte corporis et anime. Hoc contra signum nullum stet periculum. ☩ O clemen. (_sic_) Domina spes dese’erantibus una.”

The ends of this stole, German work of the 14th century, widen like most others of the period, and in their original state seem to have been studded with small precious stones, the sockets for which are very discernible amid the beads; and in each centre must have been let in a tiny illumination, as one still is there showing the Blessed Virgin Mary with our Lord, as a child, in her arms; and this appears to have been covered with glass. Amid the beads are yet a few thick silver-gilt spangles wrought like six-petaled flowers. As a stole, the present one is very short, owing, no doubt, to a scanty length of the gold tissue; in fact, it might easily be taken for a long maniple. When it is remembered that the Suabian house of Hohenstaufen reigned in Sicily for many years, till overthrown in the person of the young Conradin, at the battle of Tagliacozzo, by the French Charles of Anjou, A.D. 1268, we can easily account for Sicilian textiles of all sorts finding their way, during the period, into Germany. In his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pt. xviii. fig. 3, Dr. Bock has given a figure of this stole.

8589.

Piece of Silk and Linen Tissue; ground, yellow, with a band of crimson; pattern, crowned kings on horseback amid foliage, each holding on his wrist a hawk, and having a small dog on the crupper of his saddle. Sicilian, early 13th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 7 inches.

From a small piece to the left, figured with what looks like an English bloodhound or talbot, it would seem that we have not the full design in the pattern of this curious stuff, which speaks so loudly of the feudalism of mediæval Italy and other continental countries. Seldom was a king then figured without his crown, besides carrying his hawk on hand and being followed by his dogs, like any other lord of the land. The little hound behind him is somewhat singular. To us it appears curious that such an elaborate and princely design, meant evidently for the hangings of some palace, should have been done in the rather mean materials which we find. Parts seem to have been woven in gold thread; but so thin and debased was the metal that it is now quite black, and the linen warp far outweighs the thin silken woof.

8590.

Piece of Silk Tissue; ground, green; pattern, a so-called pomegranate of elaborate form, amid flowers of white and light purple, now faded, both largely wrought in gold. Spanish, 15th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 1 foot 2 inches.

Not only is the design of the pattern very effective, but the gold, in which the far larger part of it is done, looks bright and rather rich; yet, by examining it with a powerful glass, we may discover an ingenious, not to say trickish, way for imitating gold-covered thread. Skins of thin vellum were gilt, and not very thickly; these were cut into very narrow filament-like shreds, and in this form--that is, flat with the shining side facing the eye--afterwards woven into the pattern as if they were thread, a trick in trade which the Spaniards learned from the Moors.

The warp is of a poor kind of silk not unlike jute, and the woof is partly of cotton, partly linen thread, so that with its mock gold filaments we have a showy textile out of cheap materials; a valuable specimen of the same sort of stuff from a Saracenic loom will be found under No. 8639, &c.

8591, 8591A.

Two Pieces of Silk Tissue; ground, a bright green; pattern, not complete, but showing a well-managed ornamentation, consisting of the so-called pomegranate with two giraffes below, the heads of which are in gold, now so faded as to look a purplish black. Sicilian, early 14th century. 7½ inches by 4½ inches; 4½ inches by 4½ inches.

This is a specimen interesting for several reasons. When new and fresh, this stuff must have been very pleasing; the elaborate design of its pattern, done in a cheerful spring-like tone of green upon a ground of a much lighter shade of the same colour, makes it welcome to the eye. The giraffes, tripping and addorsed, with their long necks and parded skins, have something like a housing on their backs. From such a quadruped being figured on this stuff, he who drew the design must have lived in Africa, or have heard of the animal from the Moors; he must have been a Christian, too, for green being Mohammed’s own colour, and even still limited, in its use, to his descendants, no Saracenic loom would have figured this stuff with a forbidden form of an animal. Yet, withal, there may be seen upon it strong traces of Saracenic feeling in its pattern. That singular ornament, made up of long zero-like forms placed four together in three rows, which we find upon other examples in this curious collection (No. 8596, &c.), seems distinctive of some particular locality; so that we may presume this fine textile to have been wrought at the royal manufactory of Palermo, where the giraffe might have been well known, where Saracenic art-traditions a long time lingered; and people cared nothing for the prohibition of figuring any created form, or of wearing green in their garments, or hanging their walls with silks dyed green; in some specimens the zero-like ornamentation takes the shape of our letter U; moreover the large feathers in the bird’s long tail are sometimes so figured.

8592.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, the castle of Castile and fleur-de-lis, both in yellow. Spanish, 13th century. 10 inches by 6¼ inches.

Though of poor and somewhat flimsy silk, this stuff is not without some merit, as it shows how exact were the workmen of those days to be guided by rule in the choice of colour; for instance, the tinctures here are correct, so far that metal _or_ is put upon colour _gules_. It was woven in stripes marked by narrow blue lines.

8593.

Portion of some Liturgic Ornament (?); ground, deep blue; pattern, fleurs-de-lis embroidered in gold. French, 14th century. 7 inches by 3½ inches.

Whether this fragment once formed a part of maniple, stole, or orphrey for chasuble, cope, dalmatic, or tunicle, it is impossible to say; heraldically it is quite correct in its tincture, and that is its only merit.

8594.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds and beasts amid foliage, all in green. Sicilian, early 14th century. 10¼ inches by 4 inches.

Though every part of the design in the pattern of this charming stuff is rather small, the whole is admirably clear and well rendered, and we see a pair of hawks perched, a pair of lions passant, a pair of flags tripping, a pair of birds (heads reversed), a pair of monster-birds (perhaps wyverns), and a pair of eagles (much defaced) with wings displayed. The lions are particularly well drawn.

8595.

Fragment of Silk Tissue; ground, crimson and gold, with three white and green narrow stripes running down the middle, and an inscription on each side the stripes. Spanish, 14th century. 7 inches by 6 inches.

The warp is of thick cotton thread, the woof of silk and gold. Though very much broken, the inscription is Latin, and gives but a very few entire words, such as “et tui amoris in eis,” with these fragments, “--tus. Re---- le tuoru--.” From this, however, we are warranted in thinking this textile to have been wrought, not for any vestment--for it is too thick, except for an orphrey--but rather for hangings about the chancel at Whitsuntide. See Introduction, § 5.

8596.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light crimson; pattern, in deep brown, vine-leaves within an ellipsis which has on the outer edge a crocket-like ornamentation, and on both sides a cluster as if of the letter U, arranged four in a row, one row above the other. Sicilian, 14th century. 8½ inches by 6 inches.

As we saw in Nos. 8591, 8591A, so here we see that very curious and not usual ornamentation, in the former instances like an O or zero, in the present one like another letter, U. The same crispiness in the foliage may be observed here as there; and in all likelihood both silks issued from the same city, perhaps from the same loom, but at different periods, as the one before us does not come up, by any means, in beauty with those fragments at Nos. 8591, 8591A. In some instances the feathers in a bird’s tail are made in the shape of our capital letter U.

8597.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, blackish purple; pattern, conventional foliage in greyish purple. Italian, 14th century. 1 foot 8 inches by 1 foot 6 inches.

The foliage, so free and bold, is quite of an architectural character, and shows a leaning to that peculiar scroll-form so generally to be seen on Greek fictile vases. Perhaps this stuff was wrought at Reggio in South Italy; but evidently for secular, not ecclesiastical use.

8598.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, large monster birds, and, within ovals, smaller beasts, all in gold thread, relieved with green silk. Sicilian, 14th century. 2 feet 4 inches by 10 inches.

The design is bold and very effective, and consists of an oval bordered very much in the Saracenic style, within which are two leopards addorsed rampant regardant. Above this oval stand two wyverns with heads averted and langued green or _vert_. This alternates with another oval enclosing two dog-like creatures rampant addorsed regardant; above this two imaginary birds, well crested, langued _vert_, with heads averted, and seem to be of the cockatoo family. From the shape of this piece, as we now have it, no doubt its last use was for a chasuble, but of a very recent make and period; and sadly cut away at its sides.

8599.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, green; pattern, in light purple or violet, an ellipsis filled in with Saracenic ornamentation, having below two split pomegranates in gold, and above, two giraffes, which alternate with a pair of long-necked gold-headed birds that are flanked by an ornament made up of letters like U. Sicilian, 14th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 2 feet 2 inches.

Though this specimen has been sadly ill-used by time, and made out of several shreds, it evidently came from the hands that designed and wrought other pieces (Nos. 8591, 8591A, 8596) in this collection. Upon this, as upon them, we have the same elements in the pattern--the ellipsis, the giraffes, and that singular kind of ornamentation, a sort of letter U or flattened O, not put in for any imaginary beauty of form, but to indicate either place or manufacturer, being a symbol which we have yet to learn how to read and understand. That in time we shall be able to find out its meanings there can be little or no doubt.

Though of so pleasing and elaborate a design, the stuff, in its materials, is none of the richest.

8600.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, yellow; the pattern, in violet, an ellipsis filled in with Saracenic ornamentation. Sicilian, 14th century. 10 inches by 2¼ inches.

There can be little doubt that this inferior textile, showing, as it does, the same feelings in its pattern, came from Palermo.

8601.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, yellow; pattern, a broad stripe of gold with narrow stripes, two in green, two in blue, and yellow bands charged with birds and flowers in gold. Spanish, late 14th century. 13 inches by 8 inches.

The narrow stripes running down the broad one, and constituting its design, are ornamented with square knots of three interlacings and a saltire of St. Andrew’s cross alternatingly. The bands display birds of the waterfowl genus--a kind of crested wild-duck--very gracefully figured as pecking at flowers, one of which seems of the water-lily tribe.

Here, as at No. 8590, we have the same substitution for gold thread, of gilt vellum cut into thread-like filaments, and so woven up with the silk and cotton of which the warp and woof are composed. This, like its sister specimen, so showy, is just as poor in material; and, from its thinness, if may have served not so much for an article of dress as for hangings in churches and state apartments.

8602, 8602A, B, C, D, E.

Six Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, a floriated ellipsis enclosing a pair of eagles, with foliage between the elliptical figures. Sicilian, 14th century. Dimensions, all small and various.

In many respects these fragments of the same piece of tissue closely resemble the fine stuff under No. 8594; the ground, fawn-colour, is the same; the same too--green, and of the same pleasing tone--is the colour of its pattern, which, however, gives us the peculiarity of a knot of two interlacings plentifully strewed amid the foliage. It is slightly freckled, too, with white.

8603.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds in pairs amid foliage (all green) and flowers, some blue, some gold, now faded black. Italian, 14th century. 18 inches by 12¾ inches.

Not a satisfactory design, as the birds are in green and hard to be distinguished from the heavy foliage in which they are placed. The materials, too, are poor and thin, the warp being cotton.

8604.

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, deep fawn-colour; pattern, birds pecking at a flower-stem amid foliage, all yellow, occasionally shaded deep green. Sicilian, 14th century. 6½ inches by 4½ inches.

As far as it goes, the design is neat and flowing, with the peculiarity of the deep green, now almost blue, shadings both in the birds and foliage. The warp is fine cotton, and the whole speaks of a Sicilian origin.

8605.

Piece of Damask; ground, light purple; pattern, in yellow, a net-like broad ribbon, within the meshes of which are eight-petaled conventional flowers. Italian, 14th century.

The texture of the specimen is somewhat thin, but the tones of its two harmonious colours are good, and its pattern, in all its parts, extremely agreeable; upon those broad ribbon lines of the net, the branches, sprouting out into trefoils, are gracefully made to twine; and an inclination to figure a crowned M on every petal of the flower inside the meshes is very discernible. Possibly Reggio, south of Naples, is the town where this showy stuff was wrought, serviceable alike for sacred and secular employment.

8606.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, black; pattern, not easily discernible, though evidently elaborate. Italian, 14th century. 10 inches by 6¼ inches.

So much has damp injured this piece that its original black has become almost brown, and its pattern is well nigh gone. In its fresh state, however, the design, traces of which show it to have been sketched in the country and about the time mentioned, was thrown up satisfactorily, for it was woven in cotton from the silken ground of the piece.

8607.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, trefoils and vine-leaves, in green. Sicilian, 14th century. 8¾ inches by 4½ inches.

Like all the other specimens of this kind, the present one is pleasing in its combination of those favourite colours--fawn and light green--as well as being remarkable for the elegance with which the foliage is made to twine about its surface; the materials, too, are thick and lasting.

8608.

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, dark blue; pattern (very imperfect in the specimen), an ellipsis filled in with ornamentation and topped by a floriation, out of which issue birds’ necks and heads, all in lighter blue, edged with white, and two conventional wild animals in gold, but now black with tarnish. Sicilian, 14th century. 6 inches by 6 inches.

8609.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, wreaths of white flowers, green boughs bearing white flowers, forming part of a design in which an ellipsis in green constitutes a leading portion; and a broad band figured with scroll-work and an Arabic sentence, all in gold. Sicilian, 13th century. 1 foot 5½ inches by 5¾ inches.

Probably in the sample before us we behold a work from the royal looms or “tiraz”--silk-house--of Palermo, when Sicily was under the sway of France, in the person of a prince belonging to the house of Anjou. In the first place, we have the fawn--a tone of the murrey colour of our old English writers--and the light joyous green; in the second place, the ellipsis was there, though our specimen is too small to show it all. Those narrow borders that edge the large golden lettered band present us with a row of golden half-moons and blue fleurs-de-lis on one side; on the other, a row of golden half-moons and blue cross-crosslets: on the band itself we find, alternating with foliage, an oblong square, within which is written a short sentence in Arabic--a kindly word, a wish of health and happiness to the wearer--such as was, and still is, the custom among the Arabs. Sure is it that this textile, if wrought by Saracenic hands, was done under a Christian prince, and that prince a Frenchman.

8610.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds and dogs in green. Sicilian, 14th century. 1 foot 4½ inches by 10¼ inches.

Like so many other specimens of the Palermitan loom, both in colours and design, this piece is rather poor in its silk, which is harsh and somewhat thin. The birds are a swan ruffling up its feathers at the presence of an eagle perched just overhead, amid branches and foliage in which the trefoil abounds.

8611.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, foliage in green, wild dogs in blue, gold, and white. South Italian, 14th century. 15 inches by 12½ inches.

The wild dogs are segeant face to face, in pairs; one blue, the other gold; one white, the other gold: and below are flowers blue, gold, and white, alternating like the animals. The warp is cotton, the woof silk, and altogether the stuff is coarse.

8612.

Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, black; pattern, a tower surrounded by water and a figure holding a hawk, and hawks perched, in pairs, on trees. Italian, 15th century. 9 inches by 5½ inches; 9 inches by 4½ inches.

Pity that this curious piece is so fragmental and decayed that its singular design cannot, as in another specimen of the very same tissue, all be made out. Whether it be man or woman standing on high outside the tower with a bird at rest on the wrist is here hard to say. The castle is well shown, with its moat, and its draw-bridges--for it has more than one--all down. Like No. 8606, it shows its pattern by the difference of material in the warp and woof. All over it has been thickly sprinkled with thin gilt trefoils that were not sewed but glued on; many have fallen off, and those remaining have turned black. See No. 7065.

8613.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, black; pattern, in gold thread, birds amid foliage. Italian, 14th century. 14 inches by 7¼ inches.

The bold and facile pattern of this piece is very conspicuous, with its eagles stooping upon long-necked birds perched on waving boughs; to much beauty in design it adds, moreover, richness in material.

8614.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light brown; pattern, the same colour, palmettes and rosettes, with Arabic sentences repeated. Attached is a piece of green silk wrought with gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 16¼ inches by 15½ inches.

A quiet but rich stuff, and especially noticeable for its Arabic or imitated Arabic inscriptions, one within the rosettes, the other all round the inner border of the palmettes or elliptical ornamentations. The cloth of gold is plain.

8615.

Piece of Linen, block-printed in a pattern composed of birds and foliage. Flemish, late 14th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 3 inches.

Of this kind of block-printed linen, with its graceful design in black upon a white ground, there are other good examples (Nos. 7027 and 8303) in this collection. From the marks of use upon its canvas lining, this long narrow strip would seem to have once served as an apparel to an amice in some poor church.

8616.

Portions of Crimson Silk, brocaded in gold; the pattern, angels holding crescents beneath crowns, from which come rays of glory, and hunting leopards seizing on gazelles. Italian, end of 14th century. 2 feet 8¾ inches by 2 feet.

This rich stuff betrays in its design an odd mixture of Asiatic and European feeling; we have the eastern hunting lion spotted and collared blue, pouncing on the gazelle or antelope, which is collared too; so far we have the imitation, but without lettering, of a Persian or Asiatic pattern. With this we find European, or at least Christian, angels, clothed in white, but with such curious nebule-nimbs about their heads as to make their brows look horned, more like spirits of evil than of good. The open crowns are thoroughly after a western design; and the head and shoulders of a winged figure, to the left, show that we have not the entire design before us. From the graceful way in which the figures are made to float, as well as from several little things about the scrolls, we may safely conclude that the designer of the pattern lived in upper Italy, and that this costly and elegant brocade was wrought at Lucca. Of the Oriental elements of this pattern we have said a few words at No. 8288.

8617.

Stole of deep purple silk, brocaded in gold and crimson; pattern, a long flower-bearing stem, and large flowers. Italian, early 15th century. 9 feet 6 inches by 4 inches.

Like all the old stoles, this is so long as almost to reach down to the feet, and is rather broader than usual, but does not widen at the ends, which have a long green fringe. The stuff is of a rich texture, and the pattern good.

8618.

Part of a Linen Cloth, embroidered with sacred subjects, and inscribed with the names, in Latin, of the Evangelists. German, end of the 14th century. 6 feet by 4 feet.

Unfortunately, this curious and very valuable sample of Rhenish needlework is far from being complete, and has lost a good part of its original composition on its edges, but much more lamentably on the right hand side. Not for a moment can we think it to have been an altar-cloth properly so-called, that is, for spreading out over the table itself of the altar; but, in all likelihood, it was used as a reredos or ornament over but behind the altar, as a covering for the wall. Another beautiful specimen of the same kind has been already noticed under No. 8358, for throwing over the deacon’s and subdeacon’s lectern at high mass; and, from the fact that, in both instances, the subjects figured are in especial honour of the B. V. Mary, it would seem that, in many German churches, and following a very ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin wrought during all her girlhood days ornaments for the Temple of Jerusalem with her needle, the custom was to have for the “Mary Mass,” and for altars dedicated under her name, as many liturgical appliances as might be of this sort of white needlework, and done by maidens’ hands.

In the centre we have the coronation of the B. V. Mary, executed after the ordinary fashion, with her hair falling down her shoulders, and a crown upon her head; she is sitting with arms uplifted in prayer, upon a Gothic throne, by her Divine Son, who, while holding the mund in His left, is blessing His mother with raised right hand; over-head is hovering an angel with a thurible; at each of the four corners is an Evangelist represented, not only by his usual emblem, but announced by his name in Latin. At first sight the angel, the emblem of St. Matthew might be taken for Gabriel announcing the Incarnation to the B. V. Mary. Above and around are circles formed of the Northern Kraken, four in number, put in orb, and running round an elaborately floriated Greek cross, symbolizing the victory of Christianity over heathenism. In many places, within a gracefully twining wreath of trefoil leaves and roses barbed, is the letter G, very probably the initial of the fair hand who wrought and gave this beautiful work to our Lady’s altar; and the spaces between the subjects are filled in with well-managed branches of the oak bearing acorns. To the left is seen a hind or countryman hooded, carrying, hung down from a long club borne on his shoulder, a dead hare; and further on, still to the left, an old man who with a lance is trying to slay an unicorn that is running at full speed to a maiden who is sitting with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and stroking the forehead of the animal with her left hand. The symbolism of this curious group, not often to be met with, significative of the mystery of the Incarnation, is thus explained by the Anglo-Norman poet, Phillippe de Thaun, who wrote his valuable “Bestiary” in England for the instruction of his patroness, Adelaide of Louvaine, Queen to our Henry I:--“Monoceros is an animal which has one horn on its head; it is caught by means of a virgin: now hear in what manner. When a man intends to hunt it and to take and ensnare it, he goes to the forest where is its repair, there he places a virgin with her breast uncovered, and by its smell the monoceros perceives it; then it comes to the virgin and kisses her breast, falls asleep on her lap, and so comes to its death: the man arrives immediately, and kills it in its sleep, or takes it alive and does as he likes with it.... A beast of this description signifies Jesus Christ; one God he is and shall be, and was and will continue so; he placed himself in the virgin, and took flesh for man’s sake: a virgin she is and will be, and will always remain. This animal in truth signifies God; know that the virgin signifies St. Marye; by her breast we understand similarly Holy Church; and then by the kiss it ought to signify that a man when he sleeps is in semblance of death; God slept as a man, who suffered death on the cross, and His destruction was our redemption, and His labour our repose,” &c.--“Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages, &c., and edited for the Historical Society of Science by T. Wright,” pp. 81, 82.

The figure of the countryman carrying off the hare is brought forward in illustration. As the rough coarse clown, prowling about the lands of his lord, wilily entraps the hare in his hidden snares, so does the devil, by allurements to sin, strive to catch the soul of man. These interesting symbolisms end the left-hand portion of the reredos. Going to the right, we find that part torn and injured in such a way that it is evidently shorn of its due portions, and much of the original so completely gone that we are unable to hazard a conjecture about the subject which was figured there.

8619.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, rose-coloured; pattern, peacocks, eagles, a small nondescript animal, and a lyre-shaped ornament, all in green, touched with white. Italian, late 14th century. 11 inches by 10½ inches.

A curious design, in which the birds are boldly and freely drawn. Each horn of the lyre-shaped ornament ends, bending outwardly with what to herald’s eyes seems to be two wings conjoined erect.

8620.

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, dark blue, in some places faded; pattern, a band charged with squares in gold, every alternate one inscribed with the same short Arabic word, lions in gold beneath a tree in light blue shaded white, and cockatoos in gold. Syrian, 14th century. 19 inches by 13½ inches.

So strong is the likeness between this and the stuff at No. 8359, both in the texture of the silk and the treatment of the beasts and birds, that we are led to suppose them to have come from the same identical workshop. That tree-like ornament, under which the shaggy long-tailed lion with down-bent head is creeping, seems the traditionary form of the Persians’ “hom.” The gold is, in most parts, very brilliant, owing to the broadness of the metal wrapped round the linen thread that holds it; and, altogether, this is a rich specimen of the Syrian loom.

8621.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, foliage in green, flowers, some white, some in gold, and lions in gold. Sicilian, late 14th century. 22½ inches by 10 inches.

The warp is of linen, and the silken woof is thin; so sparingly was the gold bestowed, that it has almost entirely faded; altogether, this specimen shows a good design wasted upon very poor materials. In the expanding part of the foliage there seems to be a slight remembrance of the fleur-de-lis pattern, and the lions are sejant addorsed regardant.

8622, 8623.

Two Portions of Silk Damask; in both, the ground, fawn-colour; the pattern, in the one, ramified foliage, amid which two lions sejant regardant, in gold; in the other, two eagles at rest regardant, in green, divided by a large green conventional flower, including another such flower in gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 11 inches by 5¼ inches; 9½ inches by 4¾ inches.

Very likely from the same loom as No. 8621, and every way corresponding to it.

8624.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, pale brown; pattern, in a lighter tone, stags and sunbeams, and below eagles within hexagonal compartments. Sicilian, late 14th century. 18 inches by 14 inches.

The stags, well attired, are in pairs, couchant, chained, with heads upturned to sunbeams darting down on them, with spots like rain coming amid these rays; beneath these stags are eagles. The material is very thin and poor for such a pleasing design. In a much richer material part of this same pattern is to be seen at No. 1310.

8625.

Piece of very fine Linen. Oriental. 2 feet 4 inches by 1 foot 5 inches.

This is another of those remarkably delicate textiles for which Egypt of old was, and India for ages has been, so celebrated. A fine specimen has been already noticed at No. 8230; but to indicate the country or the period of either would be but hazarding a conjecture. Surplices were often made of such fine transparent linen, as is shown by illuminated MSS. See “Church of our Fathers,” t. ii. p. 20.

8626.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, flowers and birds, both in green. Italian, end of 14th century. 11 inches by 8½ inches.

The birds are in two pairs, one at rest, the other on the wing darting down; between them is an ornament somewhat heart-shaped, around which runs an inscription of imitated Arabic. Most likely this silk is of Sicilian work.

8627.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, dark blue; pattern, lozenge-shaped compartments, filled in with quadrangular designs varying alternately. Spanish, late 14th century. 10½ inches by 8 inches.

There is a Moorish influence in the design, which leads to the supposition that this stuff was wrought somewhere in the South of Spain.

8628, 8628A.

Two Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, light yellow; pattern, flowers and birds, with the letters A and M crowned, all in pale red. Italian, late 14th century. 6 inches by 5 inches; 6 inches by 3½ inches.

A very pleasing design, in nicely toned colours, and evidently wrought for hangings, or perhaps curtains, about the altar of the B. V. Mary, as we have the whole sprinkled with the crowned letters A M, significative of “Ave Maria.”

8629.

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, four green hares in a park walled, with conventional flowers, yellow. Italian, late 14th century. 5 inches by 4¾ inches.

The colours, both of the ground and design, of this piece are much faded, so that it becomes hard, at first sight, to make out the pattern, especially the four green hares tripping within a park, which, instead of being shown with pales, has a wall round it.

8630.

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, red; pattern, foliage and flowers in green, with animals, alternately in gold and dark blue. Italian, late 14th century. 5 inches by 4 inches.

Though the materials be thin, the design is interesting and displays taste. The animals, seemingly fawns, are lodged, but so sparingly was the gold bestowed upon its cotton thread that it has almost entirely disappeared from the would-be golden deer.

8631.

Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, deep purple; pattern, a circle inclosing a heart-shaped floral ornament, in red, with an indistinct ornament, once gold. South of Spain, 14th century. 6¼ inches by 5½ inches.

The colours of what may have been a rich stuff, as well as the brightness of the gold, are much dulled.

8632.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, pale yellow; pattern, vine-leaves and grapes, with the letter A, all in light purple. Italian, late 14th century. 11¾ inches by 3 inches.

One of those cheerful designs which are to be found in this collection; and had the specimen been larger, very likely an M would have been shown under the A.

8633.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, within interlacing strapwork forming a square, two parrots addorsed alternating with two dogs addorsed, all yellow, with ornamentations of small circles and flowers, once gold, but now so tarnished that they look black. Sicilian, 14th century. 5½ inches by 5 inches.

One of those specimens which will be sought by those who want examples of stuffs figured with animals. This stuff is shewn in Dr. Bock’s “Dessinateur pour Etoffes,” &c. 3 Livraison.

8634.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn and green; pattern, small squares enclosing leaves, birds, and beasts alternately. Italian, 14th century. 7½ inches by 3 inches.

Though small, the pattern is good and comes from either a Sicilian or a Reggio loom. Lions, and stags with branching horns, eagles, parrots, and undecipherable birds, in braces with necks crossing one another, are to be found upon it; among the foliage the vine-leaf prevails.

8635.

Altar Frontal of Linen, embroidered with the filfot in white thread freckled with spots in blue and green silk, and lozenge-shaped ornaments in blue, green, and crimson silk. German, 14th century. 3 feet 10 inches square.

There can be little doubt but this piece of needlework was originally meant for an altar frontal, and its curious but coarser lining, may have been wrought for the same separate but distinct purpose. The filfot or gammadion, a favourite object upon vestments, is its chief adornment, while its lining, a work of a century later, is worked with a palm-like design in thick linen thread. At a later time, it seems to have been employed as a covering to the table itself of the altar, and is plentifully sprinkled with spots of wax-droppings.

8636.

Piece of Linen Cloth, embroidered with filfots, some in white, some in blue silk. German, 14th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 9 inches.

This handsome piece of napery was evidently woven for the service of the church, and may have been intended either for frontals to hang in front of the altar, or as curtains to be suspended away from, but yet close to, the altar-table on the north and south sides. The favourite gammadion appears both in the pattern of the loom-work and in the embroideries wrought by hand, sometimes in blue, sometimes in white silk, upon it.

8637.

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, green; pattern, flower-bearing stems, in gold, amid foliated tracery of a deep green tone, all enclosed by a golden elliptical border. Italian, early 15th century, 11½ inches by 7½ inches.

This rich and pleasing stuff is most likely from the loom of some workshop in Lucca and was manufactured for secular purposes, and deserves attention not only for the goodness of its materials, but for the beauty of its design.

8638.

PIECE of Thread and Silk Damask; ground, purple slightly mixed with crimson; pattern, vine-branches bearing grapes and tendrils all in green, amid which are wyverns in gold, langued green. South Italian, 15th century, 1 foot 1 inch by 9½ inches.

The warp is of thread, and the woof of silk. Such was the poverty of the gold thread in the wyverns, that it has almost entirely dropped off or turned black. This specimen shows how, sometimes, a rich pattern was thrown away upon mean materials. Its uses seem to have been secular.

8639.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, gold; pattern, a circle showing, in its lower half, a crescent moon and an eight-petaled flower, in the round centre of which is an Arabic inscription, all in black, and the spaces filled in with a Saracenic scroll in light blue, light green, and crimson (now faded). Moresco-Spanish, 14th century. 1 foot 1¾ inches by 5¾ inches.

This unmistakeable specimen of a Saracenic loom would seem to have been wrought somewhere in the south of Spain, may be at Granada, Seville, or Cordova.

As a sample of its kind it is valuable, showing, as it does, that the same feelings which manifested themselves upon Moorish ornamentation for architecture were displayed in the patterns of textiles among that people. The fraud, so to say, of gilt shreds of parchment for threads covered with gold is exemplified here; and hence we may gather that the Spaniards of the mediæval period learned this trick from their Saracenic teachers in the arts of the loom. As in No. 8590, &c., so here, the gold ground is wrought, not in thread twined with gold foil, but with gilt vellum cut into very narrow filaments, and worked into the warp so as to lie quite flat.

8640.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light blue; pattern, a circle elaborately filled in with a wreath of leaves edged with a hoop of fleur-de-lis, and enclosed in an oblong garland made up of boughs and flowers, in a slightly deeper tone of the same blue. Italian, early 15th century. 1 foot by 8½ inches.

So very like in design to No. 8637, that we may presume it to have been wrought at Lucca.

8641.

Part of an Orphrey; ground, once crimson, but now faded to a light brown colour; pattern, quatrefoils, with angles between the leaves, embroidered with male saints in various colours upon a golden ground. Each quatrefoil is separated by a knot of three interlacings, and the sides filled in with a pair of popinjays, gold and green, and two boughs of the oak bearing acorns, alternately. On both sides runs a border formed of a scroll of vine-leaves, done alternately in gold and silver, upon a green silk ground. North Italian, 15th century. 2 feet 7 inches by 5½ inches.

The whole of this elaborate piece of needlework has been done with much care, and in rich materials; but as the saints have no peculiar emblems given them, their identification is beyond hope. Whether for cope or chasuble--for it might have served for either vestment--this embroidery must have been very effective, from the bold raised nature of much of its ornamentation.

8642, 8642A.

Two Pieces of Silk Damask; ground, green and fawn; pattern, intertwining branches of the vine, with bunches of grapes. Sicilian, 14th century. 9¾ inches by 4½ inches; 6 inches by 4 inches.

Another of those graceful green and fawn-coloured silks almost identical in pattern with others we have seen from the same country.

8643.

Piece of Net-work; ground, reticulated pale brown silk; pattern, a sort of lozenge, in green and in brown silk, hand-embroidered. German, 14th century. 7 inches by 5 inches.

From the circular shape of this piece it seems to have been a portion of female attire, most likely for the shoulders. One of its ornaments looks very like a modification of one form of the heraldic mill-rind, with the angular structure.

8644.

Portion of an Orphrey; ground, gold; pattern, a shield of arms, and an inscription in purple letters, repeated. German, 15th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 2¼ inches.

This specimen of the German loom may have been woven at Cologne, probably for the narrow orphreys of a whole set of vestments given to the church by some Duchess of Cleves, of the name of Elizabeth Vancleve, since, to such a lady, the blazon and the inscription point. The shield is party per pale _gules_, an escarbuncle _or_; and _purpure_, a lion rampant _argent_, barred _gules_, ducally crowned and armed _or_.

8645.

Piece of Linen; ground, light brown; pattern, small blue squares or lozenges, separated into broad bands by narrow stripes, once ornamented with green lozenges and bordered all along by red lines. German, 15th century. 1 foot by 7 inches.

The warp and woof are linen thread; the green of the narrow stripes, from the small remains, appears to have been woollen.

8646.

Fragment of a Piece of Silk and Gold Embroidery on Linen; ground, as it now looks, yellow; pattern, interlacing strapwork, forming spaces charged with the armorial bearings of England, and other blazons, rudely worked. 14th century. 5 inches by 3½ inches.

So faded are the silks, and so tarnished the gold thread used for the embroidery of this piece, that, at first sight, the tinctures of the blazon are not discernible. In the centre we have the three golden libards or lions of England, and the silk of the ground or field, on narrow examination, we find to have been scarlet or _gules_; immediately below is a shield quarterly, 1 and 4 _or_, a lion rampant _gules_, 2 and 3 _sable_, a lion rampant _or_; immediately above, a shield _gules_, with three pales _azure_ (?), each charged with what are seemingly tall crosses (St. Anthony’s) _or_; above, the shield of England; but to the right hand, on a field barry of twelve _azure_ and _or_, a lion rampant _gules_; below this shield, another, on a field _or_, two bars _sable_; these two shields alternate on the other side. The strapwork all about is fretty _or_, on a field _gules_.

8647.

Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson, sprinkled with gold stars; pattern, the Annunciation. Italian, 14th century. 1 foot 1¼ inches by 8 inches.

In this admirable specimen of the Florentine loom we have shown us the B. V. Mary not quite bare-headed, but partly hooded and nimbed, as queen-like she sits on a throne, with her arms meetly folded on her breast, the while she listens to the words of the angel who is on his knees before her, and uplifting his hand in the act of speaking a benediction, while in his left he holds the lily-branch, correctly--which is not always so in artworks--blooming with three, and only three, full-blown flowers. Above the archangel the Holy Ghost is coming down from heaven in shape of a dove, from whose beak dart forth long rays of light toward the head of St. Mary. The greater part of the subject is wrought in gold; the faces, the hands, and flowers are white, and a very small portion of the draperies blue. The drawing of the figures is quite after the Umbrian school, and, therefore, not merely good, but beautiful. In his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 1 Lieferung, pl. xiii. Dr. Bock has figured it.

8648.

An Embroidered Figure of St. Ursula, within a Gothic niche, which with much of the drapery, was done in gold, on a ground now brown. Rhenish, 14th century. 8¾ inches by 3¾ inches.

So sadly has the whole of this embroidery suffered, apparently from damp, that the tints of its silk are gone, and the gold about it all become black. That this is but one of several figures in an orphrey is very likely; it gives us the saint with the palm-branch of martyrdom in one hand, a book in the other, and an arrow slicking in her neck, the instrument of her death; being of blood royal, she wears a crown; emblem of heaven and paradise, the ground she treads is all flowery.

8649.

Piece of Woollen Carpet; ground, red; pattern, a green quatrefoil bearing three white animals. Spanish, late 14th century. 1 foot 11 inches by 1 foot 1 inch.

A most unmistakeable piece of mediæval carpeting; the lively tone of its red is yet bright. The quatrefoils are quite of the period, and look like four-petaled roses barbed, that is, with the angular projection between the petals. So unlion-like are the animals, that we may not take them as the blazon of the Kingdom of Leon.

8650.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, crimson; pattern, the so-called artichoke in yellow and green, lined white, and foliage of green lined white. Spanish, 15th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 1 foot 4½ inches.

A good example of this showy pattern, once so much in favour, and of which the materials are very good and substantial; much of the yellow portions of the design was in gold thread, the metal of which has, however, almost all gone. From the quantity of glue still sticking to the hind part of this silk, its last destination would seem to have been the covering of some state room.

8651.

The “Vernicle,” embroidered in silk, and now sewed on a large piece of linen. Flemish, middle of 15th century. 9½ inches by 7½ inches; the linen, 2 feet 10½ inches by 2 feet 9 inches.

To the readers of old English literature, especially of Chaucer, the term of “Vernicle” will not be unknown, as expressing the representation of our Saviour’s face, which He is said to have left upon a napkin handed Him to wipe His brows, by one of those pious women who crowded after Him on His road to Calvary. It is noticed, too, in the “Church of our Fathers,” t. iii. p. 438. This piece of needlework seems to have been cut off from another, and sewed, at a very much later period, to the large piece of linen to which it is now attached; for the purpose of being put up either in a private chapel, or over some very small altar in a church, as a sort of reredos; or, perhaps, it may have originally been one of the apparels on an alb: never, however, on an amice, being much too large for such a purpose. One singularity in the subject is the appearance of crimson tassels, one at each corner of the napkin figured with our Lord’s likeness, which is kept with great care still, at Rome, among the principal relics in St. Peter’s, where it is shown in a solemn manner on Easter Monday. It is one of those representations of a sacred subject called by the Greeks ἀχειροποίητος, that is, “not made by hands,” or, not the work of man, as was noticed in the Introduction to the present Catalogue.

8652.

Linen Towel, with thread embroidery; pattern, lozenges, some enclosing flowers, others, lozenges. German, 15th century. 3 feet 11 inches by 1 foot 6½ inches.

Most likely this small piece of linen was meant to be a covering for a table, or may be the chest of drawers in the vestry, and upon which the vestments for the day were laid out for the celebrating priest to put on. In the pattern there is evidently a strong liking for the gammadion--a kind of figuration constructed out of modifications of the Greek letter gamma. In England the gammadion became known as the “filfot,” and seems to have been looked upon as a symbol for the name Francis or Frances, and is of frequent occurrence in our national monuments--especially in needlework--belonging to the 14th and 15th centuries. From the presence of that large eight-petaled flower in this cloth we are somewhat warranted in thinking that the same hand that wrought the fine and curious frontal, No. 8709, worked this, and that her baptismal name was Frances.

8653-8661A.

Ten Fragments of Narrow Laces for edgings to liturgical garments, woven, some in gold, some in silk, and some in worsted. 8658 is a specimen of parti-coloured fringe; 8659 shows a two-legged monster as part of its design; and in 8661 and 8661 A we find a knot much like the one to which Montagu gives the names of Wake and Ormond, in his “Guide to the Study of Heraldry,” p. 52.

8662.

The Napkin for a Crozier, of fine linen ornamented with two narrow perpendicular strips of embroidery of a lozenge pattern in various-coloured worsteds, and having, at top, a cap-shaped finishing made of a piece of green raised velvet, which is figured with a bird, like a peacock, perched just by a well, into which it is looking. At each corner of this cap is a small parti-coloured tassel, and, at the top, the short narrow loop by which it hung from the upper part of the crozier-staff. German, 15th century. 2 feet 2½ inches by 1 foot 8½ inches.

This is another of those liturgical ornaments, valuable, because so rare, of which we have spoken under No. 8279A. But in the specimen before us we find it in much diminished form--half only of its usual size. The design of the raised velvet, in its cap, is as unusual as curious.

8663.

Linen Cloth, embroidered in coloured silks with sacred emblems and hagiological subjects, and inscribed with names amid trees and flowers. German, 15th century. 1 foot 1¾ inches by 4 inches.

In all likelihood this needlework was meant as the covering for a table in the vestry of some church, or oratory in some lady’s room. On the left is figured St. George slaying the dragon; next, the pelican in its piety, above which is the “vernicle,” and over this the word “Emont,” with a ducal coronet above it. Then the names “Ihs,” “Maria,” and, above them, the word “Eva” crowned. In the middle of the cloth is a cross with all the emblems of the Passion around it, as well as a star and crescent. Then an animal spotted like a panther and chained to a tree; this is followed by the name “Meltinich;” last of all we find the name “Amelia,” and beneath, a half-figure of a woman having long hair with a large comb in her right hand, altogether resembling a mermaid. At bottom runs a narrow parti-coloured thread fringe.

8664.

Frontlet to an Altar-Cloth, embroidered in coloured silks upon fine linen, with flower-bearing trees and a shield of the Passion, along with saints’ names, &c. German, 16th century. 1 foot 1¾ inches by 4 inches.

The shield in the middle is charged with a chalice and consecrated host, and four wounds (hands and feet) of our Lord. Under one tree occur the names “Jhesus,” “Maria;” under another, “Andreas,” “Anna.” From amid the grass on the ground spring up tufts of daisies.

8665.

Piece of Embroidery, done upon fine linen in coloured silks and gold thread. German, middle of the 15th century. 7½ inches square.

The subject of this piece is the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary, figured according to the traditional manner much followed by the mediæval schools of art in most parts of Christendom. It is, however, to be regretted that this embroidery has been at some time mutilated; in its original state it may have, perhaps, served as an apparel to an alb, and occupied the place of one of those to be seen at No. 8710.

8666.

Fragment of thin Silk Damask; pattern, a lozenge-shaped diaper; colour, a much faded crimson. Oriental, 13th century. 8½ inches by 4½ inches.

Though small, the pattern is pretty, and much resembles a stuff of silk and gold very lately found in the tomb of one of the Archbishops of York, in that cathedral.

8667.

Portion of an Orphrey, wrought partly in the loom, partly by the needle, and figured with an angel-like youth holding before him an armorial shield, as he stands within a Gothic niche, with an inscription below his feet. German, very late 15th century. 10½ inches by 5½ inches.

This instructive piece deserves the attention of those who study embroidery. The loom was geared in such a manner that the spaces for the head, face, neck, and hands were left quite empty, so that they might be filled in by the needle. But this was not all the hand had to do; the architectural features of the canopy, its shading in red, the nimb, and nicely floriated diapering all over the angel’s golden alb, were put in by the needle.

The inscription, woven in, reads “Johā vā geyē,” and the piece is figured in Dr. Bock’s “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 2 Lieferung, pl. xv.

8668.

Part of an Orphrey, mostly loom-woven, and figured with the Crucifixion, on one side of which stands the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the other, St. John the Evangelist, German, late 15th century. 12¼ inches by 5 inches.

Like the preceding piece, the greater part is woven, even the body itself of our Lord, so that in His figure, as in those of His mother and the beloved disciple, the only embroidered portions are the head and face, besides those blood-spots all over His person, the tricklings from His five wounds, and the crossed nimb about His head.

8669.

Portion of a Maniple, in much faded tawny silk; pattern, a rose-like floriation. Flemish, 16th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 3¼ inches.

Though peculiar, the pattern in the design of this silken stuff is very pretty; the piece of parti-coloured silken fringe that edges the end of this maniple is older than the textile to which it is sewed.

8670.

The hind Orphrey for a Chasuble, with embroidered figures applied upon a ground red and gold. The figures are a knight bareheaded and kneeling in prayer, with his helmet and shield before him, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Anthony of Egypt reading a book. German, middle of the 15th century. 2 feet 11 inches by 5¼ inches.

The figures are well done, and all show the varieties of process then brought into use; they were worked on canvas, of which the portions for the face and hands were left untouched, saving by the few slight stitches required for indicating the hair and features of the countenance and indications of the fingers. Some of the dress was cut out of woven cloth of gold and sewed on; other parts worked with the needle, as were such accessories as books, instruments of martyrdom, and other such emblems. The knight, probably the giver of the chasuble, is meant to be indicated by his blazon, which is a shield _or_ charged with eight _torteaux_ in orle, and this is surmounted by a golden helmet with mantling, and a crest, consisting of golden horns fringed with four _torteaux_ each. The ground upon which the embroideries are set is rich, and woven with golden wheel-like circles with wavy, not straight, spokes upon a bright red field.

8671.

Fragment of an Orphrey, woven in gold and coloured silks; pattern, intertwining brambles of the wild rose, bearing flowers seeded and barbed. German, beginning of the 16th century. 7¾ inches by 4½ inches.

Though the ground is, or rather was, of gold, so sparingly was the precious metal bestowed upon the thread, that it has been almost entirely worn away. The same may be said of the very narrow tape with which, on one of its edges, it is still bordered.

8672.

Part of an Orphrey, embroidered upon linen, in coloured silks, and figured with St. Anthony and a virgin martyr-saint, both standing beneath Gothic canopies. Rhenish, late 15th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 3¾ inches.

Notwithstanding the embroidery be somewhat coarse, like much of the same kind of work at the period, it is so far valuable as it instructs us how three methods were practised together on one piece. The canvas ground was left bare at the faces and hands, so that the features of the one and the joints of the other might be shown by appropriate stitches in silk. Pieces of golden web, cut to the right size, were applied for the upper garments of the figures, and the folds shaded by hand in red silk, and the borders of the robe edged with a small cording, while all the rest of the work was filled in with needlework. The closely fitting scull-cap, but more especially the staff ending in a tau-cross, indicate St. Anthony, but the female saint cannot be identified; her long hair flowing about her shoulders signifies that she was a virgin, and the green palm-branch in her right hand indicates that she underwent martyrdom.

8673.

Piece of Raised Velvet; ground, yellowish pink, the raised velvet, bright crimson; pattern, a large compound floriation within a circle formed by small hooked lines having flowers at the cusps, and the round itself springing out of a somewhat smaller floriation. Flemish, 16th century. 2 feet 3 inches by 1 foot 1¾ inches.

8674.

Piece of Raised Velvet; the ground, orange, the raised velvet, green; the pattern, of pomegranate form, within crocketed circles, and alternating with a large floriation. Flemish, 16th century. 2 feet 4½ inches by 11 inches.

The raised pattern, from its rich pile, stands up well, and was hung upon walls, or employed for curtains and other household appliances, for which such stuffs were generally produced.

8675.

Piece of Worsted Needlework; pattern, lozenges after several forms, and done in various colours. Flemish, 16th century. 18½ inches by 12 inches.

Worked after the same fashion, and with the same materials, that our ladies at this day employ upon their Berlin wool work.

8676.

Piece of Linen Damask; pattern, artichoke and pomegranate forms. Flemish, 16th century. 1 foot 3 inches by 1 foot 1¾ inches.

The design is carefully elaborated; and the piece itself is evidence of the beauty of old Flemish napery.

8677.

A Small Cloth for an Oratory, of fine linen, embroidered with sprigs of flowers in their proper colours, in silk, and with I. H. S. in red gothic letters, within a thorn-like wreath in green. Flemish, 16th century. 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 10 inches.

That this cloth has been cut down is evident; the sacred monogram is not in the middle, and the higher row of flowers is shortened. Though hemmed with tape on one side, and edged on two sides by very narrow strong lace, and on the fourth or front border by a broader lace, its last use was as a covering for some sort of table, not an altar properly so called; it is by far very much too small for any such purpose. In all likelihood, this cloth was made to overspread the top of a praying desk, or some little table strewed with devotional objects in a bed-room or private oratory.

8678.

Portion of Worsted Embroidery upon light brown linen; the pattern, a scroll of flowers and foliage in colours German, late 16th century. 1 foot 5¾ inches by 4¼ inches.

The design is made to run along well, and the colours are nicely contrasted.

8679.

Piece of Silk Damask, of a light red and straw colour; pattern, two varieties of the pomegranate mixed with large artichokes and small crowns, and separated by thick branches, which are purpled with broad ivy-like leaves. Italian, 16th century. 2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 11 inches.

A bold pattern, remarkable for the originality of some parts of its design.

8680, 8680A.

Two Pieces of Raised Velvet, green and gold; pattern, a modification of the favourite pomegranate and its accompanying intertwining foliage; very large and incomplete. Florentine, early 16th century. 2 feet 1 inch by 9½ inches; 1 foot 3 inches by 10½ inches.

These two pieces give us specimens of those gorgeous stuffs so often sent forth to the world from the looms of Tuscany, and afford, in portions of the design, samples of velvet raised upon velvet so very rarely to be found. The little short loops, or spots, of gold thread, with which the velvet is in some parts freckled, ought not to go unnoticed.

8681.

Piece of Embroidery, wrought with a running pattern of leaves and flowers in coloured threads upon a golden ground, now much tarnished. German, 16th century, 1 foot 6 inches by 4½ inches.

Embroidery in thread is of somewhat rare occurrence.

8682.

Part of a Web for church use, wrought in thread and silk upon a golden ground, now much faded. The pattern, trees bearing white flowers, bunches of white lilies, wheels with stars, and the words “Jhesus, Maria.” Cologne, late 15th century. 6 feet by 5 inches.

That it once formed a frontlet or border to the front edge of an altar-cloth is very likely, not only from the spots of wax with which it is in some parts sprinkled, but more especially from the way in which its pattern is wrought, so as to be properly seen when stretched out horizontally.

8683, 8684.

Two Specimens of Web for church use; woven in silks, upon a golden ground; the first with the sacred name “Jhesus,” and a tree bearing white and red flowers, with daisies at its foot, and the name “Maria,” beneath which is a garland of white and red flowers twined about the