diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-0.txt | 4435 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-0.zip | bin | 88956 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h.zip | bin | 1732535 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/60015-h.htm | 5454 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 151846 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_000.jpg | bin | 75689 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_013.jpg | bin | 101587 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_034.jpg | bin | 101302 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_036.jpg | bin | 36124 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_037.jpg | bin | 52045 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_037b.jpg | bin | 52202 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_038.jpg | bin | 26911 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_044.jpg | bin | 102250 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_046.jpg | bin | 102018 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_048.jpg | bin | 101017 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_051.jpg | bin | 102264 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_057.jpg | bin | 101990 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_062.jpg | bin | 102262 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_084.jpg | bin | 102255 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_087.jpg | bin | 102219 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_091.jpg | bin | 101948 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_094.jpg | bin | 102073 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_097.jpg | bin | 89329 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_098.jpg | bin | 129553 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_100.jpg | bin | 101935 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_102.jpg | bin | 128873 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/60015-h/images/i_112.jpg | bin | 101893 -> 0 bytes |
30 files changed, 17 insertions, 9889 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d88f0ce --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60015 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60015) diff --git a/old/60015-0.txt b/old/60015-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5cad1aa..0000000 --- a/old/60015-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4435 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Textile Fabrics, by Daniel Rock - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Textile Fabrics - -Author: Daniel Rock - -Editor: William Maskell - -Release Date: July 29, 2019 [EBook #60015] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEXTILE FABRICS *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -Transcriber’s Note: The Table of Contents was added by the Transcriber. - - - - -SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. - -EDITED BY WILLIAM MASKELL. - -NO. 1.--TEXTILE FABRICS. - - - - -_These Handbooks are reprints of the prefaces or introductions to the -large catalogues of the chief divisions of works of art in the Museum -at South Kensington; arranged and so far abridged as to bring each into -a portable shape. The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education -having determined on the publication of them, the editor trusts that -they will meet the purpose intended; namely, to be useful, not alone -for the collections at South Kensington but for other collections, by -enabling the public at a trifling cost to understand something of the -history and character of the subjects treated of._ - -_The authorities referred to by the authors will be found named in the -large catalogues; where are also given detailed descriptions of the -very numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum._ - - - - - TEXTILE FABRICS. - - BY - THE VERY REV. DANIEL ROCK, D.D. - - WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS. - - [Illustration] - - _Published for the Committee of Council on Education_ - BY - CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. - 1876. - - - - - PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., - LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Page - CHAPTER I 1 - - CHAPTER II 7 - - CHAPTER III 14 - - CHAPTER IV 24 - - CHAPTER V 35 - - CHAPTER VI 49 - - CHAPTER VII 70 - - CHAPTER VIII 78 - - CHAPTER IX 88 - - CHAPTER X 95 - - CHAPTER XI 104 - - INDEX 113 - - - - -LIST OF WOODCUTS. - - - Page - Indian woman reeling silk 13 - - Ladies in fifteenth century spinning and weaving 34 - - Mortuary cloth 44 - - Silk damask with imitated Arabic letters 46 - - Ladies in fourteenth century carding and spinning 48 - - Byzantine Dalmatic 51 - - Sicilian silk damask 57 - - Florentine silk damask 62 - - Part of the Syon Cope 84 - - Embroidered saddle-cloth 87 - - Ancient banner of the city of Strasburg 91 - - Embroidered hangings of a bed 94 - - Banner of the tapestry workers of Lyons 97 - - Tapestry of the fourteenth century 98 - - The weaver, in 1574 100 - - Tapestry of the fifteenth century 102 - - State gloves of Louis the thirteenth 112 - - - - -TEXTILES. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - -Under its widest acceptation the word “textile” means every kind of -stuff, no matter its material, wrought in the loom. Whether, therefore, -the threads are spun from the produce of the animal, vegetable, or -mineral kingdom; whether of sheep’s wool, goats’ hair, camels’ wool, -or camels’ hair; whether of flax, hemp, mallow, or the filaments drawn -out of the leaves of plants of the lily and asphodel tribes of flowers, -or the fibrous coating about pods, or cotton; whether of gold, silver, -or of any other metal; the webs from all such materials are textiles. -Unlike these are other appliances for garment-making in many countries; -and of such materials not the least curious, if not odd to our ideas, -is paper, which is so much employed for the purpose by the Japanese. -A careful reference to a map of the world will show us the materials -which from the earliest ages the inhabitants of the world had at hand, -in every clime, for making articles of dress. - -In all the colder regions the well-furred skins of several families -of beasts could, by the ready help of a thorn for a needle and of -the animal’s own sinews for thread, be fashioned after a manner into -various kinds of clothing. - -Sheep, in a primitive period, were bred for raiment perhaps as much -as for food. At first, the locks of wool torn away from the animal’s -back by brambles were gathered: afterwards shearing was thought of -and followed in some countries, while in others the wool was not cut -off but plucked by the hand away from the living creature. Obtained -by either method the fleeces were spun generally by women from the -distaff. This very ancient daily work was followed by women among our -Anglo-saxon ancestors of all ranks of life, from the king’s daughter -downwards. Spinning from a distaff is even now common in many countries -on the continent, particularly so all through Italy. Long ago the name -of spindle-tree was given in England to the Euonymus plant, on account -of the good spindles which its wood affords: and the term “spinster” -as meaning every unmarried woman even of the gentlest blood is derived -from the same occupation. Every now and then from the graves in which -women of the British and succeeding epochs were buried, are picked up -the elaborately ornamented leaden whorls which were fastened at the -lower end of their spindles to give them a due weight and steadiness. - -A curious instance of the use of woollen stuff not woven but plaited, -among the older stock of the Britons, was very lately brought to -light while cutting through an early Celtic grave-hill or barrow in -Yorkshire: the dead body had been wrapped, as was shown by the few -unrotted shreds still cleaving to its bones, in a woollen shroud of -coarse and loose fabric wrought by the plaiting process without a loom. - -As time passed by it brought the loom, fashioned after its simplest -form, to the far west, and its use became general throughout the -British islands. The art of dyeing soon followed; and so beautiful -were the tints which our Britons knew how to give to their wools that -strangers wondered at and were jealous of their splendour. A strict -rule limited the colour of the official dress assigned to each of -the three ranks into which the bardic order was distinguished to -one simple unbroken shade: spotless white, symbolic of sunlight and -holiness, for the druid or priest; sky-blue, emblem of peace, for the -bard or poet; and green, the livery of the wood and field, for the -teacher of the supposed qualities of herbs and leech-craft. Postulants, -again, asking leave to be admitted into either rank were recognized by -the robe barred with stripes of white, blue, and green, which they had -to wear during the term of their initiation. With regard to the bulk -of the people, we learn from Dion Cassius (born A. D. 155) that the -garments worn by them were of a texture wrought in a square pattern of -several colours; and, speaking of Boadicea, the same writer tells us -that she usually had on, under her cloak, a motley tunic chequered all -over with many colours. This garment we are fairly warranted in deeming -to have been a native stuff, woven of worsted after a pattern in tints -and design like one or other of the present Scotch plaids. Pliny, -who seems to have gathered a great deal of his natural history from -scraps of hearsay, most likely included these ancient sorts of British -textiles with those from Gaul, when he tells us that to weave with a -good number of threads, so as to work the cloths called polymita, was -first taught in Alexandria; to divide by checks, in Gaul. - -The native botanical home of cotton is in the east. India almost -everywhere throughout her wide-spread countries arrayed, as she still -arrays, herself in cotton, gathered from a plant of the mallow family -which has its wild growth there; and in the same vegetable produce the -lower orders of people dwelling still further to the east also clothed -themselves. - -Hemp, a plant of the nettle tribe and called by botanists “cannabis -sativa,” was of old well known in the far north of Germany and -throughout the ancient Scandinavia. More than two thousand years ago -we find it thus spoken of by Herodotus: “Hemp grows in the country of -the Scythians, which, except in the thickness and height of the stalk, -very much resembles flax; in the qualities mentioned, however, the hemp -is much superior. It grows in a wild state, and is also cultivated. -The Thracians make clothing of it very like linen cloth; nor could any -person, without being very well acquainted with the substance, say -whether this clothing is made of hemp or flax.” From “cannabis,” its -name in Latin, we have taken our word “canvas,” to mean any texture -woven of hempen thread. - -Although flax is to be found growing wild in many parts of Great -Britain, it is very doubtful whether for many ages our British -forefathers were aware of the use of this plant for clothing purposes: -they would otherwise have left behind them some shred of linen in one -or other of their many graves. Following, as they did, the usage of -being buried in the best of the garments they were accustomed to, or -most loved when alive, their bodies would have been found dressed in -some small article of linen texture, had they ever worn it. - -We must go to the valley of the Nile if we wish to learn the earliest -history of the finest flaxen textiles. Time out of mind the Egyptians -were famous as well for the growth of flax as for the beautiful linen -which they wove out of it, and which became to them a most profitable, -because so widely sought for, article of commerce. Their own word -“byssus” for the plant itself became among the Greeks, and afterwards -among the Latin nations, the term for linens wrought in Egyptian looms. -Long before the oldest book in the world was written, the tillers of -the ground all over Egypt had been heedful in sowing flax, and anxious -about its harvest. It was one of their staple crops, and hence was it -that, in punishment of Pharaoh, the hail plague which at the bidding of -Moses fell from heaven destroyed throughout the land the flax just as -it was getting ripe. Flax grew also upon the banks of the Jordan, and -in Judæa generally; and the women of the country, like Rahab, carefully -dried it when pulled, and stacked it for future hackling upon the roofs -of their houses. Nevertheless, it was from Egypt, as Solomon hints, -that the Jews had to draw their fine linen. At a later period, among -the woes foretold to Egypt, the prophet Isaiah warns her that “they -shall be confounded who wrought in combing and weaving fine linen.” - -How far the reputation of Egyptian workmanship in the craft of the loom -had spread abroad is shown us by the way in which, besides sacred, -heathenish antiquity has spoken of it. Herodotus says, “Amasis king -of Egypt gave to the Minerva of Lindus a linen corslet well worthy of -inspection:” and further on, speaking of another corslet which Amasis -had sent the Lacedæmonians, he observes that it was of linen and had -a vast number of figures of animals inwoven into its fabric, and was -likewise embroidered with gold and tree-wool. This last was especially -to be admired because each of the twists, although of fine texture, -contained within it 360 threads, all of them clearly visible. - -But we have material as well as written proofs at hand to show the -excellence of old Egyptian work in linen. During late years many -mummies have been brought to this country from Egypt, and the narrow -bandages with which they were found to have been so admirably and, -according even to our modern requirements of chirurgical fitness, so -artistically swathed have been unwrapped. These bandages are often so -fine in their texture as fully to verify the praises of old bestowed -upon the beauty of the Egyptian loom-work. We learn from Sir Gardiner -Wilkinson that “the finest piece of mummy-cloth, sent to England by Mr. -Salt, and now in the British museum, of linen, appears to be made of -yarns of nearly 100 hanks in the pound, with 140 threads in an inch in -the warp and about 64 in the woof.” Another piece of linen, which the -same distinguished traveller obtained at Thebes, has 152 threads in the -warp and 71 in the woof. - -Although from all antiquity upwards, till within some few years back, -the unbroken belief had been that such mummy-clothing was undoubtedly -made of linen woven out of pure unmixed flax, some writers led, or -rather misled, by a few stray words in Herodotus (speaking of the -corslet of Amasis, quoted just now) took that historian to mean wool, -and argued that Egyptian textiles wrought a thousand years before -were mixed with cotton. While the question was agitated, specimens of -mummy-cloth were submitted to the judgment of several persons in the -weaving trade deemed most competent to speak upon the matter. Helped -only by the fingers’ feel and the naked eye, some among them agreed -that such textures were really woven of cotton. This opinion was but -shortlived. Other individuals, more philosophical, went to work on -a better path. In the first place they clearly learned, through the -microscope, the exact and never-varying physical structure of both -these vegetable substances. They found cotton to be in its fibre a -transparent tube without joints, flattened so that its inward surfaces -are in contact along its axis and also twisted spirally round its axis; -flax on the contrary is a transparent tube, jointed like a cane and not -flattened or twisted spirally. Examined in the same way, old samples of -byssus or mummy-bandages from Egypt in every instance were ascertained -to be of fine unmixed flaxen linen. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - -For many reasons the history of silk is not only curious but highly -interesting. In the earliest ages even its existence was unknown, and -when discovered the knowledge of it stole forth from the far east, -and straggled westward very slowly. For all that lengthened period -during which their remarkable civilization lasted, the older Egyptians -probably never saw silk: neither they, nor the Israelites, nor any -other of the most ancient kingdoms of the earth, knew of it in any -shape, either as a simple twist or as a woven stuff. Not the smallest -shred of silk has hitherto been found in the tombs or amid the ruins of -the Pharaonic period. - -No where does Holy Writ, old or new, tell anything of silk but in one -single place, the Apocalypse xviii. 12. It is true that in the English -authorized version we read of “silk” as if spoken of by Ezekiel xvi. -10, 13; and again, in Proverbs xxxi. 22; yet there can be no doubt that -in both these passages, the word silk is wrong through the translators -misunderstanding the original Hebrew. The Hebrew word is not so -rendered in any ancient version: and the best Hebraists have decided -that silk was not known by the old Israelites. When St. John speaks -of it he includes it with the gold, and silver, and precious stones, -and pearls, and fine linen and purple which, with many other costly -freights, merchants were wont to bring to Rome. - -It was long after the days of Ezekiel that silk in its raw form only, -made up into hanks, first found its way to Egypt, western Asia, and -eastern Europe. - -We owe to Aristotle the earliest notice of the silkworm, and although -his account be incorrect it has much value, because he gives us -information about the original importation of raw silk into the western -world. Brought from China through India the silk came by water across -the Arabian ocean, up the Red Sea, and thence over the isthmus of -Suez (or perhaps rather by the overland route, through Persia) to the -small but commercial island of Cos, lying off the coast of Asia minor. -Pamphile, the daughter of Plates, is reported to have first woven silk -in Cos. Here, by female hands, were wrought those light thin gauzes -which became so fashionable; these were stigmatized by some of the -Latin poets, as well as by heathen moralists, as anything but seemly -for women’s wear. Tibullus speaks of them; and Seneca condemns them: “I -behold” he says “silken garments, if garments they can be called, which -are a protection neither for the body nor for shame.” Later still, and -in the Christian era, we have an echo to the remarks of Seneca in the -words of Solinus: “This is silk, in which at first women but now even -men have been led, by their cravings after luxury, to show rather than -to clothe their bodies.” - -Looking over very ancient manuscripts we often find between richly -gilt illuminations, to keep them from harm or being hurt through the -rubbings of the next leaf, a covering of the thinnest gauze, just as -we now put sheets of silver paper for that purpose over engravings. -It is not impossible that some at least of these may be shreds from -the translucent textiles which found favour in the world for so long -a time during the classic period. The curious example of such gauzy -interleafings in the manuscript of Theodulph, now at Puy en Velay, will -occur perhaps to more than one of our readers. - -It may be easily imagined that silken garments were brought, at an -early period, to imperial Rome. Not only, however, were the prices -asked for them so high that few could afford to buy such robes for -their wives and daughters, but, at first, they were looked upon as -quite unbecoming for men’s wear; hence, by a law of the Roman senate -under Tiberius, it was enacted: “Ne vestis serica vicos fœdaret.” While -noticing how womanish Caligula became in his dress Suetonius remarks -his silken attire: “Aliquando sericatus et cycladatus.” An exception -was made by some emperors for very great occasions, and both Titus -and Vespasian wore dresses of silk when they celebrated at Rome their -triumph over Judæa. Heliogabalus was the first emperor who wore whole -silk for clothing. Aurelian, on the other hand, neither had himself in -his wardrobe a garment wholly silk nor gave one to be worn by another. -When his own wife begged him to allow her to have a single mantle -of purple silk he replied, “Far be it from us to allow thread to be -reckoned worth its weight in gold.” For then a pound of gold was the -price of a pound of silk. - -Clothing made wholly or in part out of silk, nevertheless, became -every year more and more sought for. So remunerative was the trade of -weaving the raw material into its various forms, that, by the revised -code of laws for the Roman empire published A. D. 533, a monopoly in it -was given to the court, and looms worked by women were set up in the -imperial palace. Thus Byzantium became and long continued famous for -the beauty of its silken stuffs. Still, the raw silk itself had to be -brought thither from abroad; until two Greek monks, who had lived many -years among the Chinese, learnt the whole process of rearing the worm. -Returning, they brought with them a number of eggs hidden in their -walking-staves; and, carrying them to Constantinople, they presented -these eggs to the emperor who gladly received them. When hatched the -worms were distributed over Greece and Asia minor, and very soon the -western world reared its own silk. In some places, at least in Greece, -the weaving not only of the finer kinds of cloth but of silk fell -into the hands of the Jews. Benjamin of Tudela, writing in 1161, -tells us that the city of Thebes contained about two thousand Jewish -inhabitants. “These are the most eminent manufacturers of silk and -purple cloth in all Greece.” - -South Italy wrought rich silken stuffs by the end of the eleventh -century; for we are told by our countryman Ordericus Vitalis, who died -in the first half of the twelfth century, that Mainerius, the abbot of -St. Evroul at Uzey in Normandy, on coming home brought with him from -Apulia several large pieces of silk, and gave to his church four of the -finest ones, with which four copes were made for the chanters. - -From a feeling alive in the middle ages throughout the length and -breadth of Christendom, that the best of all things ought to be -given for the service of the Church, the garments of its celebrating -priesthood were, if not always, at least very often wholly of silk; -holosericus. Owing to this fact, we are now able to learn from -the few but tattered shreds before us what elegantly designed and -gorgeous stuffs the foreign mediæval loom could weave, and what -beautiful embroidery our own countrywomen knew so well how to work. -These specimens help us also to rightly understand the description -of the splendid vestments enumerated with such exactness in the old -inventories of our cathedrals and parish churches, as well as in the -early wardrobe accompts of our kings, and in the wills and bequests of -dignified ecclesiastics and nobility. - -Coming westward among us, these much coveted stuffs brought with them -the several names by which they were commonly known throughout the -east, whether Greece, Asia minor, or Persia. Hence when we read of -samit, ciclatoun, cendal, baudekin, and other such terms unknown to -trade now-a-days, we should bear in mind that, notwithstanding the wide -variety of spelling which each of these appellations has run through, -we arrive at their true derivations, and discover in what country and -by whose hands they were wrought. - -As commerce grew these fine silken textiles were brought to our -markets, and articles of dress were made of silk for men’s as well as -women’s wear among the wealthy. At what period the raw material came to -be imported here, not so much for embroidery as to be wrought in the -loom, we do not exactly know; but from several sides we learn that our -countrywomen of all degrees, in very early times, busied themselves in -weaving. Among the home occupations of maidens St. Aldhelm, at the end -of the seventh century, includes weaving. In the council at Cloveshoo, -in 747, nuns are exhorted to spend their time in reading or singing -psalms rather than weaving and knitting vainglorious garments of many -colours. By that curious old English book the ‘Ancren Riwle,’ written -towards the end of the twelfth century, ankresses are forbidden to -make purses or blodbendes (which were narrow strips to bind round the -arm after bleeding), to gain friends therewith. Were it not that the -weaving especially of silk was so generally followed in the cloister by -English women, it had been useless to have so strongly discountenanced -the practice. - -But on silk weaving by our women in small hand-looms a very important -witness, especially about several curious specimens in the great -collection at South Kensington, is John Garland, born at the beginning -of the thirteenth century in London, where many of his namesakes were -and are still known. First, a John Garland, in 1170, held a prebend’s -stall in St. Paul’s cathedral. Another was sheriff at a later period. -A third, a wealthy draper of London, gave freely towards the building -of a church in Somersetshire. A fourth, who died in 1461, lies buried -in St. Sythe’s; and, at the present day, no fewer than twenty-two -tradesmen of that name, of whom six are merchants of high standing in -the city, are mentioned in the London post office directory for the -year 1868. We give these instances as some have tried to rob us of John -Garland by saying he was not an Englishman, though he has himself told -us he was “born in England and brought up in France.” - -In a kind of short dictionary drawn up by that writer and printed at -the end of ‘Paris sous Philippe le Bel,’ edited by M. Geraud, our -countryman tells us that, besides the usual homely textiles, costly -cloth-of-gold webs were wrought by women; and very likely, among their -other productions, were those blodbendes “cingula” the weaving of which -had been forbidden to ankresses and nuns. Perhaps, also, some of the -narrow gold-wrought ribbons in the South Kensington collection, nos. -1233, 1256, 1270, 8569, etc., may have been so employed. - -John Garland’s “cingula” may also mean the rich girdles or sashes worn -by women round the waist, of which there is one example in the same -collection, no. 8571. Of this sort is that fine border, amber coloured -silk and diapered, round a vestment found in a grave at Durham; which -is described by Mr. Raine in his book about St. Cuthbert as “a thick -lace, one inch and a quarter broad--evidently owing its origin, not to -the needle, but to the loom.” In an after period the same bands are -shown on statuary, and in the illuminated manuscripts of the thirteenth -century: as instances of the narrow girdle, the effigy of a lady in -Romney church, Hants and of Ann of Bohemia in Westminster abbey may be -referred to; both to be found in Hollis’s monumental effigies of Great -Britain; for the band about the head, the examples in the wood-cuts in -Planchè’s British costumes, p. 116. - -Specimens of such head bands may be seen at South Kensington, nos. -8569, 8583, 8584, and 8585. - -They are, no doubt, the old snôd of the Anglo-saxon period. For ladies -they were wrought of silk and gold; women of lower degree wore them -of simpler stuff. The silken snood, used in our own time by young -unmarried women in Scotland, is a truthful witness to the fashion in -vogue during Anglo-saxon and later ages in this country. - -The breeding of the worm and the manufacture of its silk spread -themselves with steady though slow steps over most of the countries -which border on the shores of the Mediterranean; so that, by the -tenth century, those processes had reached from the far east to the -uttermost western limits of that sea. Even then, and a long time after, -the natural history of the silkworm became known but to a very few. -Our countryman Alexander Neckham, abbot of Cirencester A. D. 1213, was -probably the first who tried to help others to understand the habits -of the insect: his brief explanation may be found in his once popular -book ‘De natura rerum,’ which has been lately reprinted by order of the -Master of the Rolls. - -[Illustration: Indian woman reeling silk from a wheel.] - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - -Of the several raw materials which from the earliest periods have been -employed in weaving, though not in such frequency as silk, one is gold: -which, when judiciously brought in, adds not a barbaric but artistical -richness. - -The earliest written notice which we have about the employment of this -precious metal in the loom, or of the way in which it was wrought for -such a purpose, is in the Pentateuch. Among the sacred vestments made -for Aaron was an ephod of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice -dyed, and fine twisted linen, with embroidered work; and the workman -cut also thin plates of gold and drew them small into strips, that -they might be twisted with the woof of the aforesaid colours. Instead -of “strip,” the authorised protestant version says “wire;” the Douay -translation reads “thread:” but neither can be right, for both of these -English words mean a something round or twisted in the shape given to -the gold before being wove, whereas the metal must have been worked in -quite flat, as we learn from the text. - -The use of gold for weaving, both with linen or by itself, existed -almost certainly among the Egyptians long before the days of Moses. -The psalmist describing the dress of the king’s daughter (that is, -Pharaoh’s daughter), not only speaks of her being “in raiment of -needlework” but that “her clothing is of wrought gold.” In order to be -woven the precious metal was at first wrought in a flattened, never in -a round or wire shape. To this hour the Chinese and the people of India -work the gold into their stuffs after the ancient form. In the same -fashion, even now, the Italians weave their lama d’oro, or the more -glistening toca: those cloths of gold which to all Asiatic and many -European eyes do not glare with too much garishness, but shine with a -glow that befits the raiment of personages in high station. - -Among the nations of ancient Asia garments made of webs dyed with -the costly purple tint, and interwoven with gold, were on all grand -occasions worn by kings and princes. So celebrated did the Medes and -Persians become in such works of the loom, that cloths of extraordinary -beauty got their several names from those peoples, and Medean, Lydian, -and Persian textiles were everywhere sought for. - -Writing of the wars carried on in Asia and India by Alexander the great -almost four centuries before the birth of Christ, Quintus Curtius often -speaks about the purple and gold garments worn by the Persians and more -eastern Asiatics. Among the many thousands of those who came forth -from Damascus to the Greek general, Parmenio, numbers were so clad: -“They wore robes splendid with gold and purple.” All over India the -same fashion was followed in dress. When an Indian king with his two -sons came to Alexander, the three were so arrayed. Princes and the high -nobility, all over the east, are called by Quintus Curtius “purpurati.” -Not only garments but hangings were made of the same costly fabric. -When Alexander wished to give some ambassadors a splendid reception, -the golden couches upon which they lay to eat their meat were screened -with cloths of gold and purple; and the Indian guests themselves were -not less gorgeously clothed in their own national costume, as they came -wearing linen (perhaps cotton) garments equally resplendent. - -The dress worn by Darius, as he went forth to do battle, is thus -described by the same historian: “the waist part of the royal purple -tunic was wove in white, and upon his mantle of cloth of gold were -figured two golden hawks as if pecking at one another with their beaks.” - -From the east this love for cloth of gold reached the southern end of -Italy, and thence soon got to Rome; where, even under its early kings, -garments made of it were worn. Pliny, speaking of this rich textile, -says: “gold may be spun or woven like wool, without any wool being -mixed with it.” We are told by Verrius that Tarquinius Priscus rode -in triumph in a tunic of gold; and Agrippina the wife of the emperor -Claudius, when he exhibited the spectacle of a naval combat, sat by -him covered with a robe made entirely of gold woven without any other -material. About the year 1840 the marquis Campagna dug up near Rome two -old graves, in one of which had been buried a Roman lady of high birth, -inferred from the circumstance that all about her remains were found -portions of such fine gold flat thread, once forming the burial garment -with which she had been arrayed for her funeral. - -When pope Paschal, A. D. 821, sought for the body of St. Cecily who was -martyred in the year 230, the pontiff found the body in the catacombs, -whole and dressed in a garment wrought all of gold, with some of her -raiment drenched in blood lying at her feet. In making the foundations -for the new St. Peter’s at Rome the workmen came upon and looked into -the marble sarcophagus in which had been buried Probus Anicius, prefect -of the Pretorian, and his wife Proba Faltonia, each of whose bodies was -wrapped in a winding-sheet woven of pure gold strips. The wife of the -emperor Honorius died sometime about the year 400, and when her grave -was opened, in 1544, the golden tissues in which her body had been -shrouded were taken out and melted, amounting in weight to thirty-six -pounds. The late father Marchi also found among the remains of St. -Hyacinthus several fragments of the same kind of golden web. - -Childeric, the second king of the Merovingean dynasty, was buried A. D. -482, at Tournai. In the year 1653 his grave was discovered, and amid -the earth about it so many remains of pure gold strips were turned up -that there is every ground for thinking that the Frankish king was -wrapped in a mantle of golden stuff for his burial. We have reason to -conclude that the strips of pure gold out of which the burial cloak of -Childeric was woven were not round but flat, from the fact that in a -Merovingean burial ground at Envermeu the distinguished archæologist -Cochet a few years ago came upon the grave once filled by a lady whose -head had been wreathed with a fillet of pure golden web, the tissue of -which is thus described: “Ces fils aussi brillants et aussi frais que -s’ils sortaient de la main de l’ouvrier, n’étaient ni étirés ni cordés. -Ils étaient plats et se composaient tout simplement de petites lanières -d’or d’un millimètre de largeur, coupée à même une feuille d’or épaisse -de moins d’un dixième de millimètre. La longeur totale de quelques-uns -atteignait parfois jusqu’à quinze ou dix-huit centimètres.” - -Our own country can furnish an example of this kind of golden textile. -On Chessel down, in the isle of Wight, when Mr. Hillier was making some -researches in an old Anglo-saxon place of burial, the diggers found -pieces of gold strips, thin and quite flat, which are figured in M. -l’abbé Cochet’s learned book just mentioned. Of the same rich texture -must have been the vestment given to St. Peter’s at Rome in the middle -of the ninth century, and described in the Liber Pontificalis as made -of the purest gold, and covered with precious stones: “Carolus rex -sancto Apostolo obtulit ex purissimo auro et gemmis constructam vestem, -etc.” - -Such a weaving of pure gold was, here in England, followed certainly -as late as the beginning of the tenth century; very likely much later. -In the chapter library belonging to Durham cathedral may be seen a -stole and maniple, which bear these inscriptions: “Ælfflaed fieri -precepit. Pio episcopo Fridestano.” Fridestan was consecrated bishop of -Winchester A. D. 905. With these webs under his eye, Mr. Raine writes -thus: “In the first, the ground work of the whole is woven exclusively -with thread of gold. I do not mean by thread of gold, the silver-gilt -wire frequently used in such matters, but real gold thread, if I may -so term it, not round, but flat. This is the character of the whole -web, with the exception of the figures, the undulating cloud-shaped -pedestal upon which they stand, the inscriptions and the foliage; for -all of which, however surprising it may appear, vacant spaces have been -left by the loom, and they themselves afterwards inserted with the -needle.” Further on, in his description of a girdle, the same writer -tells us: “Its breadth is exactly seven-eighths of an inch. It has -evidently proceeded from the loom; and its two component parts are a -flattish thread of pure gold, and a thread of scarlet silk.” Another -very remarkable piece, a fragment (probably) of a stole, was also found -lately at Durham in the grave of bishop Pudsey, who was buried about -the middle of the twelfth century. This was exhibited at the Society of -antiquaries, in the present year, 1875. It is made of rich silk, with a -diaper pattern in gold thread. - -This love for such glittering attire, not only for sacred use but -secular wear, lasted long in England. The golden webs went under -different names; at first they were called “ciclatoun,” “siglaton,” or -“siklatoun,” as the writer’s fancy led him to spell the Persian word -common for them at the time throughout the east. - -By the old English ritual plain cloth of gold was allowed, as now, -to be used for white when that colour happened to be ordered by the -rubric. Thus in the reign of Richard the second, among the vestments at -the chapel of St. George, Windsor castle, there was “one good vestment -of cloth of gold:” and St. Paul’s, London, had at the end of the -thirteenth century two amices embroidered with pure gold. - -This splendid web was often wrought so thick and strong that each -string, whether it happened to be of hemp or of silk had in the warp -six threads, while the weft was of flat gold shreds. Hence such a -texture was called “samit,” a word shortened from its first and old -Byzantine name “exsamit.” The quantity of this costly cloth kept in -the wardrobe of Edward the first was so great, that the nobles of that -king were allowed to buy it out of the royal stores; for instance, four -pieces at thirty shillings each were sold to Robert de Clifford, and -another piece at the same price to Thomas de Cammill. Not only Asia -minor but the island of Cyprus, the city of Lucca, and Moorish Spain, -sent us these rich tissues. With other things left at Haverford castle -by Richard the second were twenty-five cloths of gold of divers suits, -of which four came from Cyprus, the others from Lucca: “xxv. draps d’or -de diverses suytes dount iiii. de _Cipres_ les autres de _Lukes_.” How -Edward the fourth liked cloth of gold for his personal wear may be -gathered from his wardrobe accounts, edited by Nicolas; and the lavish -use of this stuff ordered by Richard the third for his coronation is -recorded in the Antiquarian Repertory. - -A “gowne of cloth-of-gold, furred with pawmpilyon, ayenst Corpus Xpi -day” was bought for Elizabeth of York, afterwards queen of Henry the -seventh, for her to wear as she walked in the procession on that great -festival. The affection shown by Henry the eighth and all our nobility, -men and women, of the time, for cloth of gold in their garments was -unmistakingly set forth in many of the paintings brought together in -the very instructive exhibition of national portraits in 1866, in the -South Kensington museum. The price of this stuff seems to have been -costly; for princess (afterwards queen) Mary, thirteen years before she -came to the throne, “payed to Peycocke, of London, for xix yerds iii. -qřt of clothe of golde at xxxviij.š the yerde, xxxvij_li._ x_s._ vj_d._” -And for “a yerde and d^r qřt of clothe of siluer xl_s._” - -As between common silk and satin there runs a broad difference in -appearance, one being dull, the other smooth and glossy, so there is a -great distinction to be made among cloths of gold; some are, so to say, -dead; others, brilliant and sparkling. When the gold is twisted into -its silken filament it takes the deadened look; when the flattened, -filmy strip of metal is rolled about it so evenly as to bring its -edges close to one another, it seems to be one unbroken wire of gold, -sparkling and lustrous. This kind during the middle ages went by the -term of Cyprus gold; and rich samits woven with it were allied damasks -of Cyprus. - -As time went on cloths of gold had other names. What the thirteenth -century called, first, “ciclatoun,” then “baudekin,” afterward “nak,” -was called, two hundred years later, “tissue”: a bright shimmering -golden textile. The very thin smooth paper which still goes by the name -of tissue-paper was originally made to be put between the folds of this -rich stuff to prevent fraying or tarnish, when laid by. - -The gorgeous and entire set of vestments presented to the altar at St. -Alban’s abbey, by Margaret, duchess of Clarence, A. D. 1429, and made -of the cloth of gold commonly called “tyssewys,” must have been as -remarkable for the abundance and purity of the gold in its texture, as -for the splendour of the precious stones set on it and the exquisite -beauty of its embroideries. The large number of vestments made out of -gold tissue, and of crimson, light blue, purple, green, and black, once -belonging to York cathedral, are all duly registered in the valuable -“Fabric rolls” of that church lately published by the Surtees society. - -Among the many rich and costly vestments in Lincoln cathedral, some -were made of this sparkling golden tissue contra-distinguished in its -inventory from the duller cloth of gold, thus: “Four good copes of blew -tishew with orphreys of red cloth of gold, wrought with branches and -leaves of velvet;” “a chesable with two tunacles of blew tishew having -a precious orphrey of cloth of gold.” - -Silken textures ornamented with designs in copper gilt thread were -manufactured and honestly sold for what they really were: of such -inferior quality we find mention in the inventory of vestments at -Winchester cathedral, drawn up by order of Henry the eighth, where -we read of “twenty-eight copys of white bawdkyne, woven with copper -gold.” Another imitation of woof of gold was possibly fraudulent. This, -originally perhaps Saracenic, was practised by the Spaniards of the -south, and was not easily discovered. The very finest skins were sought -out for the purpose, as thin as that now rare kind of vellum called -“uterine” by collectors of manuscripts. These were heavily gilt and -then cut into very narrow strips, to be used instead of the true golden -thread. - -The gilding of fine silk and canvas in imitation of cloth of gold, -like our gilding of wood and other substances, was also sometimes -resorted to for splendour’s sake on temporary occasions; such, for -instance, as some stately procession or a solemn burial service. Mr. -Raine tells us he found in a grave at Durham, among other textiles, “a -robe of thinnish silk; the ground colour of the whole is amber; and -the ornamental parts were literally covered with _leaf gold_, of which -there remained distinct and very numerous portions.” In the churchyard -of Cheam, Surrey, in 1865, the skeleton of a priest was found who -had been buried some time during the fourteenth century; around the -waist was a flat girdle made of brown silk that had been gilt. In the -‘Romaunt of the rose’ translated by Chaucer, dame Gladnesse is thus -described:-- - - --in an over gilt samite - Clad she was; - -and on a piece of German orphrey-web, in the South Kensington -collection, no. 1373, and probably made at Cologne in the sixteenth -century, the gold is laid by the gilding process. - -Silver also, as well as gold, was hammered out into very thin sheets -which were cut into narrow long shreds to be woven, unmixed with -anything else, into a web for garments. Of this we have a striking -illustration in the Acts of the apostles, where St. Luke, speaking of -Herod Agrippa, says that he presented himself to the people arrayed in -kingly apparel, who, to flatter him, shouted that his was the voice -not of a man but of a god; and forthwith he was smitten by a loathsome -disease which shortly killed him. This royal robe, as Josephus informs -us, was a tunic made of silver and wonderful in its texture. - -Intimately connected with the raw materials, and how they were wrought -in the loom, is the question about the time when wire drawing was found -out. At what period and among what people the art of working up pure -gold, or gilded silver, into a long, round, hair-like thread--into what -may be correctly called “wire”--began, is quite unknown. That with -their mechanical ingenuity the ancient Egyptians bethought themselves -of some method for the purpose is not unlikely. From Sir Gardiner -Wilkinson we learn that at Thebes were found objects which appeared -to be made of gold wire. We may fairly presume that the work upon the -corslets of king Amasis, already spoken of as done by the needle in -gold, required by its minuteness that the metal should be not flat but -in the shape of wire. By delicate management perhaps of the fingers, -the narrow flat strips might have been pinched or doubled up so that -the two edges should meet, and then rubbed between two pieces of hard -material a golden wire of the required fineness would be produced. In -Etruscan and Greek jewellery wire is often to be found; but in all -instances it is so well shaped and so even that it must have been -fashioned by some rolling process. The filigree work of the middle ages -is often very fine and delicate. Probably the embroidery which we read -of in the descriptions of the vestments belonging to our old churches -(for instance “An amice embroidered with pure gold”) was worked with -gold wire. To go back to Anglo-saxon times in this country, such gold -wire would seem to have been then well known and employed, since in -Peterborough minster there were two golden altar-cloths: “ii. gegylde -þeofad sceatas;” and there were at Ely cathedral “two girdles of gold -wire” in the reign of William Rufus. - -The first use of a wire-drawing machine seems to have been about -the year 1360, at Nuremberg; and it was not until two hundred years -after, in 1560, that the method was brought to England. Two examples -of a stuff with pure wire in it may be seen in the South Kensington -collection, nos. 8581 and 8228. - -The process of twining long narrow strips of gold, or gilt silver, -round a line of silk or flax and thus producing gold thread is much -earlier than has been supposed; and when Attalus’s name was bestowed -upon a new method of interweaving gold with wool or linen, thence -called “Attalic,” it was probably because he suggested to the weaver -the introduction of the long-known golden thread as a woof into the -textiles from his loom. It would seem, from a passage in Claudian, that -ladies at an early Christian period used to spin their own gold thread. -Writing at the end of the fourth century, the poet thus compliments -Proba: - - The joyful mother plies her learned hands, - And works all o’er the trabea golden bands, - Draws the thin strips to all their length of gold, - To make the metal meaner threads enfold. - -The superior quality of some gold thread was known to the mediæval -world under the name of the place where it had been made. Thus we find -mention at one time of Cyprus gold thread; “a vestment embroidered with -eagles of gold of Cyprus:” later, of Venice gold thread, “for frenge of -gold of Venys at vj_s._ the ounce;” and again, “one cope of unwatered -camlet laid with strokes of Venis gold.” What may have been their -difference cannot now be pointed out: perhaps the Cyprian thread was -esteemed because its somewhat broad shred of flat gold was wound about -the hempen twist beneath it so nicely as to have the smooth unbroken -look of gold wire; while the manufacture of Venice showed everywhere -the twisting of common thread. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - -In earlier times, as at present, silks had various names, -distinguishing either their kind of texture, their colour, the design -woven on them, the country from which they were brought, or the use -for which, on particular occasions, they happened to be especially set -apart. - -All these designations are of foreign growth; some sprang up in the -seventh and following centuries at Byzantium; some are half Greek, -half Latin, jumbled together; others, borrowed from the east, are so -shortened, so badly and variously spelt, that their Arabic or Persian -derivation can be hardly recognized at present. Yet without some slight -knowledge of them we hardly understand a great deal belonging to trade, -and the manners of the times glanced at by old writers; much less can -we see the true meaning of many passages in our mediæval English poetry. - -Among the terms significative of the kind of web, or mode of getting -up some sorts of silk, we have _Holosericum_, the texture of which is -warp and woof wholly pure silk. From a passage in Lampridius we learn -that so early as the reign of Alexander Severus the difference between -“vestes holosericæ” and “subsericæ” was strongly marked, and that -_subsericum_ implied that the texture was not entirely but in part, -probably the woof, of silk. - -_Examitum_, _xamitum_, or, as it is called in old English documents, -_samit_, is made up of two Greek words, ἑξ, “six,” and μίτοι, -“threads;” the number of the strings in the warp of the texture. It is -evident that stuffs woven so thick must have been of the best quality. -Hence, to say of any silken tissue that it was “examitum” or “samit” -meant that it was six-threaded, and therefore costly and splendid. At -the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries -“examitum” was much used for vestments in Evesham abbey, as we gather -from the chronicle of that house, published lately for the Master of -the Rolls. About the same period among the best copes, chasubles, and -vestments in St. Paul’s, London, many were made of samit. So, again -among the nine gorgeous chasubles bequeathed to Durham cathedral by its -bishop in 1195, the chief was of red samit superbly embroidered. And, -to name no more, we find in the valuable inventory, lately published, -of the rich vestments belonging to Exeter cathedral in 1277 that the -best of its numerous chasubles, dalmatics, and copes, were made of -samit. In a later document, A. D. 1327, this precious silk is termed -“samicta.” - -The poets did not forget to array their knights and ladies in this -gay attire. When Sir Lancelot of the lake brought back Gawain to king -Arthur: - - Launcelot and the queen were cledde - In robes of a rich wede, - Of samyte white, with silver shredde: - - * * * * * - - The other knights everichone, - In samyte green of heathen land, - And their kirtles, ride alone. - -In his ‘Romaunt of the rose,’ Chaucer describes the dress of Mirth thus: - - Full yong he was, and merry of thought - And in samette, with birdes wrought, - And with gold beaten full fetously, - His bodie was clad full richely. - -Many of the beautifully figured damasks in the South Kensington -collection are what anciently were known as “samits;” and if they -really be not six-thread, according to the etymology of their name, it -is because at a very early period the stuffs so called ceased to be -woven of such a thickness. - -The strong silks of the present day with the thick thread called -“organzine” for the woof, and a slightly thinner thread known by the -technical name of “tram” for the warp, may be taken to represent the -old “examits.” - -No less remarkable for the lightness of its texture than was the samit -on account of the thick substance of its web, and quite as much sought -after, was another kind of thin glossy silken stuff “wrought in the -orient,” and here called first by the Persian name which came with it, -_ciclatoun_, that is, bright and shining; but afterwards _sicklatoun_, -_siglaton_, _cyclas_. Sometimes a woof of golden thread lent it still -more glitter; and it was used both for ecclesiastical vestments and -for secular articles of stately dress. In the inventory of St. Paul’s -cathedral, 1295, there was a cope made of cloth of gold, called -ciclatoun: “capa de panno aureo qui vocatur ciclatoun.” Among the booty -carried off by the English when they sacked the camp of Saladin, - - King Richard took the pavillouns - Of sendal, and of cyclatoun. - -In his ‘Rime of Sire Thopas,’ Chaucer says - - Of Brugges were his hosen broun - His robe was of ciclatoun. - -Though so light and thin, this cloak of “ciclatoun” was often -embroidered in silk and had golden ornaments sewn on it; we read in the -‘Metrical romances’ of a maiden who sat - - In a robe ryght ryall bowne - Of a red syclatowne - Be hur fader syde; - A coronell on hur hedd set, - Hur clothys with bestes and byrdes wer bete - All abowte for pryde. - -Knights in the field wore over their armour a long sleeveless gown -slit up almost to the waist on both sides; sometimes of “samit,” often -of “cendal,” oftener still of “ciclatourn:” and the name of the gown -itself, shortened from the material, became known as “cyclas.” Matthew -of Westminster records that when Edward the first knighted his son in -Westminster abbey he sent to three hundred sons of the nobility, whom -the prince was afterward to dub knights in the same church, a most -splendid gift of attire, fitting for the ceremony; among which were -clycases woven with gold. That these garments were very light and thin -we gather from the quiet wit of John of Salisbury, who jeers a man -affecting to perspire in the depth of winter, though clad in nothing -but his fine cyclas. - -Not so costly was a silken stuff known as _cendal_, _cendallus_, -_sandal_, _sandalin_, _cendatus_, _syndon_, _syndonus_, as the way of -writing the word altered as time went on. When Sir Guy of Warwick was -knighted, - - And with him twenty good gomes - Knightes’ and barons’ sons, - Of cloth of Tars and rich cendale - Was the dobbing in each deal. - -The Roll of Caerlaverock tells us that among the grand array which -joined Edward the first at Carlisle in 1300, there was to be seen many -a rich caparison embroidered upon cendal and samit: - - La ot meint riche guarnement - Brodé sur sendaus e samis: - -and Lacy, earl of Lincoln, leading the first squadron, hoisted his -banner made of yellow cendal blazoned with a lion rampant purpre - - Baner out de un cendal safrin, - O un lioun rampant purprin. - -When Sir Bevis of Southampton wished to keep himself unknown at a -tournament, we thus read of him: - - Sir Bevis disguised all his weed - Of black cendal and of rede, - Flourished with roses of silver bright, etc. - -Of the ten silken albs which Hugh Pudsey left to Durham, two were made -of samit and two of cendal, or as the bishop calls it, _sandal_. Exeter -cathedral had a red cope with a green lining of sandal and a cape of -sandaline: “Una capa de sandalin.” Piers Ploughman speaks thus to the -women of his day: - - And ye lovely ladies - With youre long fyngres, - That ye have silk and sandal - To sowe, whan tyme is. - Chesibles for chapeleyns, - Chirches to honoure, etc. - -A stronger kind of cendal was wrought and called, in the Latin -inventories of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, “cendatus -afforciatus:” there was a cope of this material at St. Paul’s, and -another cope of cloth of gold was lined with it. - -_Syndonus_ or _Sindonis_, as it would seem, was a bettermost sort of -cendal. St. Paul’s had a chasuble as well as a cope of this fabric. - -_Taffeta_, if not a thinner, was a less costly silken stuff than -cendal; which word, to this day, is used in the Spanish language, and -is defined to be a thin transparent textile of silk or linen: “Tela -de seda ó lino muy delgada y trasparente.” Taffeta and cendal were -used for linings in mediæval England. Chaucer says of his “doctour of -phisike,” - - In sanguin and in perse he clad was alle - Lined with taffeta and with sendalle. - -_Sarcenet_ during the fifteenth century took by degrees the place of -cendal, at least here in England. - -By some improvement in their weaving of cendal, the Saracens in the -south of Spain earned for this light web a good name in our markets, -and it became much sought for here. Among other places, York cathedral -had several sets of curtains for its high altar, “de sarcynet.” At -first this stuff was called from its makers “saracenicum.” But, in -Anglicising, the name was shortened into “sarcenet;” a word which we -use now for the thin silk which of old was known among us as “cendal.” - -_Satin_, though far from being so common as other silken textures, was -not unknown to England in the middle ages; and Chaucer speaks of it in -his ‘Man of lawes tale:’ - - In Surrie whilom dwelt a compagnie - Of chapmen rich, and therto sad and trewe, - That wide were senten hir spicerie, - Clothes of gold, and satins rich of hewe. - -When satin first appeared in trade it was called round the shores of -the Mediterranean “aceytuni.” The term slipped through early Italian -lips into “zetani;” coming westward this name, in its turn, dropped -its “i,” and smoothed itself into “satin.” So, also, it is called in -France; while in Italy it now goes by the name of “raso,” and the -Spaniards keep up its first designation. - -In the earlier inventories of church vestments no mention can be found -of satin; but this fine silk is spoken of among the various rich -bequests made to his cathedral at Exeter by bishop Grandison, about -1340; though later, and especially in the royal wardrobe accompts, it -is very commonly specified. Hence we may fairly assume that till the -fourteenth century satin was unknown in England; afterwards it met with -much favour. Flags were made of it. On board the stately ship in which -Beauchamp earl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry the sixth, sailed from -England to France, there were flying “three penons of satten,” besides -“sixteen standards of worsted entailed with a bear and a chain,” and -a great streamer of forty yards in length and eight yards in breadth, -with a great bear and griffin holding a ragged staff poudred full of -ragged staffs. Like other silken textiles, satin seems to have been in -some instances interwoven with flat gold thread: for example, Lincoln -had of the gift of one of its bishops eighteen copes of red tinsel -sattin with orphreys of gold. - -Though not often, yet sometimes we read of a silken stuff called -_cadas_, _carda_, _carduus_, and used for inferior purposes. The -outside silk on the cocoon is of a poor quality compared with the -inner filaments, from which it is kept apart in reeling, and set aside -for other uses. We find mention of such cloths as belonging to the -cathedrals of Exeter and St. Paul’s in the thirteenth century. More -frequently, instead of being spun, it served as wadding in dress: on -the barons at the siege of Caerlaverock might be seen many a rich -gambeson garnished with silk, cadas, and cotton: - - Meint riche gamboison guarni - De soi, de cadas e coton. - -The quantity of card purchased for the royal wardrobe, in the year -1299, is set forth in the Liber quotidianus. - -_Camoca_, _camoka_, _camak_, as the name is differently written, was a -textile of which in England we hear nothing before the latter end of -the fourteenth century. No sooner did it make its appearance than this -camoca rose into great repute; the Church used it for her vestments, -and royalty employed it for dress as well as in adorning palaces, -especially in draping beds of state. In the year 1385, besides some -smaller articles, the royal chapel in Windsor castle had a whole set of -vestments and other ornaments for the altar, of white camoca; and our -princes must have arrayed themselves, on grand occasions, in the same -material; for Herod, in one of the Coventry mysteries--the adoration of -the Magi--is made to boast of himself: “In kyrtyl of cammaka kynge am I -cladde.” But it was in draping its state-beds that our ancient royalty -showed its affection for camoca. Edward the Black Prince bequeaths to -his confessor “a large bed of red camoca with our arms embroidered at -each corner,” and the prince’s mother leaves to another of her sons -“a bed of red camak.” Edward lord Despencer, in 1375, wills to his -wife “my great bed of blue camaka, with griffins, also another bed -of camaka, striped with white and black.” What may have been the real -texture of this stuff, thought so magnificent, we do not positively -know, but it was probably woven of fine camels’ hair and silk, and of -Asiatic workmanship. - -From this mixed web we pass to another more precious, the _Cloth -of Tars_; which we presume to have been the forerunner of the now -celebrated cashmere, and together with silk made of the downy wool of -goats reared in several parts of Asia, but especially in Tibet. - -_Velvet_ is a silken textile, the history of which has still to be -written. Of the country whence it first came, or the people who were -the earliest to hit upon the happy way of weaving it, we know nothing. -A very old piece was in the beautiful crimson cope embroidered by -English hands in the fourteenth century, now kept at the college of -Mount St. Mary, Chesterfield. - -We are probably indebted to central Asia, or perhaps China, for velvet -as well as satin; and among the earliest places in Europe where it was -manufactured, were perhaps first the south of Spain, and then Lucca. - -In the earliest of the inventories which we have of church vestments, -that of Exeter cathedral, 1277, velvet is not spoken of; but in St. -Paul’s, London, A. D. 1295, there is some notice of velvet with its -kindred web “fustian,” for chasubles. Velvet is for the first time -mentioned at Exeter in 1327, but as in two pieces not made up, of which -some yards had been then sold for vestment-making. From the middle of -the fourteenth century velvet is of common occurrence. - -The name itself of velvet, “velluto,” seems to point out Italy as the -market through which we got it from the east, for the word in Italian -indicates something which is hairy or shaggy, like an animal’s skin. - -_Fustian_ was known at the end of the thirteenth century. St. Paul’s -cathedral at that date had “a white chasuble of fustian.” In an -English sermon preached at the beginning of the same century great -blame is found with the priest who had his chasuble made of middling -fustian: “þe meshakele of medeme fustian.” As then wove, fustian had -a short nap on it, and one of the domestic uses to which during the -middle ages it had been put was for bed clothes, as thick undersheets. -Lady Bargavenny bequeaths, in 1434, “A bed of gold of swans, two pair -sheets of raynes (fine linen, made at Rheims), a pair of fustians, six -pair of other sheets, etc.” It is not unlikely that this stuff may have -hinted to the Italians the way of weaving silk in the same manner, and -so of producing velvet. Other nations took up the manufacture, and -the weaving of velvet was wonderfully improved. It became diapered -and, upon a ground of silk or of gold, the pattern came out in a bold -manner, with a raised pile. At last, the most beautiful of all manners -of diapering, namely, making the pattern to show itself in a double -pile, one pile higher than the other and of the same tint, now, as -formerly, known as velvet upon velvet, was brought to its highest -perfection; and velvets in this fine style were wrought in greatest -excellence in Italy, in Spain and in Flanders. Our old inventories -often specify these differences in the making of the web. York -cathedral had “four copes of crimson velvet plaine, with orphreys of -clothe of goulde, for standers;” “a greene cushion of raised velvet;” -and “a cope of purshed velvet (redd):” “purshed” means that the velvet -was raised in a network pattern. - -_Diaper_ was a silken fabric, held everywhere in high estimation -during many hundred years, both abroad and in England. We know this -from documents beginning with the eleventh century: but the origin of -the name is uncertain. Possibly, in order to indicate a one-coloured -yet patterned silk, which diaper is, the Byzantine Greeks of the -early middle ages invented the term διαςπρὸν, diaspron, from διαςπαω, -I separate, to signify “what distinguishes or separates itself from -things about it,” as every pattern does on a one-coloured silk. -With this textile the Latins took the name for it from the Greeks -and called it “diasper,” which in English has been moulded into -“diaper.” In the year 1066 the empress Agnes gave to Monte Cassino a -diaper-chasuble of cloth of gold, “planetam diasperam.” This early -mention of the name seems to be a conclusive argument against those -writers who derive it from Yprès, in Flanders; a town celebrated for -linen manufactures at a somewhat later period: yet even then, according -to Chaucer, rivalled by workwomen in England. He tells us of the “good -wif of Bathe” that - - Of cloth-making she hadde swiche an haunt - She passed hem of Ipres and of Gaunt. - -In the South Kensington collection, no. 1270 shows how these cloths -were wrought; and it would seem that cloth of gold was often diapered -with a pattern, at least in the time of Chaucer, who describes it on -the housing of a king’s horse: - - ----trapped in stele, - Covered with cloth of gold diapred wele. - -Church inventories make frequent mention of such diapered silks for -vestments. Exeter cathedral had a cope of white diaper with half moons, -the gift of bishop Bartholomew, in 1161. Sometimes the pattern of the -diapering is noticed; for instance, at St. Paul’s, “a chasuble of white -diaper, with coupled parrots in places, among branches.” Probably the -most elaborate specimen of diaper-weaving on record is that which -Edmund, earl of Cornwall, gave to the same cathedral; “a cope of a -certain diaper of Antioch colour covered with trees and diapered birds, -of which the heads, breasts and feet, as well as the flowers on the -tress, were woven in gold thread.” - -By degrees the word “diaper” became widened in its meaning. Not only -all sorts of textile, whether of silk, of linen, or of worsted, but the -walls of a room were said to be diapered when the self-same ornament -was repeated and sprinkled well over it. Thus, in ‘the squire of low -degree,’ the king of Hungary promises his daughter a chair or carriage, -that - - Shal be coverd wyth velvette reede - And clothes of fyne golde al about your heede, - With damaske whyte and azure blewe - Well dyaperd with lylles newe. - -The bow for arrows held by Sweet-looking is, in Chaucer’s ‘Romaunt of -the rose,’ described as - - painted well, and thwitten - And over all diapred and written, etc. - -So now, we call our fine table linen “diaper” because it is figured -with flowers and fruits. Sometimes silks diapered were called “fygury:” -as the cope mentioned in the York fabric rolls, “una capa de sateyn -fygury.” - -[Illustration: Ladies spinning and weaving; from a manuscript of the -fifteenth century.] - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - -There are some very ancient names, distinguishing different textiles, -which require notice: such as “chrysoclavus,” “stauraccin,” -“polystaurium,” “gammadion” or “gammadiæ,” “de quadruplo,” “de -octoplo,” and “de fundato.” Textiles of silk and gold are, over and -over again, enumerated as then commonly known under such names, in -the ‘Liber pontificalis seu de gestis Romanorum pontificum:’ a book -of great value for every student of early Christian art-work, and in -particular of textiles and embroidery. - -The _Chrysoclavus_, or golden nail-head, was a remnant which lingered a -long time among the ornaments embroidered on ecclesiastical vestments -and robes for royal wear of that once so coveted “latus clavus,” -or broad nail-head-like purple round patch worn upon the outward -garment of the old Roman dignitaries. In the court of Byzantium this -mark of dignity was elevated, from being purple on white, into gold -upon purple. Hence it came that all rich purple silks, woven or -embroidered with the “clavus” in gold, were known from their pattern -as gold nail-headed, or chrysoclavus; and silken textiles of Tyrian -dye, sprinkled all over with large round spots, were once in great -demand. Pope Leo in 795, among his several other gifts to the churches -at Rome, bestowed a great number of altar frontals made of this -purple and gold fabric, as we are told by Anastasius in the Liber -pontificalis. Sometimes these “clavi” were made so large that upon -their golden ground an event in the life of a saint or the saint’s head -was embroidered, and then the whole piece was called “sigillata,” or -_sealed_. - -_Stauracin_ or “stauracinus,” taking its name from σταυρὸς the Greek -for “cross,” was a silken stuff figured with small plain crosses, and -therefore from their number sometimes farther distinguished by the word -signifying that meaning in Greek, _Polystauron_. - -The crosses woven on the various fabrics were sometimes of the simplest -shape; oftener they were designed after an elaborate type with a -symbolic meaning about it that afforded an especial name to the stuffs -upon which they were figured. - -This name _Gammadion_, or _Gammadiæ_, was a word applied as often to -the pattern upon silks as to the figures wrought upon gold and silver. - -In the Greek alphabet the capital letter gamma takes the shape of an -exact right angle thus, Γ. Being so, many writers have seen in it an -emblem of our Lord as our corner-stone. Following this idea artists at -a very early period struck out a way of forming the cross after several -shapes by various combinations with it of this letter Γ. Four of these -gammas put so; - -[Illustration] - -fall into the shape of the so-called Greek cross; and in this form it -was woven upon the textiles denominated _stauracinæ_; or patterned with -a cross. Being one of the four same-shaped elements of the cross’s -figure, the part was significant of the whole: and as an emblem of the -corner-stone, our Lord, the gamma or Γ, was frequently shown at one -edge of the tunic worn by the apostles in ancient mosaics; wherein -sometimes we find, in place of the single gamma, the figure H; another -combination of the four gammas in the cross. Whatsoever, therefore, -whether of metal or of silk, was found to be marked in this or any -other way of putting the gammas together, or with only a single one, -was called “gammadion,” or “gammadiæ.” - -Ancient ingenuity for throwing its favourite gamma into other -combinations, and thus bringing out pretty and graceful patterns to -be wrought on all sorts of work for ecclesiastical use, did not stop -here. In the Liber pontificalis of Anastasius we meet not unfrequently -with accounts of vestments, etc. “de stauracin seu quadrapolis”; or “de -quadrapolo”; or “de octapolo.” The author here evidently means to imply -a distinction between a something amounting to four, and to eight, in -or upon these textiles. It cannot be to say that one fabric was woven -with four, the other with eight threads; had that been so meant, the -fact would probably then have been explained by a word constructed like -“examitus,” p. 24. As the contrast is not in the texture it must be in -the pattern of the stuffs; that is, in the number of the crosses: and -we further see why “stauracin” and “de quadrapolis” are interchangeable -terms. - -At the end of Du Cange’s glossary is an engraving of a work of Greek -art; plate IX. Here St. John Chrysostom stands between St. Nicholas -and St. Basil. All three are arrayed in their liturgical garments, -which being figured with crosses are of the textile called of old -“stauracin;” but there is a marked difference in the way in which the -crosses are inserted. The crosses are arranged upon the vestment of St. -John thus; - -[Illustration] - -St. Nicholas and St. Basil have chasubles which are not only worked -all over with crosses made with gammas, but are surrounded with other -gammas joined so as to edge in the crosses, thus; - -[Illustration] - -As four gammas only are necessary to form all the crosses upon -St. John’s vestment, we there see the textile called “stauracin de -quadruplo,” or the stuff figured with a cross of four (gammas); -while as eight of these letters are required for the pattern on the -others, we have in them an example of the “stauracin de octapolo,” or -“octapulo,” a fabric with a pattern composed of eight gammas. - -A far more ancient and universal shape fashioned out of the repetition -of the same letter Γ, is that known as _Gammadion_; or, as commonly -called at one time in England, the _Filfot_. Several pieces in the -South Kensington collection exhibit on them some modification of it: -for example, nos. 1261, 1325, 7052, 829A, 8305, 8635, and 8652. Its -figure is made out of the usual four gammas, so that they should fall -together thus; - -[Illustration] - -Of silks patterned with the plain Greek cross or “stauracin” there are -also several examples in the same collection; and though not of the -remotest period are interesting. No. 8234, perhaps wrought in Sicily by -the Greeks brought as prisoners from the Morea in the twelfth century, -is not without some value. In the chapter library at Durham may be -seen (as we learn from Mr. Raine) an example of Byzantine stauracin -“colours purple and crimson; the only prominent ornament a cross--often -repeated, even upon the small portion which remains.” Those who -have seen in St. Peter’s sacristy at Rome that beautiful light-blue -dalmatic said to have been worn by Charlemagne when he sang the gospel, -vested as a deacon, on the day he was crowned emperor, will remember -how plentifully it is sprinkled with crosses between its exquisite -embroideries, so as to make the vestment a real “stauracin.” It has -been well given by Sulpiz Boisserée in his ‘Kaiser dalmatika in der St. -Peterskirche;’ but far better by Dr. Bock in his splendid work on the -coronation robes of the German emperors. - -Silks called _de fundato_, from the pattern woven on them, are -frequently spoken of by Anastasius. From the text of that writer, and -from passages in other authors of his time, it would seem that the -silks themselves were dyed of the richest purple and figured with gold -in the pattern of netting. As one of the meanings for the word “funda” -is a fisherman’s net, rich textiles so figured in gold were denominated -“de fundato” or netted. We gather also from Fortunatus that the costly -purple-dyed silks called “blatta” were always interwoven with gold. -This net-pattern lingered long and, no doubt, we find it under a new -name “laqueatus”--meshed--upon a cope belonging to the church of St. -Paul’s, London, 1295: where an inventory, printed by Dugdale, includes -a cope of baudekin with fir-cones “in campis laqueatis.” Modifications -of this very old pattern may be seen at South Kensington, nos. 1264, -1266, and 8234. In the diapered pattern on some of the cloth of gold -found lately in the grave of an archbishop, buried at York about the -end of the thirteenth century, the same netting is discernible. - -_Stragulatæ_, striped or barred silks, were at one time in much -request. Frequent mention is made of them in the Exeter inventories; -for example, in 1277, there were two palls of baudekin, one -“stragulata.” The illuminations in the manuscript in the Harley -collection at the British museum of the deposition of Richard the -second affords us instances of this textile. The young man to the -right sitting on the ground at the archbishop’s sermon is entirely, -hood and all, arrayed in this striped silk; and at the altar, where -Northumberland is swearing on the eucharist, the priest who is saying -mass wears a chasuble of the same stuff. Old St. Paul’s had an -offertory-veil of the same pattern; “stragulatum” with the stripes red -and green. - -At the end of the twelfth century there was brought to England, from -Greece, a sort of precious silk named there _Imperial_. - -Ralph, dean of St Paul’s cathedral, tells us that William de Magna -Villa, on coming home from his pilgrimage to the holy land about 1178, -made presents to several churches of cloths which at Constantinople -were called “Imperial.” We are told by Roger Wendover, and after him by -Matthew Paris, that the apparition of king John was dressed in royal -robes made of the stuff they call imperial. In the inventory of St. -Paul’s, drawn up in 1295, four tunicles (vestments for subdeacons and -lower ministers at the altar) are mentioned as made of this imperial. -No colour is specified, except in the one instance of the silk being -marbled; and the patterns are noticed as of red and green, with lions -woven in gold. It seems not to have been thought good enough for the -more important vestments, such as chasubles and copes. Probably the -name was not derived from its colour (supposed royal purple) nor its -costliness, but for quite another reason: woven at a workshop kept -up by the Byzantine emperors, like the Gobelins is to-day in Paris, -and bearing about it some small though noticeable mark, it took the -designation of “Imperial.” We know it was partly wrought with gold; -but that its tint was always some shade of the imperial purple is a -gratuitous assumption. In France this textile was in use as late as the -second half of the fifteenth century, but looked upon as old. At York -somewhat later, in the early part of the sixteenth, one of its deans -bestowed on that cathedral “two (blue) copes of clothe imperialle.” - -_Baudekin_ was a costly stuff much employed and often spoken of in our -literature during many years of the mediæval period. - -Ciclatoun, as we have already remarked, was the usual term during -centuries throughout western Europe by which the showy golden textiles -were called. When, however, Bagdad or Baldak held for no short length -of time the lead all over Asia in weaving fine silks, and in especial -golden stuffs shot as now in different colours, tinted cloths of gold -became known, and more particularly among the English, as “baldakin,” -“baudekin,” or “baudkyn,” or silks from Baldak. At last the earlier -term “ciclatoun” dropped out of use. Remembering this the reader will -more readily understand several otherwise puzzling passages in our old -writers, as well as in the inventories of royal furniture and church -vestments. - -Kings and the nobility affected much this rich stuff for the garments -worn on high occasions. When Henry the third knighted William of -Valence, in 1247, he had on a robe of cloth of gold made of baudekin; -“facta de pretiosissimo baldekino.” In the year 1259 the master of -Sherborn hospital in the north bequeathed to that house a cope made of -the like stuff: “de panno ad aurum scilicet baudekin.” Vestments of -this material are frequently mentioned in the old church inventories. - -These Bagdad or Baldak silks, with a weft of gold, known among us as -“baudekins” were often woven very large in size, and applied here in -England to especial ritual purposes. As a thanks-offering after a -safe return home from a journey they were brought and given to the -altar; at the solemn burial of our kings and queens and other great -people, the mourners, when offertory time came, went to the hearse and -threw a baudekin of costly texture over the coffin. We may learn the -ceremonial from the descriptions of many of our mediæval funerals. At -the obsequies of Henry the seventh in Westminster abbey:--“Twoe herauds -came to the duke of Buck. and to the earles, and conveyed them into the -revestrie where they did receive certen palles which everie of them did -bringe solemly betwene theire hands and comminge in order one before -another as they were in degree unto the said herse, thay kissed theire -said palles and delivered them unto the said heraudes which laide -them uppon the kyngs corps, in this manner: the palle which was first -offered by the duke of Buck. was laid on length on the said corps, and -the residewe were laid acrosse, as thick as they might lie.” In the -same church at the burial of Anne of Cleves in 1557, a like ceremonial -of carrying cloth-of-gold palls to the hearse was followed. So also the -religious guilds, or other companies, in the middle ages kept palls to -be thrown over the bodies of all brothers or sisters at their burial, -however lowly may have been their rank. - -The word “baudekin” itself became at last enlarged in its meaning. So -warm, so mellow, so fast were the tones of crimson which the dyers of -Bagdad knew how to give their silks that, without a thread of gold in -them, the mere glowing tints of the plain crimson silken webs won for -themselves the name of baudekins. Furthermore, when they quite ceased -to be partly woven in gold and from their consequent lower price and -cheapness came into use for cloths of estate over royal thrones, the -canopy hung over the high altar of a church acquired and yet keeps the -appellation (at least in Italy) of “baldachino.” - -How very full in size, how costly in materials and embroidery, must -have sometimes been the cloth of estate spread overhead and behind the -throne of our kings, may be gathered from the privy purse expenses -of Henry the seventh; wherein this item occurs: “To Antony Corsse -for a cloth of an estate conteyning 47½ yerds, £11 the yerd, £522 -10_s._” Canopies of this kind are still occasionally to be seen in the -throne-room of some of the Roman palaces, whose owners have the old -feudal right to the cloth of estate. - -The custom itself is thus noticed by Chaucer: - - Yet nere and nere forth in I gan me dress - Into an hall of noble apparaile, - With arras spred, and cloth of gold I gesse, - And other silke of easier availe: - Under the cloth of their estate sauns faile - The king and quene there sat as I beheld. - -This same rich golden stuff had a third and even better known name, to -be found all through our early literature as _Cloth of Pall_. - -The state cloak (in Latin pallium, in Anglo-saxon paell), worn alike -by men as well as women, was always made of the most gorgeous stuff -that could be found. From a very early period in the mediæval ages -golden webs shot in silk with one or other of the various colours, -occasionally blue but oftener crimson, were sought for through so many -years, and everywhere, that at last each sort of cloth of gold had -given to it the name of “pall,” no matter the immediate purpose to -which it might have to be applied or after what fashion. Vestments for -sacred use and garments for knights and ladies were equally made of it. -The word is common enough in the church inventories. - -As to worldly use, the king’s daughter in the ‘Squire of low degree’ had - - Mantell of ryche degre - Purple palle and armyne fre: - -and in the poem of Sir Isumbras-- - - The rich queen in hall was set; - Knights her served, at hand and feet - In rich robes of pall. - -For ceremonial receptions our kings used to order that every house -should be “curtained” along the streets which the procession would have -to take through London, “incortinaretur.” How this was done we learn -from Chaucer in the ‘Knight’s tale’; - - By ordinance, thurghout the cite large - Hanged with cloth of gold, and not with sarge; - -as well as from the ‘Life of Alexander:’ - - Al theo city was by-hong - Of riche baudekyns and pellis (palls) among. - -Hence, when Elizabeth, queen of Henry the seventh, “proceeded from the -towre throwge the citie of London (for her coronation) to Westminster, -al the strets ther wich she shulde passe by, were clenly dressed and -besene with clothes of tappestreye and arras. And some strets, as -Cheepe, hangged with rich clothes of gold, velvetts, and silks, etc.” -Machyn in his diary tells us that as late as 1555 “Bow chyrche in -London was hangyd with cloth of gold and with ryche hares (arras).” - -Both in England and abroad, it was customary in the middle ages to -provide richly decorated palls with which to cover the biers of dead -people: more especially the members of various guilds. Some of these -are still existing; one, belonging to the London fishmongers’ -company; another, of the fifteenth century, is in the museum at Amiens. - -[Illustration: Mortuary Cloth from the church of Folleville (Somme), -now in the museum at Amiens.] - -A celebrated Mohammedan writer, Ebn-Khaldoun, who died about the middle -of the fifteenth century, while speaking of that spot in an Arab -palace, the “Tiraz,” so designated from the name itself of the rich -silken stuffs therein woven, tells us that one of the privileges of -the Saracenic kings was to have the name of the prince himself, or the -special ensign chosen by his house, woven into the stuffs intended for -his personal wear, whether wrought of silk, brocade, or even coarser -kind of silk. While gearing his loom the workman contrived that the -letters of the title should come out either in threads of gold, or in -silk of another colour from that of the ground. The royal apparel thus -bore about it its own especial marks, and distinguished not only the -sovereign but those personages around him who were allowed by their -official rank in his court to wear it; or those again upon whom he -had bestowed rich garments as especial tokens of the imperial favour, -like the modern pelisse of honour. Before the time of Mahomet the -eastern princes used to have woven upon the stuffs wrought for their -personal use, or as gifts to others, their own especial likeness, or at -times the peculiar ensign of their royalty. But afterwards the custom -was changed and names were substituted, to which words were added -foreboding good or certain formulas of praise. Wherever the Moslem -ruled the practice was introduced; and thus, whether in Asia, in Egypt, -or other parts of Africa, or in Moorish Spain, the silken garments for -royalty and its favourites showed woven in them the prince’s name, or -his chosen text. The robes wrought in Egypt for the far-famed Saladin, -and worn by him as caliph, bore very conspicuously upon them the name -of that conqueror. - -In the old lists of church ornaments frequent mention is found of -vestments inscribed with words in real or pretended Arabic; and when -St. Paul’s inventory more than once speaks of silken stuffs “de opere -Saraceno” it is not improbable that some at least of those textiles -were so called from having Arabic characters woven on them. Such, -too, were the letters on the red pall figured with elephants and a -bird, belonging in the fourteenth century to the cathedral at Exeter. -Somewhat later, our trade with the south of Spain led us to call such -words on woven stuffs Moorish: thus, Joane lady Bergavenny bequeaths -(1434) a “hullyng (hangings for a hall) of black red and green, with -morys letters, etc.” - -[Illustration: Silk damask (Sicilian) with imitated Arabic letters.] - -The weaving of letters in textiles is neither a Moorish nor Saracenic -invention; ages before, the ancient Parthians used to do so, as we -learn from Pliny: “Parthi literas vestibus intexunt.” A curious -illustration of the frequent use of silken stuffs bearing letters, -borrowed from some real or supposed oriental alphabet, is the custom -which many of the illuminators had of figuring on frontals and altar -canopies, evidently intended to represent silk, meaningless words; and -the artists of Italy up to the middle of the sixteenth century did the -same on the hems of the garments worn by great personages, in their -paintings. - -The eagle, single and double-headed, may frequently be found in the -patterns of old silks. In all ages certain birds of prey have been -looked upon by heathens as ominous for good or evil. Upon the standard -which was carried at the head of the Danish invaders of Northumbria -was figured the raven, the bird of Odin. This banner had been worked -by the daughters of Regnar Lodbrok, in one noontide’s while; and it is -recorded by Asser that if victory was to follow, the raven would seem -to stand erect and as if about to soar before the warriors; but if a -defeat was impending, the raven hung his head and drooped his wings. -Another and a more important flag, that which Harold fought under at -Hastings, is described by Malmesbury as having been embroidered in -gold with the figure of a man in the act of fighting, and studded with -precious stones, woven sumptuously. - -In still earlier ages the eagle, known for its daring and its lofty -flight, was held in high repute; as the emblem of power and victory -it is to be seen flying in triumph over the head of some Assyrian -conqueror, as may be witnessed in Layard’s work on Nineveh. Homer -calls it the bird of Jove. Quintus Curtius says that a golden eagle -was carved upon the yoke of the war chariot of king Darius, as if -outstretching his wings. The Romans bore the bird upon their standards; -the Byzantine emperors kept it as their device; and, following the -ancient traditions of the east and heedless of their law that forbids -the making of images, the Saracens, especially when they ruled in -Egypt, had the eagle figured on several things about them, sometimes -single at others double-headed, which latter was the shape adopted by -the emperors of Germany as their blazon; in which form it is borne to -this day by several reigning houses. It is not strange, therefore, that -eagles of both fashions are so often to be observed woven upon ancient -and eastern textiles. - -As early as 1277 Exeter cathedral reckoned among her vestments several -so decorated; for instance, a cope of baudekin figured with small -two-headed eagles: and Richard king of Germany, brother of Henry the -third of England, gave to the same church a cope of black baudekin with -eagles in gold figured on it. These are recorded in the inventories -printed by Dr. Oliver; and many like instances might be noticed in -other lists. - -[Illustration: Ladies carding and spinning; from MSS. of the fourteenth -century, in the British museum.] - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - -Hitherto no attempt has been made to distribute olden silken textiles -into various schools; but the numerous specimens in the admirable -collection at South Kensington enable us to separate them into several -groups--Chinese, Persian, Byzantine, Indian, Syrian, Saracenic, -Moresco-Spanish, Sicilian, Italian, Flemish, British, and French. We -shall now especially refer to that collection. - -The Chinese examples are not many: but, whether plain or figured, they -are beautiful in their own way. From all that we know of the people, -we are led to believe that their style two thousand years ago is the -same still; so that the web wrought by them this year or three hundred -years ago, like no. 1368, would differ hardly in a line from their far -earlier textiles; of which Dionysius Periegetes wrote that “the Seres -make precious figured garments, resembling in colour the flowers of the -field, and rivalling in fineness the work of spiders.” In these stuffs, -warp and woof are of silk and both of the best kinds. - -Persian textiles, as we see them at South Kensington, must also have -been for many centuries very much the same in design and character. -Sometimes the design is made up of various kinds of beasts and birds, -real or imaginary, with the sporting cheetah spotted among them; and -the “homa” or tree of life conspicuously set above all. In such cases -we may conclude that the web was wrought by Persians, and generally -the textile will be found in all its parts to be of the richest -materials. - -No. 8233, may be referred to as an illustration of the Persian type. - -A school of design sprung up among the Byzantine Greeks, from the time -when in the sixth century they began to weave home-grown silk, which -retained not a little of the beauty, breadth, and flowing outline of -ancient art. Together with this, a strong feeling of Christianity -showed itself as well in many of the subjects which they took out of -holy writ as in the smaller elements of ornamentation. Figures, whether -of the human form or of beasts, are given in a much larger and bolder -size than on any other ancient stuffs. Though there are not many known -specimens from the old looms of Constantinople there is one, no. 7036, -showing Samson wrestling with a lion, which may serve as a type. In the -year 1295 St. Paul’s cathedral would seem to have possessed several -vestments made of Byzantine silk. A very splendid dalmatic of Byzantine -silk, probably of the twelfth century, is preserved in the treasury of -St. Peter’s at Rome. The colour is dark blue, and the embroidery in -gold and colours. - -The specimens at South Kensington from the Byzantine and later Greek -loom are not to be taken as by any means first-rate examples of its -general production. They are poor both in material and, when figured, -in design. There are, however, many pieces: nos. 1241, 1246, 1257, -1266, etc. - -Indian ancient silks and textiles have their own distinctive marks. - -From Marco Polo, who wandered much over the far east some time during -the thirteenth century, we learn that the weaving in India was done by -women who wrought in silk and gold, after a noble manner, beasts and -birds upon their webs:--“Le loro donne lavorano tutte cose a seta e ad -oro e a uccelli e a bestie nobilmente e lavorano di cortine ed altre -cose molto ricamente.” - -[Illustration: Byzantine Dalmatic: preserved at Rome.] - -Several of the South Kensington mediæval specimens from Tartary and -India show well the truthfulness of the great Venetian traveller, -while speaking about the textiles which he saw in those countries. The -dark purple piece of silk figured in gold with birds and beasts of the -thirteenth century, no. 7086, is good; but better still is the shred of -blue damask, no. 7087, with its birds, its animals, and flowers wrought -in gold and different coloured silks. India, also, has ever been famous -for its cloud-like transparent muslins, which since Marco Polo’s days -have kept that oriental name, through being better woven at Mosul than -elsewhere. - -The Syrian school is well represented at South Kensington by several -fine pieces. - -The whole sea-board of that part of Asia minor, as well as far inland, -was inhabited by a mixture of Jews, Christians, and Saracens; and all -were workers in silk. The reputation of the neighbouring Persia had of -old stood high for the beauty and durability of her silken textiles, -which caused them to be sought for by the European traders. Persia’s -outlet to the west for her goods lay through the great commercial ports -on the coast of Syria. Persia was accustomed to set her own peculiar -seal upon her figured webs, by mingling in her designs the mystic -“homa:” and, naturally, this part of the pattern became in the eyes -of Europeans, at first, a sort of assurance that those goods had been -made in Persian looms. By one of the tricks of imitation followed in -that day, as well as now, the Syrian designers threw the “homa” into -their patterns. Borrowed perhaps originally from Hebrew tradition, this -symbol of “the tree of life” had in it nothing objectionable either to -the Christian, the Jew, or the Moslem: all three, therefore, took it -and made it a leading portion of design in the patterns of their silks; -and hence it is that we meet with it so often. Though at the beginning, -it may be, done with a fraudulent intention of palming on the world -Syrian for Persian silks, the Syrians usually put also into their -fabrics a something which declared the real workmanship. Mixed with -the “homa,” the “cheetah,” and other elements of Persian patterns, -the discordant two-handled vase or the badly-imitated Arabic sentence -betrays the textile to be not Persian but Syrian. No. 8359 exemplifies -this. Furthermore, probably in ignorance about Persia’s superstitious -use of the “homa” in her old religious services, the Christian weavers -of Syria put the sign of the cross by the side of the “tree of life:” -as we find upon the piece of silk, no. 7094. Another remarkable -specimen of the Syrian loom is no. 7034, whereon the Nineveh lions come -forth conspicuously. As good examples of well-wrought “diaspron” or -diaper, no. 8233 and no. 7052 may be mentioned. - -Saracenic weaving, as shown by the design upon the web, is exemplified -in several specimens at South Kensington. - -However much against what looks like a heedlessness of the teaching of -the Koran, it is certain that the Saracens, those of the upper classes -in particular, felt no difficulty in wearing robes upon which animals -and the likenesses of created things were woven; with the strictest -of their princes a double-headed eagle, possibly borrowed from the -crusaders, was a royal heraldic device. Stuffs figured with birds and -beasts, with trees and flowers, were not the less on that account of -Saracenic workmanship, and meant for Moslem wear. What, however, may -be chiefly looked for upon Saracenic textures is a pattern consisting -of longitudinal stripes of blue, red, green, and other colour; some of -them charged with animals, small in form; some written, in large Arabic -letters, with a word or sentence. - -Moresco-Spanish or Saracenic textiles wrought in Spain, though -partaking of the striped pattern and bearing words in real or imitated -Arabic, had some distinctions of their own. The designs shown upon -these stuffs are almost always drawn out of strap-work, reticulations, -or some combination of geometrical lines, amid which are occasionally -to be found different forms of conventional flowers. Sometimes, but -very rarely, the crescent moon is figured as in the curious piece, no. -8639. The colours of these silks are usually either a fine crimson or -a deep blue with almost always a fine toned yellow as a ground. But one -remarkable feature in these Moresco-Spanish textiles is the presence of -the ingenious imitation (before spoken of) of gold; for which shreds -of gilded parchment cut up into narrow flat strips are substituted and -woven with the silk. This, when fresh, must have looked very bright, -and have given the web all the appearance of the favourite stuffs -called here in England “tissues.” The fraud, as already explained, if -fraud it were, is not easily discovered without a magnifying glass. A -guide may be found in the blackness of the gold. Nos. 7095, 8590, and -8639, are examples of this gilded vellum. - -The Sicilian school strongly marked wide differences between itself and -all the others which had lived before; and the history of its loom is -as interesting as it is varied. - -The first to teach the natives of Sicily how to rear the silkworm -and spin its silk were, as it would seem, the Mahomedans, who coming -over from Africa brought with them, besides the art of weaving silken -textiles, a knowledge of the fauna of that vast continent--its -giraffes, its antelopes, its gazelles, its lions, its elephants. These -invaders told them also of the parrots of India and the hunting sort -of leopard,--the cheetahs; and when the stuff was wrought for European -wear both beast and bird were imaged upon the web, and at the same time -a word in Arabic was woven in. Like all other Saracens, those in Sicily -loved to mingle gold in their tissues; and, to spare the silk, cotton -thread was not unfrequently worked up in the warp. When, therefore, -we meet with beasts taken from the fauna of Africa, such, especially, -as the giraffe and the several classes of the antelope family, with -perhaps also an Arabic motto, and part of the pattern wrought in gold, -as well as cotton in the warp, we may fairly take the specimen as a -piece of Sicily’s work in its first period of weaving silk. - -The second epoch was when in the twelfth century Roger, king of Sicily, -took Corinth, Thebes, and Athens; from each of which cities he led -away captives all the men and women he could find who knew how to weave -silks, and carried them to Palermo. These Grecian new comers brought -fresh designs which were adopted sometimes wholly, at others but in -part and mixed up with the older Saracenic style. In this second period -of the island’s loom we discover what traces the Byzantine school -impressed upon Sicilian silks, and helped so much to alter the type -of their first designs. On one silk, the pattern is a grotesque mask -amid the graceful twinings of luxuriant foliage, such as might have -been then found upon many a fragment of old Greek sculpture; this may -be seen on no. 8241; on another, a sovereign on horseback wearing the -royal crown and carrying a hawk upon his wrist, as in no. 8589; on a -third, no. 8234, is the Greek cross, with a pattern much like the old -netted or “de fundato” kind which has been described, p. 38. - -But Sicily’s third is quite her own peculiar style. At the end of the -thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century she struck into an -untried path. Without throwing aside the old elements employed by the -Mahomedans Sicily put with them the emblem of Christianity, the cross, -in various forms, on some occasions with the letter V. four times -repeated. - -From the east to the uttermost western borders of the Mediterranean -the weavers of every country had been in the habit of figuring upon -their silks those beasts and birds they saw around them: the Tartar, -the Indian, and the Persian gave us the parrot and the cheetah; the -Africans, the giraffe and the gazelle; the people of each continent, -the lions, the elephants, the eagles, and the other birds common to -both. From the sculpture of the Greeks and Romans the Sicilians could -have easily copied the fabled griffin and the centaur; but it was -left for their own wild imaginings to figure such an odd compound in -one being as the animal--half elephant, half griffin--which we see -in no. 1288. Their daring flights of fancy in coupling the difficult -with the beautiful are curious; in one piece large eagles are perched -in pairs with a radiating sun between them, and beneath are dogs, -in pairs, running with heads turned back; in another, running harts -have caught one of their hind legs in a cord tied to their collar, -and an eagle swoops down upon them; and the same animal, in another -place on the same piece, has switched its tail into the last link of a -chain fastened to its neck; on a third sample are harts, the letter M -floriated, winged lions, crosses floriated, crosses sprouting out on -two sides with _fleurs-de-lis_, and four-legged monsters, some like -winged lions, some biting their tails. Hardly elsewhere to be found -are certain elements peculiar to the patterns upon silks from mediæval -Sicily; such, for instance, as harts, and demi-dogs with very large -wings, both animals having remarkably long manes streaming far behind -them; or harts lodged under green trees in a park with paling about -it. The hawk, the eagle, double and single headed, or the parrot, may -be found on stuffs all over the east; not so, however, the swan, which -was a favourite with Sicilians and may be seen often drawn with much -gracefulness. - -The Sicilians showed their strong affection for certain plants -and flowers. On a great many of the silks in the South Kensington -collection from Palermitan looms we see figured upon a tawny coloured -grounding beautifully drawn foliage in green; sometimes vine leaves, -sometimes what looks like parsley, so curled, crispy, and serrated are -its leaves. Another peculiarity is the introduction of the letter U, -repeated so as to mark the feathering upon the tails of birds; or to -fall into the shape of an O; as in nos. 8591, 8599. - -Whether it was that the crusaders made Sicily so often the halting spot -on their way to the holy land, or that knights crowded there for other -purposes, and thus dazzled the eyes of the islanders with the bravery -of their armorial bearings, it is certain that the Sicilians were -particularly given to introduce many heraldic charges--wyverns, eagles, -lions rampant, and griffins--into their designs. The occasions in which -such elements of blazoning come in are so numerous that one of the -features belonging to the Sicilian loom in its third period is that, -bating tinctures, it is decidedly heraldic. - -[Illustration: Silk damask--Sicilian: fourteenth century.] - -All this beauty and happiness of invention, set forth by bold, free, -spirited drawing, were bestowed too often upon stuffs of a very poor -inferior quality, in which the gold if not actually base was always -scanty, and a good deal of cotton was wrought up with the silk. - -Till within a few years past the royal manufactory at Sta. Leucia, -near Naples, produced silks of remarkable richness; and the piece, no. -721, does credit to its loom, as it wove in the seventeenth century. -Northern Italy was not idle; and the looms which she set up in several -of her great cities, in Lucca, Florence, Genoa, Venice, and Milan, -earned for themselves a good repute and a wide trade for their gold and -silver tissues, their velvets, and their figured silken textiles. Yet, -in the same way as each of these free states had its own accent and -provincialisms in speech, so also had it a something often thrown into -its designs and style of drawing which told of the place and province -whence the textiles came. - -Lucca at an early period made herself known in Europe for her textiles; -but her workmen, like those of Sicily, seem to have thought themselves -bound to follow the style brought by the Saracens of figuring parrots -and peacocks, gazelles, and even cheetahs, as we see in the specimens -no. 8258 and no. 8616. But with these eastern animals she mixed up -emblems of her own, such as angels clothed in white. She soon dropped -what was oriental from her patterns which she began to draw in a -larger, bolder manner, and showing an inclination for light blue as a -colour. - -As in other places abroad so at Lucca cloths of gold and of silver were -often wrought, and the Lucchese cloths of this costly sort were in much -request in England during the fourteenth century. In all likelihood -they were not of the deadened but the sparkling kind, afterwards -especially known as “tissue.” Exeter cathedral, in 1327, had a cope of -silver tissue, or cloth of Lucca:--“de panno de Luk.” At a later date, -belonging to the same church, were two fine chasubles--one purple, -the other red--of the same glittering stuff: “de purpyll panno.” -York cathedral possessed many copes of tissue shot with every colour -required by its ritual, and among them were “a reade cope of clothe of -tishewe with orphry of pearl, a cope with orphrey, a cope of raised -clothe of goulde,” making a distinction between tissue and the ordinary -cloth of gold. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward the second the -golden tissue, or Lucca cloth, is several times mentioned. Whether the -ceremony happened to be sad or gay this glittering web was used; palls -made of Lucca cloth were, at masses for the dead, strewed over the -corpse; at marriages the care-cloth was made of the same stuff: thus -when Richard de Arundell and Isabella, Hugh le Despenser’s daughter, -had been wedded at the door of the royal chapel, the veil held spread -out over their heads as they knelt inside the chancel during the -nuptial mass was of Lucca cloth. - -About the same time velvet became known, and came into use both for -vestments and for personal wear; and Lucca probably was among the first -places in Europe to weave it. The specimens at South Kensington of -this fine textile from Lucchese looms, though few in comparison with -those from Genoa, still have a certain historical value for the English -workman: no. 1357, with its olive green plain silken ground and trailed -all over with flowers and leaves in a somewhat deeper tone, and the -earlier example, no. 8322, with its ovals and feathering stopped with -graceful cusps and artichokes, afford us good instances of what Lucca -could produce in the way of artistic velvets. - -Genoa, though in mediæval times not so conspicuous as she afterwards -became for her textile industry, encouraged over her narrow territory -the weaving of silken webs. Of these the earliest mention we have found -is in the inventory of vestments belonging to St. Paul’s cathedral, -London, in 1295: besides a cope of Genoa cloth that church had, of the -same manufacture, a hanging patterned with wheels and two-headed birds. -Though this first description be scant, we may reasonably gather that -the Genoese cloths must have resembled the textiles wrought at Lucca. -Genoa still keeps up her old reputation for beautiful velvets. - -In the collection at South Kensington there are examples of every -kind of Genoese velvets; some with a smooth unbroken surface, some -elaborately patterned and showing, together with wonderful skill in -the weaving, much beauty of design. Some are raised or cut, the design -being worked in a pile standing well up by itself out of a flat ground -of silk, either of the same or of another colour, and not unfrequently -wrought in gold. No. 7795 is an example of a very costly kind; in -which the ground is velvet, and again of velvet is the pattern itself -but raised one pile higher than the other, so as to show its form and -shape distinctly. No. 8323 shows how the design was worked in various -coloured velvet. This last was a favourite in England and called -motley; in his will, 1415, printed in Rymers Fœdera, Henry lord Scrope -bequeathed two vestments, one, motley velvet rubeo de auro; the other, -motley velvet nigro, rubeo et viridi, etc. - -Venice does not seem to have been at any time, like Sicily and Lucca, -smitten with the taste of imitating in her looms the patterns which she -saw abroad upon textile fabrics, but appears to have borrowed from the -orientals only one kind of weaving cloth of gold: the yellow chasuble -at Exeter cathedral in 1327, figured with beasts, is the only instance -we know where she wove animals upon silks. Venice, however, set up for -herself a new branch of textiles, and wrought for church use square -webs of a crimson ground on which were figured, in gold or on yellow -silk, subjects taken from the Scriptures or the persons of saints and -angels. These square pieces were employed, sewed together, as frontals -to altars, but when longwise more generally as orphreys to chasubles, -copes, and other vestments. - -There is a remarkable similarity between the drawing of the figures -upon old Venetian silks and the woodcuts in books published at Venice -in the early part of the sixteenth century; such as the fine pontifical -by Giunta, or the “Rosario” by Varisco. We find in both the same style -and manner; the same broad fold and fall of drapery; the same plumpness -and outline of the human face and figure. So near is the likeness in -design that we may almost believe that the artists who supplied the -blocks for the printers sketched also the drawings for the looms. - -By the fifteenth century Venice knew how to produce good damasks in -silk and gold: if we had nothing more than the specimen, no. 1311, -where St. Mary of Egypt is so well represented, it would be quite -enough for her to claim for herself such a distinction. Nor can there -be much doubt that Venice wrought in velvet; and if those rich stuffs -were made there, sometimes raised, sometimes pile upon pile, in which -her painters loved to dress the personages, men especially, in their -pictures, then Venetian velvets were certainly beautiful. Of this any -one may satisfy himself by one visit to our National gallery. There, in -the “Adoration of the magi” painted by Paulo Veronese, the second of -the wise men is clad in a robe of crimson velvet, cut or raised after a -design in keeping with the style of the period. - -No insignificant article of Venetian textile workmanship were her laces -wrought in every variety; in gold, in silk, in thread. The portrait -of a Doge usually shows him clothed in his dress of state. His wide -mantle, with large golden buttons, is made of some rich dull silver -cloth; and on his head is the Phrygian-shaped ducal cap bound round -with broad gold lace diapered, as we see in the bust portrait of -Loredano, painted by John Bellini, in the National gallery. Not only -was the gold in the thread particularly good but the lace itself in -great favour at the English court at one time; bought, not by yard -measure but by weight, “a pounde and a half of gold of Venys” was -employed “aboute the making of a lace and botons for the king’s mantell -of the garter.” This was for Henry the seventh. “Frenge of Venys gold” -appears twice in the wardrobe accounts of Edward the fourth. Laces in -worsted or in linen thread wrought by the bobbin at Venice, but more -especially her point laces or such as were done with the needle, always -had, as they still have, a great reputation. - -Venetian linens, for fine towelling and napery in general, were in -favourite use in France during a part of the fifteenth century. In the -‘Ducs de Bourgogne’ by Laborde, more than once we meet with such an -entry as “une pièce de nappes, ouvraige de Venise.” - -[Illustration: Silk damask--Florentine: fifteenth century.] - -Florence, about the middle of the fourteenth century, obtained a place -in the foremost rank amid the weavers of northern Italy. Specimens of -her earliest handicraft are rare; there are two at South Kensington. -One of these, no. 8563, shows the excellence of her work in secular -silks. Other pieces witness to the delicacy of her design at a later -time, the sixteenth century. The orphrey-webs of Florence are equally -conspicuous for drawing and skill in weaving, and in beauty come up to -those made at Venice, far surpassing anything of the kind ever wrought -at Cologne. - -But it was of her velvets that Florence was warrantably proud. Henry -the seventh bequeathed “to God and St. Peter, and to the abbot and -prior and convent of our monastery of Westminster, the whole suit of -vestments made at Florence in Italy.” We may yet see how gorgeous -this textile was in one of these Westminster abbey copes still in -existence, preserved at Stonyhurst college. The golden ground is -trailed all over with leaf-bearing boughs of a bold type, in raised or -cut ruby-toned velvet of a rich soft pile, which is freckled with gold -thread sprouting up like loops. Though not so rich in material nor so -splendid in pattern, there are at South Kensington, nos. 7792 and 7799, -two specimens of Florentine cut crimson velvet on a golden ground, like -the royal vestments in their kind and having the same peculiarity, the -little gold thread loop shooting out of the velvet pile. These pieces -are a full century later than the cope at Stonyhurst. - -That peculiar sort of ornamentation--the little loop of gold thread -standing well up and in single spots--upon some velvets, seems at times -to have been replaced, perhaps with the needle, by small dots of solid -metal, gold or silver gilt, upon the pile: of the gift of one of its -bishops, John Grandisson, Exeter cathedral had a crimson velvet cope, -the purple velvet orphrey of which was so wrought: “purpyll velvette -worked with pynsheds” of pure gold. - -Milan, though now-a-days she stands in such high repute for the -richness and beauty of her silks of all sorts, was not, we believe, -at any period during mediæval times as famous for her velvets, -her brocades, or cloths of gold, as for her armour, so strong and -trustworthy for the field, so exquisitely demascened for courtly -service. Still, in the sixteenth century, she earned a name for -rich cut velvets as may be seen in the specimen, no. 698; for her -silken net-work, no. 8336, which may have led the way to weaving silk -stockings; and for her laces of the open tinsel kind once in great -vogue for both sacred and secular use, as in no. 8331. - -England, from her earliest period, had textile fabrics varying in -design and material; the colours in the woollen garments worn by each -of the three several classes into which the Bardic order was divided, -and of the chequered pattern in Boadicea’s cloak, have been already -mentioned. It would seem from John Garland, whose witness is referred -to above, p. 12, that the lighter and more tasteful webs wrought here -came from women’s hands; and the loom, one of which must have been in -almost every English nunnery and homestead, was of the simplest make. - -In ancient times the Egyptians wove in an upright loom, and beginning -at top so as to weave downwards sat at their work. In Palestine also -the weaver had an upright loom, but, beginning at bottom and working -upwards, was obliged to stand. During the mediæval period the loom in -England was horizontal, as is shown by that figured in the Bedford -book of Hours (preserved in the British museum), fol. 32; at which the -blessed Virgin is seated weaving curtains for the temple. - -There are several examples at South Kensington of the work of English -women, showing the excellence of their handicraft as well as elegance -in design during the thirteenth century. Nos. 1233, 1256, and 1270 -may be referred to. But for specimens of the commoner sorts of silken -textiles and of wider breadth, which began to be woven in this country -under Edward the third, it would be hazardous to direct the reader. -Recent examples, velvets among the rest, may be found in the Brooke -collection. To some students the piece of old English printed chintz, -no. 1622, will not be without an interest. - -For the finer sort of linen napery Eylisham or Ailesham in -Lincolnshire was famous during the fourteenth century. Exeter -cathedral, in 1327, had a hand towel of “Ailesham cloth.” - -Our coarser native textiles in wool or in thread, or in both woven -together, formed a stuff called “burel.” St. Paul’s in 1295 had a -light blue chasuble, and Exeter cathedral in 1277 a long pall of this -texture. Burel and, in short, all the coarser kinds of work were -wrought by men: sometimes in monasteries. The old Benedictine rule -obliged the monks to give a certain number of hours every week-day to -hand-work, either at home or in the field. - -The weaving in this country of woollen cloth, as a staple branch of -trade, is very old. Of the monks at Bath abbey we are told by a late -writer, “that the shuttle and the loom employed their attention (about -the middle of the fourteenth century), and under their active auspices -the weaving of woollen cloth (which made its appearance in England -about the year 1330, and received the sanction of an act of parliament -in 1337) was introduced, established, and brought to such perfection -at Bath as rendered the city one of the most considerable in the west -of England for this manufacture.” Worcester cloth was so good that, by -a chapter of the Benedictine order held in 1422 at Westminster abbey, -it was forbidden to be worn by the monks and declared smart enough for -military men. Norwich also wove stuffs that were in demand for costly -household furniture; and Sir John Cobham, in 1394, bequeathed “a bed of -Norwich stuff embroidered with butterflies.” In one of the chapels at -Durham priory there were four blue cushions of Norwich work. Worsted, a -town in Norfolk, by a new method of its own for the carding of the wool -with combs of iron well heated, and then twisting the thread harder -than usual in the spinning, enabled our weavers to produce a woollen -stuff of a peculiar quality, to which the name itself of worsted was -immediately given. To such a high repute did the new web grow that -church vestments and domestic furniture of the choicest sorts were -made out of it. Exeter cathedral among its chasubles had several “de -nigro worsted” in cloth of gold. Vestments made of worsted, variously -spelt “worsett” and “woryst,” are enumerated in the fabric rolls of -York minster. Elizabeth de Bohun, in 1356, bequeathed to her daughter -the countess of Arundel “a bed of red worsted embroidered;” and Joane -lady Bergavenny leaves to John of Ormond “a bed of cloth of gold with -lebardes, with those cushions and tapettes of my best red worsted.” - -Irish cloth, white and red, in the reign of king John was much used in -England; and in the household expenses of Swinford, bishop of Hereford -in 1290, an item occurs of Irish cloth for lining. - -English weavers knew also how to work artificially designed and -well-figured webs. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward the second is -this item: “to a mercer of London for a green hanging of wool wove -with figures of kings and earls upon it, for the king’s service in -his hall on solemn feasts at London.” Such “salles,” as they were -called in France, and “hullings” or rather “hallings” the name they -went under here, were much valued abroad and in common use at home. -Under the head of “Salles d’Angleterre” among the articles of costly -furniture belonging to Charles the fifth of France, in 1364, one set -of hangings is thus entered: “une salle d’Angleterre vermeille brodée -d’azur, et est la bordeure à vignettes et le dedens de lyons, d’aigles -et de lyepars.” Here in England, Richard earl of Arundel in 1392 willed -to his dear wife “the hangings of the hall which was lately made in -London, of blue tapestry with red roses with the arms of my sons,” -etc.; and lady Bergavenny, after bequeathing her hullying of black, -red, and green to one friend, left to another her best stained “hall.” - -Flemish textiles, at least of the less ambitious kinds such as napery -and woollens, were much esteemed centuries ago; and our countryman -Matthew of Westminster says of Flanders that, made from the material -which we sent her, the wool, she sent us back precious garments. So -important was the supply of wool to the Flemings in the fourteenth -century that the check given to it by the wars between England and -France at that time led to a special treaty between Edward the third -and the burghers of the Flemish communes under the guidance of James -van Artevelde. - -Though industrious everywhere within her limits, some of the towns -of Flanders stood foremost for certain kinds of stuff, and Bruges -became in the latter end of the fifteenth century conspicuous for -its silken textiles. The satins of Bruges were used in England for -church garments. Haconbie church, in 1566, had “one white vestmente of -bridges satten repte in peces and a clothe made thereof to hange before -our pulpitt;” and in 1520 York cathedral had “a vestment of balkyn -(baudekin) with a crosse of green satten in bryges.” Her damasks silks -were equally in demand; and the specimens at South Kensington will -interest the student. Nos. 8318 and 8332 show the ability of the Bruges -loom; while the favourite pattern with the pomegranate in it betrays -the likings of the Spaniards, at that time the rulers of the country, -for this token of their renowned Isabella. No. 8319 is another sample -of Flemish weaving, rich in its gold and full of beauty in design. - -In her velvets Flanders had no need to fear a comparison with anything -of the kind that Italy ever threw off from her looms, whether at -Venice, Florence, or Genoa. Not to name others one example, with its -cloth of gold ground and its pattern in a dark blue deep-piled velvet, -is not surpassed in gorgeousness even by that splendid stuff from -Florence of which the Stonyhurst cope, just spoken of, was made. - -Block-printed linen toward the end of the fourteenth century was -another production of Flanders. Though existing examples to the eyes -of many may look poor or mean, yet to men like the cotton-printers -of Lancashire they will have a strong attraction; and to the scholar -they will be deeply interesting as suggestive of the art of printing. -Such specimens are rare, but it is likely that England can show in the -chapter library at Durham the earliest sample of the kind as yet known; -a fine sheet wrapped about the body of some old bishop found in a -grave opened by Mr. Raine in 1827, within the cathedral. Several pieces -of ancient silks and English embroidery were found at the same time. - -What Bruges was in silks and velvets, Yprès, in the sixteenth century, -became for linen; and for many years Flemish linens were in favourite -use throughout England. Hardly a church of any size, scarcely a -gentleman’s house in this country, but used a quantity of towels and -other napery that was made in Flanders, especially at Yprès. - -French silks, now in such extensive use, were not much cared for until -the end of the sixteenth century in France itself, and seldom heard -of abroad. The reader, then, must not be astonished at finding so -few examples of the French loom in any collection of ancient silken -textiles. - -In France, as in England, women in mediæval days, old and young, rich -and poor, while filling up their leisure hours in-doors used to work -on a small loom, weaving narrow webs, often of gold and diapered with -coloured silks. At South Kensington, nos. 1250, 7062, and 7064 are -examples of such French wrought stuffs belonging to the thirteenth -century. In damasks, the earliest French productions are of the -sixteenth century; and no. 8352 is a favourable example of what this -manufacture then was in France; everything later is of the type so -well known to everybody. In several of her textiles a leaning towards -classicism in design is discernible. - -Like Flanders, France knew how to weave fine linen which here in -England was much employed for ecclesiastical as well as household -purposes. Three new cloths of Rains (Rennes in Brittany) were, in 1327, -in use for the high altar in Exeter cathedral, and many altar cloths of -Paris linen. In the poem of the ‘Squire of low degree’ the lady is told - - Your blankettes shal be of fustyane, - Your shetes shal be of cloths of rayne; - -and, in 1434, lady Bergavenny devises in her will “two pair sheets of -Raynes, a pair of fustians,” etc. - -Cologne, the queen of the Rhine, became famous during the whole of -the fifteenth and part of the sixteenth century for a certain kind of -ecclesiastical textile which, from the very general use to which it has -been applied, we may call “orphrey web.” The productions of Cologne, -however, are every way far below in beauty the similar works of Italy. -Italian orphrey-webs are generally worked in gold or yellow silk upon -a crimson ground of silk. Florentine are often distinguished from the -Venetian by the introduction of white for the faces; those of Cologne -vary from both by introducing blue, while the material is almost always -poor and the weaving coarse. In England this orphrey web was in church -use and called, as we learn from the York “wills and testaments,” -“rebayn de Colayn.” - -The piece of German napery, no. 8317 (of the beginning of the fifteenth -century), will be to those curious about household linen an acceptable -specimen. - -If in some old inventory of church vestments we find an entry -mentioning a chasuble made of cloth of Cologne, we should understand it -to mean not a certain broad textile woven there, but merely a vestment -composed of several pieces of this kind of web sewed together; like the -frontal made of pieces of woven Venice orphreys, no. 8976. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - -The countries whence silks came to England are numerous; we find early -notices of Antioch, Tarsus, Alexandria, Damascus, Byzantium, Cyprus, -Trip or Tripoli, and Bagdad, and later of Venice, Genoa, and Lucca. To -fix the localities of others would be but guess work. - -At the beginning of the fourteenth century a silk called “_Acca_” -is occasionally mentioned: and, from the description, it must have -been a cloth of gold shot with coloured silk, figured with animals: -William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, gave to St. Alban’s monastery -a whole vestment of cloth of gold shot with sky-blue and called cloth -of Acca. It would look as if this stuff took its name from having been -brought to us through the port of Acre: and Macri, in his valuable -Hierolexicon, says that the name of the ancient Ptolemais in Syria was -so written. - -What in one age and at a particular place happened to be well made and -therefore was eagerly sought for, at a later period and in another -place was better wrought and at a lower price. Time, indeed, changed -the name of the market, but did not alter in any great degree either -the quality of the material or the style of the design wrought upon it. -Throughout the kingdom of the Byzantine Greeks the loom had to change -its gearing very little. The Saracenic loom, whether in Asia, Africa, -or Spain, was always Arabic, though Persia could not forget her old -traditions about the “hom” or tree of life, and cheetahs, and birds -of various sorts. With regard to the whole of Asia, its many peoples -from the earliest ages knew how not only to weave cloth of gold but -to figure it with birds and beasts. In later times, Marco Polo in the -thirteenth century found exactly the same kinds of textile known in the -days of Darius still everywhere, from the shores of the Mediterranean -to the far east. What he says of Bagdad he repeats in fewer words -about many other cities. In finding their way to England these fabrics -received, if not in all at least in most instances, the names of the -seaports in the Mediterranean where they had been shipped. - -For beautifully wrought and figured silk, one of the few terms that -still outlive the mediæval period is Damask. - -China, no doubt, was the first country to ornament its silken webs with -a pattern. India, Persia, and Syria, then Byzantine Greece, followed, -but at long intervals between, in China’s footsteps. Stuffs so figured -brought with them to the west the name “diaspron” or diaper, bestowed -upon them at Constantinople. But about the twelfth century the city of -Damascus, even then long celebrated for its looms, so far outstripped -all other places for beauty of design that her silken textiles were in -demand everywhere; and thus, as often happens, traders fastened the -name of Damascen or Damask upon every silken fabric richly wrought and -curiously designed, no matter whether it came or not from Damascus. At -last, samit, having long been the epithet betokening all that was rich -and good in silk, was forgotten, and diaper, from being the very word -significant of pattern, became a secondary term descriptive of merely a -part in the elaborate design on damask. - -Baudekin, that sort of costly cloth of gold spoken of so much during so -many years in English literature, took (as was said before) its famous -name from Bagdad. Many specimens of baudekin in the South Kensington -collection furnish proofs of the ancient weavers’ dexterity in their -management of the loom, and especially of the artists’ taste in setting -out their intricate and beautiful designs. An identification between -very many samples there brought together of ancient textiles in silk -and the descriptions of similar stuffs given us in those valuable -records, our old church inventories, might be carried on if necessary -to a very lengthened extent. - -Dorneck was the name given to an inferior kind of damask wrought of -silk, wool, linen thread and gold, in Flanders. This was manufactured -towards the end of the fifteenth century mostly at Tournay; which city -in Flemish was often called Dorneck--a word variously spelt as Darnec, -Darnak, Darnick, and sometimes even Darness. - -The guild of the blessed Virgin at Boston had a care cloth of “silke -dornex” and church furniture. The “care cloth” was a sort of canopy -held over the bride and bridegroom as they knelt for the nuptial -blessing, according to the Salisbury rite, at the marriage mass. At -Exeter dorneck was used in chasubles for orphreys. A specimen of -dorneck may be seen, no. 7058. It is several times mentioned in the -York fabric rolls. - -Buckram, so called from Bokkara where it was originally made, in the -middle ages was much esteemed for being costly and very fine; and -consequently fit for use in church vestments and for secular personal -wear. “Panus Tartaricus” or Tartary cloth is often spoken of. John -Grandison, bishop of Exeter in 1327, gave to his cathedral flags of -white and red buckram; and among the five very rich veils for covering -the moveable lectern in that church three were lined with blue -“bokeram.” As late as the beginning of the sixteenth century this stuff -was held good enough for lining to a black velvet gown for a queen, -Elizabeth of York. The coarse thick fabric which now goes by the name -is very different from the older production known as “bokeram.” - -Burdalisaunder, Bordalisaunder, Bourde de Elisandre, with other -varieties in spelling, is a term often to be met with in old wills and -church inventories. In the year 1327 Exeter had a chasuble of Bourde de -Elisandre of divers colours: and from the Yorkshire wills we find that -sometimes it was wide enough for half a piece to form the adornment of -a high altar. - -“Bord” in Arabic means a striped cloth; and we know, both from -travellers and the importation of the textile itself, that many tribes -in north and eastern Africa weave stuffs for personal wear of a pattern -consisting of white and black longitudinal stripes. St. Augustin, -living in north Africa near the modern Algiers, speaks of a stuff -for clothing called “burda” in the end of the fourth and beginning -of the fifth century. It is not impossible that the curtains for the -tabernacle as well as the girdles for Aaron and his sons, of fine -linen and violet and purple and scarlet twice dyed, were wrought with -this very pattern, so that in the “burd Alisaunder” we behold the -oldest known design for any textile. This stuff in the middle ages -was a silken web in different coloured stripes, and specimens also -may be found at South Kensington. Though made in many places round -the Mediterranean this silk took its name, at least in England, from -Alexandria. - -Fustian, of which we still have two forms in velveteen and corduroy, -was originally wove at Fustat on the Nile, with a warp of linen thread -and a woof of thick cotton, so twilled and cut that it showed on one -side a thick but low pile; and the web thus managed took its name of -Fustian from that Egyptian city. At what period it was invented we do -not rightly know, but we are well aware it must have been brought very -early to this country; for our countryman St. Stephen Harding, when a -Cistercian abbot and an old man about the year 1114, forbade chasubles -in his church to be made of anything but fustian or plain linen. The -austerity of his rule reached even the ornaments of the church. From -such a prohibition we are not to draw as a conclusion that fustian was -at the time a mean material; quite the contrary, although not splendid -it was a seemly textile. Years afterwards, in the fourteenth century, -Chaucer tells us of his knight:-- - - Of fustian he wered a gepon. - -In the fifteenth century Naples had a repute for weaving fustians; and -our English churchwardens, not being learned in geography or spelling, -made some odd mistakes in their accounts about this as about some other -continental stuffs: “Fuschan in appules” for fustian from Naples is -droll; yet droller still is “mustyrd devells,” for a cloth made in -France at a town called Mustrevilliers. - -Muslin, as it is now throughout the world so from the earliest -antiquity, has been everywhere in Asia in favourite use both as an -article of dress and as furniture. Its cloud-like thinness and its -lightness were not the only charms belonging to this stuff: it was -esteemed equally as much for the taste with which stripes of gold had -been woven in its warp. As we learn from the travels of Marco Polo, the -further all wayfarers in Asia wandered among eastern nations the higher -they found the point of excellence which had been reached in weaving -silk and gold into splendid fabrics. The silkworm lived and thrived -there and the cotton plant also was in its home, its birth-place, in -those regions. - -Like many cities of central Asia, Mosul had earned for itself a -reputation of old for the beauty of its gold-wrought silken textiles. -Cotton grew all around in plenty; the inhabitants, especially the -women, were gifted with such quick feeling of finger that they could -spin thread from this cotton of more than hair-like fineness. Cotton -with them took the place of silk in the loom; and gold was not -forgotten in the weaving. Their work, not only because it was so much -cheaper but from its own peculiar beauty and comeliness, won for itself -a high place in common estimation: and the name of the town where it -was wrought in such perfection was given to it as its distinctive name. -Hence, whether wove with or without gold, we call this cotton web -muslin, from the Asiatic city of Mosul. - -Cloth of Areste is another term for woven stuffs, to be found in our -old English deeds and inventories. The first time we meet it is in an -order given, 1244, by Henry the third for finding two cloths of Areste -with which two copes were to be made for royal chapels. Again it comes -a few years later at St. Paul’s, which cathedral A. D. 1295 had, besides -a dalmatic and tunicle of this silk “white silk of Areste diapered,” as -many as thirty and more hangings of the same texture. - -From the description of these pieces we gather that this so-called -cloth of Areste must have been both beautiful and rich, being for -the most part cloth of gold figured elaborately; some with lions and -double-headed eagles, others, for example, with the death and burial of -our Lord. - -We are not disposed to agree with the suggestion that this cloth was -a kind of arras. Arras had not won for itself a reputation for its -tapestry before the fourteenth century. Tapestry itself is too thick -and heavy for use in vestments; yet this cloth of Areste was light -enough for tunicles, and when worn out was sometimes condemned at St. -Paul’s to be put aside for lining other ritual garments. Among the -three meanings for the mediæval “Aresta” one is any kind of covering. -It seems, therefore, probable that these cloths of Areste took their -name not from the place where they had been woven, but from the use to -which they were generally put; namely, for hangings about churches. -Moreover, tapestry or Arras work, being thick and heavy, could never -have been employed for such light use as that of apparels nor would -it have been diapered like silk, yet we find “Areste” to have been so -fashioned and so used. - -Silks also were distinguished through their colours and shades of -colours: and the men who drew up the mediæval inventories seem to have -been gifted with a keen eye for varieties of shades and tints. For -instance, a chasuble at St. Paul’s is set down, late in the thirteenth -century, as made of samit dyed in a purple somewhat bordering on a -blood-red tone. Tarsus colour is often mentioned: and it was, probably, -some shade of purple. The people of Tarsus no doubt got from their -murex, a shell-fish of the class mollusca and purpurifera family to -be found on their coast, their dyeing matter; and when we remember -what changes are wrought in the animal itself by the food it eats, and -what strong effects are made by slight variations in climate, even -atmosphere, upon materials for colouring in the moment of application, -we may easily understand how the difference arose between the two tints -of purple. - -“Cloth of Tarsus” itself was of a rare and costly kind, of fine goats’ -hair and silk. The tint was some shade of royal purple. Chaucer tells -us that - - The great Emetrius, the king of Inde, - Upon a stede bay, trapped in stele, - Covered with cloth of gold diapred wele, - Came riding like the god of armes Mars. - His cote armure was of a cloth of Tars, - Couched with perles, etc. - -Other cities besides Tarsus gave their names to various shades of -purple; according as they were dyed at Antioch, Alexandria, or Naples. -Each place had a particular shade which distinguished it from the -others. It is not now possible to ascertain what were the exact -distinctions of tint. Sky-blue was a colour everywhere in church use -for certain festivals throughout England. In the early inventories the -name for that tint is “Indicus,” “Indus,” reminding us of our present -_indigo_. In later lists it is called “Blodius,” not sanguinary but -blue. Murrey, or a reddish brown, is also often specified. - -Silks woven of two colours, so that one of them showed itself unmixed -and quite distinct on one side, and the second appeared equally clear -on the other--a thing sometimes now looked upon as a wonder in modern -weaving--might occasionally be met with here at the mediæval period: -Exeter cathedral had, in 1327, a silk cloth “of red colour inside and -yellow outside.” At York, in 1543, there was “a vestment of changeable -silke,” “besides one of changeable taffety for Good Friday.” - -Marble silk had a weft of several colours so woven as to make the -whole web look like marble, stained with a variety of tints. There were -many such vestments in old St. Paul’s. During full three centuries -this marble silk found great favour among us; for Henry Machyn, in his -curious diary, tells us how “the old qwyne of Schottes rod thrught -London,” and how “then cam the lord tresorer with a C. gret horsse and -ther cotes of marbull,” etc., to meet her the 6th of November, 1551. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - -We must now speak of embroidery. The art of working with the needle -flowers, fruits, human and animal forms, or any fanciful design, upon -webs woven of silk, linen, cotton, wool, hemp, besides other kinds of -stuff, is of the highest antiquity. - -Those patterns, after so many fashions, which we see figured upon the -garments worn by men and women on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, but -especially on the burned-clay vases made and painted by the Greeks in -their earliest as well as in later times, or which we read about in the -writings of that people, were not wrought in the loom, but worked by -the needle. - -The old Egyptian loom--and that of the Jews must have been like -it--was, as we know from paintings, of the simplest shape, and seems to -have been able to do little more diversified in design than straight -lines in different colours; and at best nothing higher in execution -than checker-work: beyond this, all was put in by hand with the -needle. In Paris, at the Louvre, are several pieces of early Egyptian -webs coloured, drawings of which have been published by Sir Gardner -Wilkinson in his work ‘The Egyptians in the time of the Pharaohs.’ -There are two pieces wrought up and down with needlework; the second -piece of blue is figured all over in white embroidery with a pattern -of netting, the meshes of which shut in irregular cubic shapes, and -in the lines of the reticulation the mystic “fylfot” is seen. Sir -J. G. Wilkinson says of them: “They are mostly cotton, and, though -their date is uncertain, they suffice to show that the manufacture -was Egyptian; and the many dresses painted on the monuments of the -eighteenth dynasty show that the most varied patterns were used by the -Egyptians more than 3000 years ago, as they were at a later period by -the Babylonians, who became noted for their needlework.” - -It is clear from the book of Exodus that the Israelites from very early -times, having learnt the art in Egypt, embroidered their garments; -although the word “embroidery” which occurs so frequently in every -English version probably sometimes means merely weaving in stripes, and -not work with the needle. The embroidering also of the sails of vessels -was not uncommon in the east; boats used in sacred festivals on the -Nile were so decorated; and the prophet Ezekiel says to the people of -Tyre, “Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou -spreadest forth to be thy sail.” The reader will here also remember -Shakspeare’s description of the barge of Cleopatra; - - The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne - Burned on the water: - Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that - The winds were love-sick with them; she did lie - In her pavilion, cloth of gold, of tissue, etc. - -Pliny says that the Phrygians invented embroidery, and that garments -so ornamented were called Phrygionic. Of such a fashion were “the -art-wrought vests of splendid purple tint” brought forth by Dido, and -the cloak given by Andromache to Ascanius. Hence, an embroiderer was -called in Latin “Phrygio,” and needlework “Phrygium” or “Phrygian” -work. When the design, as often happened, was wrought in solid -gold wire or golden thread, the embroidery so worked was named -“auriphrygium.” From this term comes the old English word “orphrey.” - -While Phrygia in general, Babylon in particular (as Pliny also tells -us) became celebrated for the beauty of its embroideries. All who have -seen the sculptures in the British museum brought from Nineveh, and -described and figured by Layard, must have remarked how lavishly the -Assyrians adorned their robes with the needlework for which one of -their greatest cities was so famous. Up to the first century of our era -the reputation which Babylon had won for her textiles and needlework -still lived. We know from Josephus, who had often been to worship at -Jerusalem, that the veils of the Temple were Babylonian; and of the -outer one that writer says: “there was a veil of equal largeness with -the door. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue and fine -linen, and scarlet and purple, and of a texture that was wonderful.” - -What the Jews did for the Temple we may be sure was done by Christians -for the Church. The faithful, however, went even further, and wore -garments figured all over with sacred subjects in embroidery. We learn -this from a stirring sermon preached by St. Asterius, bishop of Amasia -in Pontus, in the fourth century. Taking for his text “a certain rich -man who was clothed in purple and fine linen” he upbraids the world for -its follies in dress, and complains that some people went about arrayed -like painted walls, with beasts and flowers all over them; while -others, pretending a more serious tone of thought, dressed in clothes -depicting the doings and wonders of our Lord. “Strive,” St. Asterius -exhorts them, “to follow in your lives the teachings of the Gospel, -rather than have the miracles of our Redeemer embroidered upon your -outward dress.” To have had so many subjects shown upon one garment -it is clear that each must have been done very small, and wrought in -outline; a style which is being brought back, with great effect, into -modern ecclesiastical use. - -The discriminating accuracy with which our old writers noted the -several kinds of textile gifts bestowed upon a church is as instructive -as praiseworthy. Ingulph did not think it enough to say that abbot -Egelric had given many hangings to the church at Croyland, the great -number of which were silken, but he explains also that some were -ornamented with birds wrought in gold and sewed on; in fact, of -cut-work; others with those birds woven into the stuff; others quite -plain. We find the same care taken in old inventories. - -By the latter end of the thirteenth century embroidery obtained for -its several styles and various sorts of ornamentation a distinguishing -and technical nomenclature. One of the earliest documents in which -we meet with this set of terms is the inventory drawn up, in 1295, -of the vestments belonging to St. Paul’s cathedral, printed by -Dugdale: herein, the “opus plumarium,” the “opus pectineum,” the -“opus pulvinarium,” “consutum de serico,” “de serico consuto,” may be -severally found. - -“Opus plumarium” was the then usual term for what is now commonly -called embroidery; and was given to needlework of this kind because -the stitches were laid down longwise and not across: that is, so put -together that they seemed to overlap one another like the feathers in -the plumage of a bird. This style was aptly called “feather-stitch” -work, in contradistinction to that done in cross and tent stitch, or -the “cushion-style.” - -The “opus pulvinarium,” or “cushion-style,” was like the modern -so-called Berlin work. As now, so then it was done in the same -stitching with pretty much the same materials and generally, if not -always, put to the same purpose; for cushions, to sit or to kneel -upon in church or to uphold the mass-book at the altar; hence its -name of “cushion-style.” In working it silken thread is known to -have been often used. Among other specimens, and in silk, there is a -beautiful cushion of a date corresponding to the London inventory at -South Kensington, no. 1324. Being well adapted for working heraldry -this stitch has been used from an early period for the purpose; and -emblazoned orphreys, like the narrow hem on the Syon cope, were wrought -in it. - -The “opus pectineum” was a kind of woven work imitative of embroidery, -and employed to supply it. John Garland, in his dictionary, explains -that it was made by means of a comb, or some comb-like instrument: -and from this the work itself received the distinctive appellation -of “pectineum,” or comb-wrought. Before John Garland left England -for France, to teach a school there, he must have often seen his -countrywomen at such an occupation; and the amice given by Katherine -Lovell to St. Paul’s, “de opere pectineo,” may perhaps have been the -work of her own hands. - -Women in the middle ages were so ready at the needle that they could -make their embroidery look as if it had been done in the loom, really -woven. A shred of crimson cendal figured in gold and silver thread -with a knight on horseback, armed as of the latter time of Edward -the first, was shown to us some time ago. At first sight the mounted -warrior seemed to have been not hand-worked but woven; so flat, so even -was every thread. Looking at it however through a glass and turning it -about, we found it to have been embroidered by the finger in such a way -that the stitches laid down upon the surface were carried through into -the canvas lining at the back of the thin silk. In this same manner -all the design, both before and behind, upon the fine English-wrought -chasuble at South Kensington, no. 673, was probably worked. - -At the latter end of the thirteenth century our countrywomen invented -a new way of embroidery. Without giving up altogether the old “opus -plumarium” or feather-stitch, they mixed it with a new style, both of -needlework and mechanism. So beautiful was the novel method deemed -abroad that it won for itself the complimentary appellation of “opus -Anglicum,” or English work. In what its peculiarity consisted has long -been a question and a puzzle among foreign archæological writers; and -a living one of eminence, M. Voisin, noticing a cope of English work -given to the church of Tournai, says: “Il serait curieux de savoir -quelle broderie ou quel tissu on designait sous le nom de _opus -Anglicum_.” - -But if we examine that very fine piece of English needlework, the Syon -cope, at South Kensington, no. 9182, we find that the first stitches -for the human face were begun in the centre of the cheek, and worked -in circular lines; falling (after the further side had been made) -into straight lines, which were so carried on through the rest of the -fleshes; in some instances, also, through the draperies. But this -was done in a sort of chain-stitch, and a newly practised mechanical -appliance was brought into use. After the whole figure had thus been -wrought with this kind of chain-stitch in circles and straight lines, -then with a little thin iron rod ending in a small bulb or smooth knob -slightly heated, those middle spots in the faces that had been worked -in circular lines were pressed down; and the deep wide dimples in the -throat, especially of aged persons. By the hollows thus lastingly -sunk a play of light and shadow is brought out, which at a short -distance lends to the portion so treated the appearance of low relief. -Chain-stitch, then, worked in circular lines and relief given to parts -by hollows sunk into the faces and other portions of the persons, -constitute the elements of the “opus Anglicum,” or embroidery after the -English manner. How the chain-stitch was worked into circles for the -faces, and straight lines for the rest of the figures, is well shown by -a woodcut, after a portion of the Steeple Aston embroideries, given in -the archæological journal, vol iv. p. 285. - -Although not merely the faces and the extremities but the dresses also -of the persons figured were generally wrought in chain-stitch, and -afterwards treated as we have just described, another practice was to -work the draperies in feather-stitch, which was also employed for the -grounding, and diapered after a simple, zigzag design; as we find in -the Syon cope. - -[Illustration: Part of the orphrey of the Syon cope.] - -How highly English embroideries were at one period appreciated by -foreigners may be gathered from the especial notice taken of them -abroad; as we may find in continental documents. Matilda, queen of -William the conqueror, carried away from the abbey of Abingdon its -richest vestments, and would not be put off with inferior ones. In his -will A. D. 1360 cardinal Talairand, bishop of Albano, speaks of the -English embroideries on a costly set of white vestments. A bishop of -Tournai, in 1343, bequeathed to that cathedral an old English cope, -as well as a beautiful corporal “of English work.” Among the copes -reserved for prelates’ use in the chapel of Charles duke of Bourgogne, -brother-in-law to John duke of Bedford, there was one of English work -very elaborately fraught with many figures, as appears from this -description of it: “une chappe de brodeure d’or, façon d’Engleterre, -à plusieurs histoires de N.D. et anges et autres ymages, estans en -laceures escriptes, garnie d’un orfroir d’icelle façon fait à apostres, -desquelles les manteulx sont tous couvertes de perles, et leur -diadesmes pourphiler de perles, estans en manière de tabernacles, faits -de deux arbres, dont les tiges sont touts couvertes de perles, et à la -dite chappe y a une bille des dites armes, garnie de perles comme la -dessus dicte.” - -While so coveted abroad, our English embroidery was highly prized -and well paid for at home. We find in the Issue Rolls that Henry the -third had a chasuble embroidered by Mabilia of Bury St. Edmund’s; and -that Edward the second paid a hundred marks to Rose the wife of John -de Bureford, a citizen and mercer of London, for a choir-cope of her -embroidering, and which was to be sent to the Pope as an offering from -the queen. - -English embroidery afterwards lost its first high reputation. Through -those years wasted with the wars of the Roses the work of the English -needle was very poor, very coarse, and, so to say, ragged; as, for -instance, the chasuble at South Kensington, no. 4045. Nothing of the -celebrated chain-stitch with dimpled faces in the figures can be found -about it: every part is worked in the feather-stitch, slovenly put -down. During the early part of the seventeenth century our embroiderers -again struck out a new style, which consisted in throwing up the -figures a good height above the grounding. Of this raised work there -is a fine specimen in the fourth of the copes preserved in the chapter -library at Durham. It is said to have been wrought for and given by -Charles the first to that cathedral. This red silk vestment is well -sprinkled with bodiless cherubic heads crowned with rays and borne up -by wings; while upon the hood is David, holding in one hand the head -of Goliah; the whole done in highly raised embroidery. Bibles of the -large folio size, covered in rich silk or satin and embroidered with -the royal arms done in bold raised-work, are still to be found in our -libraries. More than one of these volumes is said to have been a gift -from the king to a forefather of the present owner. - -This style of raised embroidery remained in use for many years. Not -only large Bibles but smaller volumes, especially prayer-books, had -bindings enriched with it. Generally such examples are attributed, -and in most cases wrongly, to the so-called nuns of Little Gidding. -The same kind of work is sometimes found on the broad frames of old -looking-glasses: setting forth perhaps, as in the specimen no. 892, the -story of Ahasuerus and Esther, or a passage in some courtship carried -on after the manners of Arcadia. - -Few people at the present day have a just idea of the labour, the -money, and the length of time often bestowed of old upon embroideries, -which had been sketched as well as wrought by the hands of men, each -in his own craft the ablest and most cunning of his time. In behalf -of England plenty of evidence has been produced already: as a proof -of the same labour elsewhere a remarkable passage may be quoted, -given, in his life of Antonio Pollaiuolo, by Vasari: “For San Giovanni -in Florence there were made certain very rich vestments after the -design of this master, all of gold-wove velvet with pile upon pile -(di broccato riccio sopra riccio), each woven of one entire piece and -without seam, embroidered with the most subtile mastery of that art by -Paolo da Verona, a man most eminent of his calling, and of incomparable -ingenuity. This work took twenty-six years for its completion, being -wholly in close stitch (questi ricami fatti con punto serrato); but -the excellent method of which is now all but lost, the custom being -in these days to make the stitches much wider (il punteggiare piu -largo), whereby the work is rendered less durable and much less -pleasing to the eye.” These vestments may yet be seen framed and glazed -in presses around the sacristy of San Giovanni. Antonio died in 1498. -The magnificent cope before referred to, now at Stonyhurst, is of one -seamless piece of gorgeous gold tissue figured with bold wide-spreading -foliage in crimson velvet, pile upon pile, and dotted with small gold -spots; probably it came from the same loom that threw off these famous -San Giovanni vestments. - -[Illustration: Embroidered Saddle-cloth of the sixteenth century.] - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - -The old English “opus consutum” or cut-work, called in French -“appliqué,” is a term of rather wide meaning, as it takes in several -sorts of decorative accompaniments to needlework. - -When anything--flower, fruit, or figure--is wrought by itself upon -a separate piece of silk or canvas and afterwards sewed on to the -vestment for church use, or article for domestic purpose, it comes to -be known as cut-work. This kind of work was employed for dresses and -vestments; but we find it most commonly on bed-curtains, hangings for -rooms and halls, and other items in household furniture. - -Of cut-work in embroidery those pieces of splendid Rhenish needlework -with the blazonment of Cleves, sewed upon a ground of crimson silk, -nos. 1194–5, at South Kensington, and the chasuble of crimson -double-pile velvet, no. 78, are good examples. In the last, the niches -in which the saints stand are loom-wrought, but those personages -themselves are exquisitely worked on separate pieces of fine canvas and -afterwards let into the unwoven spaces left open for them. A Florentine -piece of cut-work, no. 5788, is alike remarkable for its great beauty -and the skill shown in bringing together both weaving and embroidery. -Much of the architectural accessories is loom-wrought, while the -extremities of the evangelists are all done by the needle; but the -head, neck, and long beard are worked by themselves upon very fine -linen, and afterwards put together in such a way that the full white -beard overlaps the tunic. - -Other methods gave a quicker help in this cut-work. For the sake of -expedition all the figures were sometimes at once shaped out of woven -silk, satin, velvet, linen, or woollen cloth as wanted, and sewed upon -the grounding of the article: the features of the face and the contours -of the body were then wrought by the needle in very narrow lines done -in brown silk thread. At times, even this much of embroidery was set -aside for the painting brush, and instances are to be found in which -the spaces left uncovered by the loom for the heads and extremities -of the human figures are filled in with the brush. Sometimes, again, -the cut-work done in these ways is framed, as it were, with an edging, -either in plain or gilt leather, hempen, or silken cord, like the -leadings of a stained glass window. Perhaps in no collection open -anywhere to public view can a piece of cut-work be found so full of -teaching about the process of this easy way of execution as no. 1370 -at South Kensington: and we earnestly recommend the attention of our -readers to that example. - -For the invention of cut-work, or “di commesso” as Vasari calls -it, that writer tells us we are indebted to one of his Florentine -countrymen: “It was by Sandro Botticelli that the method of preparing -banners and standards in what is called cut-work was invented; and this -he did that the colours might not sink through, showing the tint of the -cloth on each side. The baldachino of Orsanmichele is by this master, -and is so treated, etc.” But Vasari is not correct: the piece just -spoken of, no. 1370, was made half a century before Botticelli was born. - -There are other accessories in mediæval embroidery which ought not to -be overlooked. - -In some few instances, gold and silver gilt star-like flowers are to -be found sewed upon the silks or amid the embroidery from Venice and -other provinces in Italy, and from southern Germany. Some fragments of -silk damask, no. 8612, are curious examples of Italian taste. These -at one time have been thickly strewed with trefoils cut out of gilt -metal but very thin, and not sewed but glued on to the silk: many of -the leaves have fallen off, and those remaining turned black. Precious -stones also, coral, and seed pearls were sewed upon textiles; and, not -uncommonly, small coloured beads and bugles of glass. Belonging to St. -Paul’s, in 1295, among many other amices there was one having glass -stones upon it, both large and small. - -Another form of glass fastened by heat to gold and copper, enamel, -was extensively employed as an adornment upon textiles. The gorgeous -“chesable of red cloth of gold with orphreys before and behind set with -pearls, blue, white, and red, with plates of gold enamelled, wanting -fifteen plates, etc.,” described in Dugdale’s Monasticon, and given -by John of Gaunt’s duchess to Lincoln cathedral, shows how this rich -ornamentation was applied to garments, especially for church use, in -very large quantities. - -In England the old custom was to sew a great deal of goldsmith’s work, -for enrichment, upon articles meant for personal wear. When our first -Edward’s grave in Westminster abbey was opened in 1774 there was seen -upon the body, besides other silken robes, a stole-like band of rich -white tissue about the neck and crossed upon the breast: it was studded -with gilt quatrefoils in filigree work and embroidered with pearls. -From the knees downwards the body was wrapped in a pall of cloth of -gold. Henry the third gave a frontal to the high altar in Westminster -abbey upon which, besides carbuncles in golden settings and several -large pieces of enamel, were as many as 866 smaller ones: perhaps the -“esmaux de plique” of the French. - -In the Norman-French silken stuffs thus ornamented were said to be -“batuz,” that is, beaten with hammered-up gold. The Treasury calendars, -edited by Palgrave, tell us that Richard the second gave to the chapel -in the castle of Haverford “ii rydell batuz;” two altar-curtains beaten -(probably with ornaments in gilt silver; like an amice so described -which belonged to St. Paul’s). For the secular employment of this same -sort of decoration we have several curious examples. Ladies’ dresses -were so adorned, as we may see in these verses: - - A coronell on hur hedd sett, - Hur clothys wyth bestes and byrdes wer bete, - All abowte for pryde. - -[Illustration: Ancient banner of the city of Strasburg: see next page.] - -King John in 1215 sent an order (extant in the Close rolls) to Reginald -de Cornhull and William Cook to have made for him, besides five -tunics, five banners with his arms upon them, well beaten in gold: -“bene auro batuatas.” A very remarkable example attributed to the -fourteenth century “the banner of Strasbourg” was preserved there until -very lately, when it was unhappily destroyed in the bombardment of that -city in 1870. - -Dugdale (in his Baronage) gives the original bill for fitting out one -of the ships in which Beauchamp earl of Warwick, during the reign of -Henry the sixth, went over to France. Among other items are these: -“Four hundred pencils (long narrow strips of silk, used as flags) beat -with the raggedstaff in silver; the other pavys (one of two shields -probably of wood, and fastened outside the ship at its bows) painted -with black, and a raggedstaff beat with silver occupying all the -field; one coat for my lord’s body, beat with fine gold; two coats for -heralds, beat with demi gold; a great streamer for a ship of forty -yeards in length and eight yeards in breadth, with a great bear and -griffin holding a raggedstaff poudred full of raggedstaffs; three -penons (small flags) of satten; sixteen standards of worsted entailed -with the bear and a chain.” The quatrefoils on the robe of Edward the -first, the silver lions on the Glastonbury cope, the beasts and birds -on the lady’s gown, the bear and griffin and raggedstaff belonging -to the Beauchamp’s blazoning, and all similar enrichments put upon -silken stuffs, were cut out of very thin plates of gold or silver, -so as to hang upon them lightly, and were hammered up to show in low -relief the fashion of the flower and the lineaments of the beast or -bird meant to be represented. Such a style of ornamentation in gold or -silver, stitched on silken stuffs, was far more common once than is now -thought. It had also a technical description: in speaking of it people -would either write or say, “silk beaten with gold or silver;” as, for -example, Barbara Mason used the term when in 1538 she bequeathed to a -church “a vestment of grene sylke betyn with goold.” - -Spangles, when they happened to be used, were not like those now -employed but fashioned after another and artistic shape, and put on in -a different manner. A fragment still exists from the chasuble belonging -to the set of vestments wrought, it is said, by Isabella of Spain -and her maids of honour; and used the first time high mass was sung -in Granada, after it had been taken by the Spaniards from the Moors. -Upon this are flowers, well thrown up in relief, done in spangles on a -crimson velvet ground. The spangles--some in gold, some in silver--are, -though small, of several sizes; all are voided; that is, hollow in the -middle; with the circumference not flat but convex, and are sewed on -like tiles, one overlapping the other, producing a rich and pleasing -effect. Our present spangles, in the flat shape, are quite modern. - -Another kind of embroidery for garments was in gold, worked sometimes -by itself, sometimes with coloured silk thread laid down alternately -beside it; so as to lend a tinge of green, crimson, pink, or blue to -the imagined tissue of the robe, as if it were made of a golden stuff -shot with another tint. - -This gold “passing” was sewn on. The workwomen taking thin silk, while -fastening the passing, dotted it all over in small stitches set exactly -in a way that showed the same pattern. With no other appliance they -were thus enabled to lend to their draperies the appearance of having -been not wrought by the needle but actually cut out of a piece of -textile; for which they have been sometimes mistaken. - -Anciently, also, in England another mode of embroidering articles, -either for church use or for household furniture, was by darning or -working the subject upon linen netting. This was called net-work, -filatorium, as we learn from the Exeter inventory, where we read that -its cathedral possessed in 1327 three pieces of it for use at the -altar: one in particular for throwing over the desk. These thread -embroideries were chiefly wrought during the fourteenth century; but as -early as 1295 St. Paul’s had a cushion of the kind. - -[Illustration: Embroidered hangings of a bed; from a MS. of the -fifteenth century, in the British museum.] - -Crochet, knitting done with linen thread, and the thick kinds of lace -wrought (chiefly in Flanders) upon the cushion with bobbins, were much -employed under the name of nun’s lace from the sixteenth century and -upwards, for bordering altar-cloths, albs, and every sort of towel -required for church purposes. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - -Tapestry is neither real weaving nor true embroidery, but in a manner -unites in its working those two processes into one. Though wrought in -a loom and upon a warp stretched out along its frame, it has no woof -thrown across those threads with a shuttle or any like appliance but -its weft is done with many short threads, all variously coloured and -put in by a needle. It is not embroidery, though so very like it, for -tapestry is not worked upon what is really a web, having both warp and -woof, but upon a series of closely set fine strings. - -From the way in which tapestry is spoken of in Holy Writ we may be sure -that the art is very old; and if it did not take its first rise in -Egypt, we are led by the same authority to conclude that it soon became -successfully cultivated by the people of that land. The woman in the -book of Proverbs says: “I have woven my bed with cords. I have covered -it with painted tapestry, brought from Egypt.” We find, therefore, not -only that it was employed as an article of household furniture among -the Israelites, but that the Egyptians were the makers. - -From Egypt through western Asia the art of tapestry-making found its -way to Europe, and after many ages at last to England. Among the other -manual labours followed in religious houses this handicraft was one; -and monks became some of the best workmen. The altars and the walls of -their churches were hung with tapestry. Matthew Paris tells us that -among other ornaments which, in the reign of Henry the first, abbot -Geoffrey had made for his church of St. Alban’s were three reredoses; -the first a large one wrought with the finding of the body of St. -Alban; the other two figured with the parables of the man who fell -among thieves, and of the prodigal son. While in London in the year -1316 Simon abbot of Ramsey bought looms, staves, shuttles, and a slay: -“pro weblomes emptis xx^s. Et pro staves ad easdem vj^d. Item pro iiij -shittles pro eodem opere ij^s vj^d. Item in j. slay pro textoribus -viij^d.” Collier, in his history, quotes a letter from Giffard, one of -the commissioners for the suppression of the smaller houses, written -to Cromwell; in which he says, speaking of the monastery of Wolstrope -in Lincolnshire: “Not one religious person there but that he can and -doth use either imbrothering, writing books with very fair hand, making -their own garments, carving, painting, or graving, etc.” - -We may collect from Chaucer that working tapestry was not an uncommon -trade; among his pilgrims he mentions in the prologue, - - An haberdasher and a carpenter, - A webbe, a dyer, and a tapisser. - -Pieces of English-made tapestry still remain. That fine though greatly -damaged specimen at St. Mary’s hall, Coventry, representing the -marriage of Henry the sixth, is one; a second is the curious reredos -for an altar, belonging to the vintner’s company; this last is figured -with St. Martin on horseback cutting his cloak in two that he might -give one half to a poor man, and with St. Dunstan singing mass. A -third piece, of large size and in good preservation, is in private -possession, and hangs upon the wall in a house in Cornwall. It is one -of four pieces, of which two have been lost, representing the marriage -of Henry the seventh and Elizabeth of York; and was probably made about -the year 1490. - -The art of weaving tapestry was successfully followed in many parts of -France and throughout ancient Flanders; where secular trade-guilds -were formed for its especial manufacture in many of the towns. Several -of these places won for themselves an especial fame; but so far, at -last, did Arras outrun them all that arras-work came to be the common -word, both here and on the continent, to mean all sorts of tapestry, -whether wrought in England or abroad. Thus the fine hangings for the -choir of Canterbury cathedral, now at Aix-en-Provence, though probably -made at home by his own monks and given to that church by prior -Goldston in 1595, are spoken of as arras-work: “de arysse subtiliter -intextos.” - -[Illustration: Banner of the tapestry workers of Lyons.] - -Arras is but one among other terms by which, during the middle ages, -tapestry was called. Its earliest name was Saracenic work; “opus -Saracenicum;” and, at first, tapestry was wrought as in the east, in -a low or horizontal loom. The artisans of France and Flanders were -the first to introduce the upright or vertical frame, afterwards -known abroad as “de haute lisse,” in contradistinction to the low or -horizontal frame called “de basse lisse.” Workmen who kept to the -unimproved loom were known, in the trade, as Saracens, for retaining -the method of their paynim teachers; and their work, Saracenic. In -the year 1339 John de Croisettes, a Saracen-tapestry worker living -at Arras, sells to the duke of Touraine a piece of gold Saracenic -tapestry figured with the story of Charlemagne: “Jean de Croisettes, -tapissier Sarrazinois demeurant à Arras, vend au duc de Touraine un -tapis sarrazinois à or de l’histoire de Charlemaine.” The high frame, -however, soon superseded the low one; and among the pieces of tapestry -belonging to Philippe duke of Bourgogne and Brabant many are especially -entered as of the high frame; one of which is thus described: “ung -grant tapiz de haulte lice, sauz or, de l’istoire du duc Guillaume de -Normandie comment il conquist Engleterre.” A very fine example is still -to be seen in the collection at the Louvre, representing the history of -St. Martin. - -[Illustration: The legend of St. Martin.--From a piece of tapestry of -the fourteenth century in the Louvre.] - -With the upright, as with the flat frame, the workman had to grope in -the dark a great deal upon his path. In both, he was obliged to put -in the threads on the back or wrong side of the piece, following his -sketch as best he could behind the strings or warp. As the face was -downward in the flat frame it was much less easy to observe and correct -a fault. In the upright frame he might go in front, and with his own -work in open view on one hand and the original design full before him -on the other, he could mend as he went on, step by step, the smallest -mistake, were it but a single thread. Put side by side, when finished, -the pieces from the upright frame were in beauty and perfection far -beyond those from the flat one. We can scarcely particularize the -details in which that superiority consisted, for not one single flat -sample is to be identified as certain from evidence within our reach. -It is possible that at South Kensington the specimens nos. 1296 and -1465 are “Saracenic;” that is, wrought in the low flat loom, or “de -basse lisse;” but all the rest are of the “de haute lisse,” worked in -the upright frame. The “weaver” is among the trades engraved in the -curious volume printed at Frankfort in 1574, _de mechanicis artibus_, -with plates by Amman. - -When the illuminators of manuscripts began to put in golden shadings -all over their painting the tapestry-workers did the same. Such a -manner cannot be relied on as a criterion whereby to judge of the exact -place where any specimen of tapestry had been wrought, or to tell its -precise age. To work figures on a golden ground and to shade garments, -buildings, and landscapes with gold, are two different things. -Upon several pieces at South Kensington gold thread has been very -plentifully used, but the metal is of so debased a quality that it has -become almost black. - -The use of tapestry for church decoration and household furniture, both -in England and abroad, was for a long period very great. Many large -pieces, mostly of a scriptural character, were provided by cardinal -Wolsey for his palace at Hampton court. In the next generation, a very -famous set was made in Flanders, which for many years decorated the -walls of the House of Lords: it represented the defeat of the Spanish -Armada. This magnificent memorial was destroyed in the fire of 1834. -One fragment only is known to exist. This piece was cut out to make -way for a gallery at the time of the trial of queen Caroline, and was -secreted by a German servant of the Lord Chamberlain. The relic was -bought some years after for £20 and presented to the corporation of -Plymouth, who still possess it. - -[Illustration: The Weaver; from the engraving by J. Amman.] - -The most beautiful series now in the world is in the Vatican at Rome, -and may be judged of by looking at a few of the original cartoons (at -present in the S. K. museum). Duke Cosimo tried to set up tapestry work -at Florence but did not succeed. Later, Rome produced some good things; -among others, the fine copy of Da Vinci’s Last Supper still hung up on -Maunday Thursday. England made several attempts to re-introduce the -manufacture: first at Mortlake, then afterwards in London, at Soho. -Works from these two establishments may be met with. At Northumberland -house there was a room hung with large pieces of tapestry wrought at -Soho, and for that mansion, in the year 1758. The designs were by -Francesco Zuccherelli and consisted of landscapes composed of hills -crowned here and there with the standing ruins of temples or strewed -with broken columns, among which groups of country folks are wandering -and amusing themselves. Mortlake and Soho were failures. Not so the -Gobelins at Paris, as every one well knows. - -In many English houses, especially in the country, good samples of -late Flemish tapestry may be found. Close to London, Holland house -is adorned with some curious specimens, particularly in the raised -style. An earlier example (engraved on the next page) of the fifteenth -century, representing the marriage of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany -is in a foreign collection. - -Imitated tapestry existed here long ago under the name of “stayned -cloth,” and the workers of it were embodied into a London guild. At the -beginning of the sixteenth century Exeter cathedral had several pieces -of old painted or “stayned” cloth: “i front stayned cum crucifixo, -Maria et Johanne, Petro et Paulo; viij panni linei stayned, etc.” The -great use at that time of such articles in household furniture may be -witnessed in the will, 1503, of Katherine lady Hastings who bequeaths, -besides several other such pieces, “an old hangin of counterfeit arres -of Knollys, which now hangeth in the hall and all such hangyings of -old bawdekyn, or lynen paynted as now hang in the chappell.” We may -also remember that Falstaff speaks of it as an illustration easily -understood; he says that his troops are “as ragged as Lazarus in the -painted cloth.” - -Carpets are akin to tapestry, and though the use of them may perhaps -be not so ancient yet is very old. Here, again, we must look to the -people of Asia for the finest as well as the earliest examples of -this textile. Mediæval specimens are rare anywhere, and we are glad to -recommend attention to two pieces of that period fortunately in the -collection at South Kensington, no. 8649, of the fourteenth century, -and no. 8357, of the sixteenth, both of Spanish make. - -[Illustration: Marriage of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany.] - -The chambers of our royal palaces and the chancels of our parish -churches used to be strewed with rushes. When however they could afford -it the authorities of our cathedrals, even in very early times, spread -the sanctuary with carpets; and at last old tapestry came to be so -employed, as now in Italy. Among such coverings for the floor before -the altar Exeter had a large piece of Arras cloth figured with the life -of the duke of Burgundy, the gift of one of its bishops, Edmund Lacy, -in 1420; besides two large carpets, one bestowed by bishop Nevill in -1456, the other, of a chequered pattern, by lady Elizabeth Courtney: -“carpet et panni coram altari sternendi; i pannus de Arys de historia -ducis Burgundie; i larga carpeta, etc.” In an earlier inventory we -find that among the “bancaria” or bench-coverings in the choir of the -same cathedral, one was a large piece of English-made tapestry with a -fretted pattern. It is very probable that as the work of the Record -Commission goes on, and our ancient historians are printed, evidence -may be found that the looms at work in all our great monasteries among -other webs wrought carpets. From existing testimony we believe that -such must have been the practice at Croyland, where abbot Egelric (the -second of the name) gave to that church, before the year 992, “two -large foot-cloths [so carpets were then called] woven with lions to be -laid out before the high altar on great festivals, and two shorter ones -trailed all over with flowers, for the feast days of the apostles.” The -quantity of carpeting in our palaces may be seen by the way in which -Leland tells us that “my lady the queen’s rooms” were strewed with them -“when she took her chamber.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - - -The value of such a collection of textile fabrics as that at South -Kensington can scarcely be overrated. Without such aid it is not -possible for the painter or the historian to bring before his own mind, -much less bring before another’s, a true representation of ancient -ceremonies and pageants. Whether his subject be a coronation or a royal -marriage, a queen’s “taking her chamber,” a progress, or a funeral, -he cannot correctly set forth the splendour or the details of the -occasion, unless he can refer to existing examples of the cloths of -gold, the figured velvets, the rich embroidery, or the splendid silks, -which used to be worn of old. Take for example nos. 1310 and 8624. Upon -these are figured stags with tall branching horns, couchant, chained, -upturning their antlered heads to sunbeams darting down upon them amid -a shower of rain; and beneath the stags are eagles. This Sicilian -textile, woven about the end of the fourteenth century, brings to -one’s mind the bronze recumbent figure of a king in Westminster abbey. -It is that of Richard the second; made for him before his downfall, -and by two coppersmiths of London, Nicholas Broker and Godfrey Prest. -This effigy, once finely gilt, is as remarkable for its beautiful -workmanship as for the elaborate manner in which the cloak and kirtle -worn by the king are diapered all over with a pattern, copied from -the silken stuff out of which those garments must have been cut for -his personal wear while living. The pattern consists of a sprig of -the planta genesta, the humble broom plant--the haughty Plantagenet’s -device--along with a couchant hart chained and gazing straight -forwards, and above it a cloud with rays darting up from behind. These -were Richard’s favourite cognizances: the one from his grandfather -Edward the third; the other from his mother Joan of Kent. It is very -probable that the king’s dress was of the same kind of silk Sicilian -textile as the examples just referred to: and that those very examples -are portions of pieces wrought, perhaps at Palermo, for the court of -Richard. They are of the same date and they show his devices; the -chained hart and the sunbeams issuing from a cloud. - -The seemliness, not to say comfort, of private life was improved by -the use of textiles. Let the historian contrast the custom even in a -royal palace, during the middle ages, with that now followed in every -tradesman’s home. Then straw and rushes were strewed in houses upon the -floor in every room; and Wendover, in his life of St. Thomas, speaks of -the king’s courtiers platting knots with the litter, and flinging them -with a gibe at a man who had been slighted by the prince. Not quite -a hundred years later when Eleanor of Castile came to London for her -marriage with our first Edward she found her lodgings furnished, under -the directions of the Spanish courtiers who had arrived before her, -with hangings and curtains of silk around the walls, and carpets spread -upon the ground. This offended some of the people; more of them, as -Matthew Paris records, laughed at the thought that such costly things -were laid down to be walked upon. - -Take, again, the famous Syon cope. Not only is it full of interest to -writers upon liturgies and rituals but of even more to the herald and -genealogist. Covered as its orphreys are with armorial bearings, this -cope carries with it evidences as important and as valuable as any -contemporary roll of arms; and no inquirer into the pedigrees of the -ancient families of the Percies or Ferrers, of Cliffords or Botelers, -and of many others, can afford to neglect it. - -We have several records of evidence in courts of law taken from -heraldic embroideries upon robes and vestments. In the famous -controversy between the houses of Scrope and Grosvenor, in the -fourteenth century, inquiries were made and proofs were offered on both -sides as to the right of bearing upon their shields the bend _or_ upon -a field _azure_. Witnesses produced at Westminster corporas cases, -copes, and albs embroidered with the arms of Scrope. Chaucer was one of -the witnesses; and said he had seen those arms on banners and vestments -and commonly called the arms of Scrope. Again; the fact that in her -wardrobe was found a vestment embroidered with the royal arms was -brought forward to prove the charge of treason against the old countess -of Salisbury, the mother of cardinal Pole; and for which crime she was -condemned. - -Collections of ancient textiles are of still greater use to students -of ecclesiastical history and church rituals than even to the secular -historian. It is probable that the greater number of the specimens -which now exist formed originally portions of sacred vestments and -furniture for altars. Formerly so common, fragments even of such cloths -and robes have become of very great rarity, especially in England; -where for the last two or three centuries the use of the numerous old -church vestments and decorations has entirely ceased. - -Again, for example: the three cases nos. 5958, 8329, and 8327 are of -the kind known as the “capsella cum serico decenter ornata” of the -mediæval writers; small cases or boxes decently fitted up with silk; -or the “capsula corporalium,” the box in which were kept the corporals -or square pieces of fine linen, required for service during holy week. -The name as well as the use of this appliance is very old, and both are -spoken of in the very ancient ‘Ordines Romani’ edited by Mabillon. One -of these, in the rubric for Good Friday, speaks of the Host as having -been kept in the corporal’s case or box: “in capsula corporialium.” In -England, such small wooden boxes covered with silks and velvets richly -embroidered were once employed for the same purpose: and several are -mentioned in the Exeter inventories. - -The two pyx-cloths, nos. 8342 and 8691, have an especial interest for -the student of mediæval liturgy. There was a custom during the middle -ages in England, as well as in France and several other countries on -the continent, of keeping the Eucharist hung up over the high altar -beneath a canopy, within a pyx of gold, silver, ivory, or enamel, -mantled with a fine linen cloth or veil. This veil for the pyx was -sometimes embroidered with golden thread and coloured silks. Such an -one is mentioned in the records of the Exchequer, edited by Palgrave: -among the valuables belonging to Richard the second in Haverford castle -and sent by the sheriff of Hereford to the exchequer, at the beginning -of the reign of Henry the fourth, were “i coupe d’or pour le Corps Ihu -Cryst. i towayll ove (avec) i longe parure de mesure la suyte.” - -Several names were given to this fine linen covering. In the inventory -of things taken from Dr. Caius, and in the college of his own founding -at Cambridge, are “corporas clothes, with the pix and ‘sindon’ and -canopie.” This variety in nomenclature doubtless has led some writers -to state that before Mary queen of Scots laid her head upon the block -she had a “corporal,” strictly so called, bound over her eyes: as it is -given in one of our histories of England, “a handkerchief in which the -Eucharist had formerly been enclosed.” But this bandage must have been -the veil for a pyx. As Mary wrought much with her needle, and specimens -of her work yet remain at Chatsworth and at Greystock, this piece may -have been embroidered by her own hand and perhaps also had been once -used. - -One of these old English pyx or Corpus Christi cloths, was found a few -years ago at the bottom of a chest in Hessett church, Suffolk. As it -is a remarkable specimen of the ingenious handicraft of our mediæval -countrywomen it deserves description. To make this pyx-cloth a piece of -thick linen, about two feet square, was chosen, and being marked off -into small equal widths on all its four edges, the threads at every -other space were, both in the warp and woof, pulled out. The checquers -or squares so produced were then drawn in by threads tied on the under -side, having the shape of stars, so well and delicately worked that, -till it had been narrowly looked into, the piece was thought to be -guipure lace. An old alb, no. 8710, and an amice, 8307, having the -apparels yet remaining upon both, are well worth attention on account -of somewhat similar curious ornamental needlework in an intricate -manner. In the middle ages in England it was not unusual to suspend -upon pastoral staffs, just below the crook, a piece of fine linen. We -see them represented on effigies and in illuminations; but existing -examples are of the utmost rarity. Two are at South Kensington: nos. -8279 A, and 8662. - -There are also there several specimens of the christening cloaks, -anciently in use. These were not only conspicuous in royal christenings -but, varying in costliness according to the parent’s rank, were handed -down in inventories and wills. At the christening of Arthur prince of -Wales, eldest son of Henry the eighth, “my lady Cecill, the queen’s -eldest sister, bare the prince wrapped in a mantell of cremesyn clothe -of golde furred with ermyn,” etc. Shakespeare makes the shepherd, in -the Winter’s tale, cry out, “Here’s a sight for thee; look thee, a -bearing cloth for a squire’s child!” A well-to-do tradesman, whose will -is printed among the Bury wills, bequeathed in 1648 to his daughter -Rose his “beareing cloath, such ... linnen as is belonginge to infants -at their tyme of baptisme.” - -Small square pieces of embroidered linen are sometimes found in country -houses in some old chest, of which the original use is said not to be -now known. But in most cases these were made for children’s quilts; and -very often have the emblems of the evangelists figured at the corners: -reminding us of the nursery rhyme, once common both in England and -abroad-- - - “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, - Bless the bed that I lie on.” - -The quilts also for grown people were ornamented in the same way. At -Durham, in 1446, in the dormitory of the priory was a quilt “cum iiij -or evangelistis in corneriis.” - -Very few examples now exist of the ceremonial shoe anciently worn by -bishops. These were of velvet, or damask, or strong linen embroidered. -One is preserved at South Kensington, no. 1290: another, once worn by -Waynflete bishop of Winchester, is still at Magdalen college, Oxford. -We learn from the York wills that these shoes were a part of the -episcopal vestments: bishop Pudsey left his mitre, staff, and sandals, -“et cætera episcopalia” to Durham cathedral in 1195. Later the name of -“sabatines” was given them; and archbishop Bowet’s inventory mentions -two pairs: “pro j pare de sabbatones, brouddird et couch’ cum perell’; -pro j pare de sabbatones de albo panno auri.” - -Collections of textile fabrics are of the highest value to the -artist. There is none, anywhere, so rich or complete as that at South -Kensington; and before it was purchased for public use, painters were -glad to refer to any scanty collection in private hands, or to old -pictures or illuminated manuscripts, or engravings. - -But, now, artists may see pieces of the actual stuffs represented in -the pictures, say, of the national Gallery. For example: in Orcagna’s -coronation of the blessed Virgin the blue silk diapered in gold, with -flowers and birds, hung as a back ground; our Lord’s white tunic -diapered in gold with foliage; the mantle of His mother made of the -same stuff; St. Stephen’s dalmatic of green samit, diapered with -golden foliage, are Sicilian in design and copied from the rich silks -which came, in the middle of the fourteenth century, from the looms -of Palermo. While standing before Jacopo di Casentino’s St. John our -eye is drawn to the orphrey on that evangelist’s chasuble embroidered, -after the Tuscan style, with barbed quatrefoils, shutting in the -busts of apostles. Isotta da Ramini, in her portrait by Pietro della -Francesca, wears a gown made of velvet and gold like the cut velvets at -South Kensington. - -So, again, instead of copying patterns taken from the rich cloth of -gold worn by St. Laurence in Francia’s picture, or from the mantle of -the doge in that by Cappaccio, or from the foot-cloths on the steps -in the pictures by Melozzo da Forli, he may find for his authorities -in the same collection existing specimens of contemporary and similar -fabrics. - -Not merely artists of a higher class but decorators also may be equally -benefited by the patterns and examples preserved of old wall-hangings -and tapestry. From early times up to the middle of the sixteenth -century our cathedrals and parish churches, our castles and manorial -houses, in short the dwellings of the wealthy everywhere, used to be -ornamented with wall-painting done not in “fresco” but in “secco;” -that is, distemper. Upon high festivals the walls of the churches were -overspread with tapestry and needlework; so, too, those in the halls of -palaces, for some solemn ceremonial. - -Warton, in his history of English poetry, gives a passage from -Bradshaw’s life of St. Werburgh written late in the sixteenth century, -from which a few lines are well worth quotation. He is describing how a -large hall was arrayed for a great feast: - - All herbes and flowers, fragraunt, fayre and swete - Were strawed in halles, and layd under theyr fete. - Clothes of gold and arras were hanged in the hall - Depaynted with pyctures and hystoryes manyfolde, - Well wroughte and craftely. - -The story of Adam, Noe, and his shyppe; the twelve sones of Jacob; the -ten plagues of Egypt, and-- - - Duke Josue was joyned after them in pycture, - - * * * * * - - Theyr noble actes and tryumphes marcyall - Freshly were browdred in these clothes royall - - * * * * * - - But over the hye desse in pryncypall place - Where the sayd thre kynges sat crowned all - The best hallynge hanged as reason was, - Whereon were wrought the ix orders angelicall, - Dyvyded in thre ierarchyses, not cessing to call, - _Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus_, blessed be the Trynite, - _Dominus Deus Sabaoth_, thre persons in one deyte. - -Specimens of tapestry of the later mediæval period may not uncommonly -be found: but not so pieces of room hangings, “hallings,” such as those -at South Kensington, nos. 1370, 1297, and 1465. Similar examples are, -we believe, unknown. - -We will add a few words only on one other, and that not a trivial, -part of ancient dress; namely, gloves. Formerly these were much more -ornamented than now; and, when meant for ladies’ wear, sometimes -perfume was bestowed upon them. Among the new year’s day presents -to queen Mary, before she came to the throne, was “a payr of gloves -embrawret with gold.” A year afterwards “x payr of Spanyneshe gloves -from a duches in Spayne” came to her; and but a month before, -Mrs. Whellers had sent to her highness “a pair of swete gloves.” -Shakespeare, true to the manners of his day, after making Autolycus -chant the praises of his - - Lawn as white as driven snow; - Cyprus, black as e’er was crow; - Gloves, as sweet as damask roses; - -puts this into the mouth of the shepherdess: “Come, you promised me a -tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves.” We may find a pair of such -gloves in the South Kensington collection, no. 4665. - -It may be proper to add, in conclusion, that the greater part of the -very valuable and extensive collection of mediæval textile fabrics at -South Kensington was collected by Dr. Bock, a canon of Aix la Chapelle; -and purchased from him about the year 1864. - -[Illustration: State gloves formerly belonging to Louis XIII.] - - - - -INDEX. - - - PAGE - Acca, silks, 70 - - Amasis, his linen corslet, 5 - - Anne of Cleves, her pall of cloth of gold, 41 - - Areste, cloth of, 74 - - „ not Arras, 75 - - Aristotle first mentions silk, 8 - - Arras, a name for tapestry, 97 - - Aurelian, refuses his wife a silk robe, 9 - - - Babylon, embroideries, 79 - - Baldachino, from baudekin, 42 - - Banner of Strasburg, 92 - - „ at Lyons, 97 - - Bath, famous for weaving, 65 - - Baudekin, a costly stuff, 40 - - „ origin of name, 40 - - “Batuz,” its meaning, 90 - - Block-printed linens, 67 - - Blodbendes, 11 - - Blodius, blue colour, 76 - - Boadicea, her cloak, 3 - - Bordalisaunder, explained, 72 - - British bards, distinction of dress, 3 - - Bruges, her looms famous, 67 - - Buckram, why so called, 72 - - Byzantine textiles, 50 - - „ not good examples at South Kensington, 50 - - - Cadas, or carduus, a silken stuff, 30 - - Camoca, or camak, how used, 30 - - Canvas, origin of name, 4 - - Care-cloth, explained, 72 - - Carpets, 101 - - Cecily, Saint, her robe, 16 - - Cendal explained, 27 - - Chasubles of stauracin, 37 - - „ not to be made of fustian, 73 - - Childeric, his burial garment, 16 - - Chinese textiles, 49 - - „ patterned silks, 71 - - Chrysoclavus explained, 35 - - Ciclatoun, 18 - - Cingula, explained, 12 - - Cloaks for christenings, 108 - - Cloth of gold, two kinds, 19 - - „ “stayned”, 101 - - Cloths of estate, 42 - - Copper used to imitate gold thread, 21 - - Cotton, native home, 3 - - “Colayn” ribbon, 69 - - Cologne orphrey webs, 69 - - Colours of silks, mediæval, 75 - - Corporal, said to be used by Mary of Scotland, 107 - - Crochet, or “nun’s lace”, 94 - - Cyclas, a splendid garment, 27 - - - Dalmatic of Charlemagne at Rome, 38 - - „ Byzantine, 50 - - Darius, his dress described, 15 - - Damasks, French, 68 - - „ why so named, 71 - - “De fundato,” a pattern on silk, 38 - - Diaper, a silk, 32 - - „ possible origin of name, 32 - - „ the meaning extended, 33 - - Dorneck, explained, 72 - - Durham cathedral, vestments, 25, 28 - - - Eastern princes, insignia on their robes, 45 - - Eagle and other birds, woven on standards, 47 - - Edward the first, his gift of “cyclases”, 27 - - Episcopal shoes, 109 - - Egyptian work of the loom, 5 - - „ silver and gold wire, 22 - - „ loom, 79 - - Embroidery, 79 - - „ covering ancient dresses, 80 - - „ raised on book covers, 86 - - „ involved great labour, 86 - - English textiles, 64 - - Exeter cathedral, vestments, 25, 28, 29, 31, 33, 46, - 48, 58, 63, 65, 73 - - Eylesham, famous for linen, 64 - - - “Filatorium,” its meaning, 93 - - Filfot, explained, 38 - - Flax, grows wild in Britain, 4 - - „ earliest history, 4 - - Flemish textiles, 66 - - Florence, her silks and velvets, 63 - - „ specimens at South Kensington, 63 - - „ cut-work, 88 - - French silks, 68 - - Frontal, at Westminster, 90 - - Fustian, known in 13th century, 31 - - „ originally from Egypt, 73 - - „ woven at Naples, 74 - - Fygury, silks so called, 34 - - - Gammadion, explained, 36 - - Garland, an Englishman, 11 - - Gems, etc., sewn on textiles, 89 - - Genoa, her silks, 59 - - „ specimens at South Kensington, 60 - - Gilding, used for textiles, 21 - - Gloves, embroidered, 111 - - Gold, used in weaving, 15 - - „ cloths made of gold alone, 16, 17 - - „ see “copper” - - Greek monks, first bring silkworms, 9 - - - Haconbie church vestments, 67 - - Hebrew word used improperly for silk, 7 - - „ embroidery, 79 - - Heliogabalus, first wore whole-silk, 9 - - Hemp, native home, 3 - - Heraldic charges on Sicilian silk, 56 - - Herod, his dress of woven silver, 22 - - Holosericum, explained, 24 - - Honorius, his wife’s robe, 16 - - Hullings, _i.e._ hangings, 46, 66 - - - Imperial, a rich silk, 39 - - „ meaning of the name, 40 - - Indian, ancient splendour of dress, 15 - - „ textiles, 50 - - Italy, northern, mediæval silks, 58 - - Irish cloth, in King John’s time, 66 - - - King Henry the third orders cloth of Areste, 74 - - „ Edward the second orders English embroidery, 85 - - „ Richard the second, gifts to Haverford castle, 90 - - - Lama d’oro of Italy, 15 - - Letters woven on textiles, an ancient practice, 47 - - Liber pontificalis, a valuable book, 35 - - Lincoln cathedral, vestments, 23 - - Looms, upright and horizontal, 64 - - Lucca, her silks, 58 - - „ cloths of gold, 58 - - „ specimens at South Kensington, 59 - - - “Marble” silk, 76 - - Milan, her textiles, 63 - - Moresco-Spanish textiles, 53 - - Mortuary palls, 43 - - Mummy cloths, 5 - - „ unmixed linen, 6 - - Muslin, long used in the east, 74 - - Muslin, origin of name, 74 - - - Neckham, first describes the silkworm, 13 - - “Network” on linen, 93 - - Nuns, anciently, exhorted not to weave coloured robes, 11 - - „ English, employed in weaving, 64 - - - “Opus” plumarium, 81 - - „ pectineum, 81 - - „ Anglicum, 82 - - „ consutum, 88 - - „ „ good example at South Kensington, 89 - - Organzine, explained, 26 - - - Palls, of rich stuffs, 41 - - „ cloth of, 42 - - Paul’s (St.) cathedral, vestments, 25, 39, 45, 50, 60, 65, 75 - - Paper, employed by Japanese for clothing, 1 - - “Passing” for embroidery, 93 - - Persian textiles, 49 - - “Phrygian” work, 79 - - Plaited woollen stuff among the Britons, 2 - - Polystauron, why so called, 36 - - Pyx cloths, at South Kensington, 107 - - „ curious example, 108 - - - Queen Matilda takes the Abingdon vestments, 83 - - Quilts for children, 108 - - - Rayns (Rennes) cloths, 68 - - Rhenish cut-work, 88 - - - Samit, 10, 19 - - „ explained, 24 - - Sandal, explained, 27 - - „ of bishops, 109 - - Saracenic textiles, 46, 58, 99 - - Sarcenet, explained, 28 - - Satin, not unknown in middle ages, 29 - - „ early names, 29 - - Sicilian textiles, 54 - - „ three styles, 54 - - Silk, 8 - - „ unknown in ancient Egypt, 8 - - „ in South Italy, 11th century, 10 - - Silk, its use at first condemned for garments at Rome, 8 - - Silver, woven into webs, 21 - - Skins, employed for clothing, 1 - - Snood, of the Anglo-saxons, 12 - - Spangles, how anciently used, 92 - - Spindle tree, 2 - - Spinning, ancient daily work of women, 2 - - Stauracin, origin of name, 36 - - Stragulatæ, explained, 39 - - Street hangings, 43 - - Subsericum, explained, 25 - - Syndon, explained, 28 - - Syon Cope, peculiar work, 83 - - „ its historical value, 105 - - Syrian textiles, 52 - - - Taffeta, explained, 28 - - Tapestry, 95 - - „ Egyptian and Jewish, 95 - - „ English at Coventry and in Cornwall, 96 - - „ two kinds of frame, 97 - - „ of the Spanish armada, 100 - - „ imitated, 101 - - Tars, cloth of, probably cashmere, 31 - - „ „ 76 - - Textile, meaning of the term, 1 - - „ the value of collections, 104, &c. - - Tiraz, of an Arab palace, 45 - - Tissue, 20 - - Translucent silk, used in MSS., 8 - - Thread, gold, varieties of quality, 23 - - Tram, explained, 26 - - - U, the letter, used in Italian silks, 56 - - - Velvet, its history obscure, 31 - - „ vestments, first mentioned in England, 31 - - „ origin of the name, 31 - - „ varieties of weaving, 32 - - „ a peculiar ornament, 63 - - „ of Flanders, 67 - - Venetian textiles, 60 - - „ characteristics, 62 - - „ linens, 62 - - - Warwick, earl, his banners of satin, 29 - - „ and dresses, 92 - - Westminster copes, preserved at Stonyhurst, 63 - - Wire, gold and silver, for weaving, 22 - - „ machine for drawing first used, 23 - - Worcester, famous for cloths, 65 - - Worms, (silkworms) first brought to Europe, 9 - - Worsted, in Norfolk, a new method of carding wool there, 65 - - - York cathedral vestments, 67, 72 - - „ Princess Elizabeth of, her velvet gown, 72 - - Yprès, not origin of name of diaper, 33 - - „ linens, 68 - - - - -SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. - -EDITED BY WILLIAM MASKELL. - - - 1. TEXTILE FABRICS. By the Very Rev. DANIEL ROCK, D.D. With - numerous Woodcuts. - - 2. IVORIES, ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. By WILLIAM MASKELL. With - numerous Woodcuts. - - 3. ANCIENT AND MODERN FURNITURE AND WOODWORK. By JOHN HUNGERFORD - POLLEN. With numerous Woodcuts. - - 4. MAIOLICA. By C. DRURY E. FORTNUM, F.S.A. With numerous - Woodcuts. - - 5. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. By CARL ENGEL. With numerous Woodcuts. - - - PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., - LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they -were not changed. - -Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation -marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left -unbalanced. - -The index was not fully checked for proper alphabetization or correct -page references. - -In the List of Woodcuts, the reference to the illustration on page 94 -was added by the Transcriber. - -Page 19: “ř” represents an “r” with a tilde “~”; “š” represents an “s” -with a tilde “~”. - -Pages 19 and 96: Letters preceded by “^” are superscripts. - -Pages 36, 37, 38: the illustrations on these pages are multi-part -symbols. In the original book, they were printed in-line with the -surrounding text, but in this eBook, they are shown on lines of their -own. - -Page 110: “Isotta da Ramini, in her portrait by Pietro della Francesca” -was printed that way, as was “Cappaccio”. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Textile Fabrics, by Daniel Rock - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEXTILE FABRICS *** - -***** This file should be named 60015-0.txt or 60015-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/0/1/60015/ - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/60015-0.zip b/old/60015-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1681dab..0000000 --- a/old/60015-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h.zip b/old/60015-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 36eda2e..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/60015-h.htm b/old/60015-h/60015-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index c7a7040..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/60015-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5454 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Textile Fabrics, by Daniel Rock. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 2.5em; - margin-right: 2.5em; -} - -h1, h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; - margin-top: 2.5em; - margin-bottom: 1em; -} - -h1 {line-height: 1;} - -h2+p {margin-top: 1.5em;} - -.transnote h2 { - margin-top: .5em; - margin-bottom: 1em; -} - -p { - text-indent: 1.75em; - margin-top: .51em; - margin-bottom: .24em; - text-align: justify; -} -.caption p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} -p.center {text-indent: 0;} - -.p1 {margin-top: 1em;} -.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.b2 {margin-bottom: 2em;} -.vspace {line-height: 1.5;} - -.in0 {text-indent: 0;} -.in2 {padding-left: 2em;} - -.small {font-size: 70%;} -.smaller {font-size: 85%;} -.larger {font-size: 125%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} -.smcap.smaller {font-size: 75%;} -.firstword {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.bold {font-weight: bold;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 4em; - margin-bottom: 4em; - margin-left: 33%; - margin-right: auto; - clear: both; -} - -.tb { - text-align: center; - padding-top: .76em; - padding-bottom: .24em; - letter-spacing: 1.5em; - margin-right: -1.5em; -} - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - min-width: 50%; - max-width: 80%; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -td {padding-bottom: .5em;} -.small td {padding-bottom: .1em;} - -.tdl { - text-align: left; - vertical-align: top; - padding-right: 1em; - padding-left: 1.5em; - text-indent: -1.5em; -} - -.tdr { - text-align: right; - vertical-align: bottom; - padding-left: .3em; - white-space: nowrap; -} - -table#index {table-layout: fixed; max-width: 90%;} -table#index .tdr {white-space: normal;} -table#index tr.firstlet td {padding-top: 1.5em;} -table#index td {padding-bottom: .3em;} -table#index .small td {padding-bottom: .1em;} -table#index .in2 {padding-left: 1.5em; padding-right: 1.5em;} -table#index .wide {width: 75%;} -table#index .narrow {width: 25%;} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4px; - text-indent: 0em; - text-align: right; - font-size: 70%; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; - font-style: normal; - letter-spacing: normal; - line-height: normal; - color: #acacac; - border: 1px solid #acacac; - background: #ffffff; - padding: 1px 2px; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: 2em auto 2em auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} -.figcenter.tight {margin: .5em auto 0em auto;} - -img { - padding: 0; - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} - -.caption {text-align: center; margin-top: 0;} -.caption.p1 {padding-top: .2em;} - -blockquote { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 5%; - font-size: 95%; -} - -blockquote.hang p { - font-size: 100%; - text-align: justify; - padding-left: 3em; - padding-right: 0; - text-indent: -3em; -} - -.poem-container { - text-align: center; - font-size: 98%; -} - -.poem { - display: inline-block; - text-align: left; - margin-left: 0; -} - -.poem br {display: none;} - -.poem .stanza{padding: 0.5em 0;} - -.poem .tb {margin: .3em 0 0 0;} - -.poem span.iq {display: block; margin-left: -.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} -.poem span.i18 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} - -.transnote { - background-color: #999999; - border: thin dotted; - font-family: sans-serif, serif; - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 5%; - margin-top: 4em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - padding: 1em; -} - -.wspace {word-spacing: .3em;} - -span.locked {white-space:nowrap;} - -.hidep {visibility: hidden; letter-spacing: -1em;} -.narrow {max-width: 30em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} -sup {line-height: .8;} - -@media print, handheld -{ - h1, .chapter, .newpage {page-break-before: always;} - h1.nobreak, h2.nobreak, .nobreak {page-break-before: avoid; padding-top: 0;} - - p { - margin-top: .5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .25em; - } - - table {width: 100%; max-width: 100%;} - - .tdl { - padding-left: 1em; - text-indent: -1em; - padding-right: 0; - } - - } - -@media handheld -{ - body {margin: 0;} - - hr { - margin-top: .1em; - margin-bottom: .1em; - visibility: hidden; - color: white; - width: .01em; - display: none; - } - - ul {margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 0;} - li {list-style-type: none; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1.5em;} - - blockquote {margin: 1.5em 3% 1.5em 3%;} - - .poem-container {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%;} - .poem {display: block;} - .poem .tb {text-align: left; padding-left: 2em;} - .poem .stanza {page-break-inside: avoid;} - - .transnote { - page-break-inside: avoid; - margin-left: 2%; - margin-right: 2%; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - padding: .5em; - } - -} - </style> - </head> - -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Textile Fabrics, by Daniel Rock - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Textile Fabrics - -Author: Daniel Rock - -Editor: William Maskell - -Release Date: July 29, 2019 [EBook #60015] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEXTILE FABRICS *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="transnote"><p class="center larger">Transcriber’s Note:</p> -<p class="center">The Table of Contents was added by the Transcriber.</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="newpage p4 center larger vspace wspace">SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.<br /> - -<span class="small"><span class="smcap">Edited by WILLIAM MASKELL.</span></span><br /> - -NO. 1.—TEXTILE FABRICS.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="newpage p4 narrow"> -<p><i>These Handbooks are reprints of the prefaces or introductions to -the large catalogues of the chief divisions of works of art in the -Museum at South Kensington; arranged and so far abridged as to -bring each into a portable shape. The Lords of the Committee of -Council on Education having determined on the publication of -them, the editor trusts that they will meet the purpose intended; -namely, to be useful, not alone for the collections at South -Kensington but for other collections, by enabling the public at -a trifling cost to understand something of the history and character -of the subjects treated of.</i></p> - -<p><i>The authorities referred to by the authors will be found named -in the large catalogues; where are also given detailed descriptions of -the very numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum.</i></p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<h1 class="newpage p4">TEXTILE FABRICS.</h1> - -<p class="p1 center vspace"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -THE VERY REV. DANIEL ROCK, D.D.</p> - -<p class="p2 center small wspace bold">WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.</p> - -<div id="if_i_000" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 6em;"> - <img src="images/i_000.jpg" width="95" height="153" alt="" /></div> - -<p class="p2 center vspace wspace"><i>Published for the Committee of Council on Education</i><br /> -BY<br /> -<span class="larger">CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.<br /> -1876.</span> -</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="newpage p4 center vspace small bold"> -PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,<br /> -LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table id="toc" summary="Contents"> - <tr class="small"> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdr">Page</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER I</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER II</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">7</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER III</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">14</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER IV</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">24</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER V</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">35</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER VI</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">49</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER VII</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">70</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER VIII</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">78</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER IX</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">88</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER X</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">95</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">CHAPTER XI</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">104</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">INDEX</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#INDEX">113</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2><a id="LIST_OF_WOODCUTS"></a>LIST OF WOODCUTS.</h2> -</div> - -<table id="loi" summary="List of Woodcuts"> - <tr class="small"> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdr">Page</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Indian woman reeling silk</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_13">13</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Ladies in fifteenth century spinning and weaving</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_34">34</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Mortuary cloth</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_44">44</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Silk damask with imitated Arabic letters</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_46">46</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Ladies in fourteenth century carding and spinning</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_48">48</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Byzantine Dalmatic</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_51">51</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Sicilian silk damask</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_57">57</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Florentine silk damask</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_62">62</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Part of the Syon Cope</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_84">84</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Embroidered saddle-cloth</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_87">87</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Ancient banner of the city of Strasburg</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_91">91</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Embroidered hangings of a bed</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_94">94</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Banner of the tapestry workers of Lyons</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_97">97</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tapestry of the fourteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_98">98</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">The weaver, in 1574</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_100">100</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tapestry of the fifteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_102">102</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">State gloves of Louis the thirteenth</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_112">112</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="TEXTILES"><span class="larger">TEXTILES.</span></h2> -</div> - -<h2 id="CHAPTER_I" class="p2 nobreak">CHAPTER I.</h2> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Under</span> its widest acceptation the word “textile” means every -kind of stuff, no matter its material, wrought in the loom. -Whether, therefore, the threads are spun from the produce of the -animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom; whether of sheep’s wool, -goats’ hair, camels’ wool, or camels’ hair; whether of flax, hemp, -mallow, or the filaments drawn out of the leaves of plants of the -lily and asphodel tribes of flowers, or the fibrous coating about -pods, or cotton; whether of gold, silver, or of any other metal; -the webs from all such materials are textiles. Unlike these are -other appliances for garment-making in many countries; and of -such materials not the least curious, if not odd to our ideas, -is paper, which is so much employed for the purpose by the -Japanese. A careful reference to a map of the world will show -us the materials which from the earliest ages the inhabitants of -the world had at hand, in every clime, for making articles of -dress.</p> - -<p>In all the colder regions the well-furred skins of several -families of beasts could, by the ready help of a thorn for a -needle and of the animal’s own sinews for thread, be fashioned -after a manner into various kinds of clothing.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> -Sheep, in a primitive period, were bred for raiment perhaps as -much as for food. At first, the locks of wool torn away from the -animal’s back by brambles were gathered: afterwards shearing -was thought of and followed in some countries, while in others -the wool was not cut off but plucked by the hand away from the -living creature. Obtained by either method the fleeces were -spun generally by women from the distaff. This very ancient -daily work was followed by women among our Anglo-saxon -ancestors of all ranks of life, from the king’s daughter downwards. -Spinning from a distaff is even now common in many countries -on the continent, particularly so all through Italy. Long ago -the name of spindle-tree was given in England to the Euonymus -plant, on account of the good spindles which its wood affords: -and the term “spinster” as meaning every unmarried woman even -of the gentlest blood is derived from the same occupation. -Every now and then from the graves in which women of the -British and succeeding epochs were buried, are picked up the -elaborately ornamented leaden whorls which were fastened at the -lower end of their spindles to give them a due weight and steadiness.</p> - -<p>A curious instance of the use of woollen stuff not woven but -plaited, among the older stock of the Britons, was very lately -brought to light while cutting through an early Celtic grave-hill or -barrow in Yorkshire: the dead body had been wrapped, as was -shown by the few unrotted shreds still cleaving to its bones, in a -woollen shroud of coarse and loose fabric wrought by the plaiting -process without a loom.</p> - -<p>As time passed by it brought the loom, fashioned after its -simplest form, to the far west, and its use became general -throughout the British islands. The art of dyeing soon followed; -and so beautiful were the tints which our Britons knew how -to give to their wools that strangers wondered at and were -jealous of their splendour. A strict rule limited the colour of the -official dress assigned to each of the three ranks into which the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> -bardic order was distinguished to one simple unbroken shade: -spotless white, symbolic of sunlight and holiness, for the druid or -priest; sky-blue, emblem of peace, for the bard or poet; and -green, the livery of the wood and field, for the teacher of the supposed -qualities of herbs and leech-craft. Postulants, again, asking -leave to be admitted into either rank were recognized by the robe -barred with stripes of white, blue, and green, which they had to -wear during the term of their initiation. With regard to the bulk -of the people, we learn from Dion Cassius (born <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 155) that -the garments worn by them were of a texture wrought in a square -pattern of several colours; and, speaking of Boadicea, the same -writer tells us that she usually had on, under her cloak, a motley -tunic chequered all over with many colours. This garment we -are fairly warranted in deeming to have been a native stuff, woven -of worsted after a pattern in tints and design like one or other -of the present Scotch plaids. Pliny, who seems to have gathered -a great deal of his natural history from scraps of hearsay, most -likely included these ancient sorts of British textiles with those -from Gaul, when he tells us that to weave with a good number of -threads, so as to work the cloths called polymita, was first taught -in Alexandria; to divide by checks, in Gaul.</p> - -<p>The native botanical home of cotton is in the east. India -almost everywhere throughout her wide-spread countries arrayed, -as she still arrays, herself in cotton, gathered from a plant of the -mallow family which has its wild growth there; and in the same -vegetable produce the lower orders of people dwelling still further -to the east also clothed themselves.</p> - -<p>Hemp, a plant of the nettle tribe and called by botanists -“cannabis sativa,” was of old well known in the far north of -Germany and throughout the ancient Scandinavia. More than -two thousand years ago we find it thus spoken of by Herodotus: -“Hemp grows in the country of the Scythians, which, except in -the thickness and height of the stalk, very much resembles flax; -in the qualities mentioned, however, the hemp is much superior.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> -It grows in a wild state, and is also cultivated. The Thracians -make clothing of it very like linen cloth; nor could any person, -without being very well acquainted with the substance, say -whether this clothing is made of hemp or flax.” From “cannabis,” -its name in Latin, we have taken our word “canvas,” to -mean any texture woven of hempen thread.</p> - -<p>Although flax is to be found growing wild in many parts of -Great Britain, it is very doubtful whether for many ages our -British forefathers were aware of the use of this plant for clothing -purposes: they would otherwise have left behind them some shred -of linen in one or other of their many graves. Following, as they -did, the usage of being buried in the best of the garments they -were accustomed to, or most loved when alive, their bodies -would have been found dressed in some small article of linen -texture, had they ever worn it.</p> - -<p>We must go to the valley of the Nile if we wish to learn the -earliest history of the finest flaxen textiles. Time out of mind the -Egyptians were famous as well for the growth of flax as for the -beautiful linen which they wove out of it, and which became to -them a most profitable, because so widely sought for, article -of commerce. Their own word “byssus” for the plant itself -became among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latin -nations, the term for linens wrought in Egyptian looms. Long -before the oldest book in the world was written, the tillers of the -ground all over Egypt had been heedful in sowing flax, and -anxious about its harvest. It was one of their staple crops, and -hence was it that, in punishment of Pharaoh, the hail plague -which at the bidding of Moses fell from heaven destroyed -throughout the land the flax just as it was getting ripe. Flax -grew also upon the banks of the Jordan, and in Judæa generally; -and the women of the country, like Rahab, carefully dried it -when pulled, and stacked it for future hackling upon the roofs of -their houses. Nevertheless, it was from Egypt, as Solomon hints, -that the Jews had to draw their fine linen. At a later period,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span> -among the woes foretold to Egypt, the prophet Isaiah warns her -that “they shall be confounded who wrought in combing and -weaving fine linen.”</p> - -<p>How far the reputation of Egyptian workmanship in the craft -of the loom had spread abroad is shown us by the way in which, -besides sacred, heathenish antiquity has spoken of it. Herodotus -says, “Amasis king of Egypt gave to the Minerva of Lindus a -linen corslet well worthy of inspection:” and further on, speaking -of another corslet which Amasis had sent the Lacedæmonians, -he observes that it was of linen and had a vast number of figures -of animals inwoven into its fabric, and was likewise embroidered -with gold and tree-wool. This last was especially to be admired -because each of the twists, although of fine texture, contained -within it 360 threads, all of them clearly visible.</p> - -<p>But we have material as well as written proofs at hand to show -the excellence of old Egyptian work in linen. During late years -many mummies have been brought to this country from Egypt, and -the narrow bandages with which they were found to have been so -admirably and, according even to our modern requirements of -chirurgical fitness, so artistically swathed have been unwrapped. -These bandages are often so fine in their texture as fully to verify -the praises of old bestowed upon the beauty of the Egyptian -loom-work. We learn from Sir Gardiner Wilkinson that “the finest -piece of mummy-cloth, sent to England by Mr. Salt, and now in -the British museum, of linen, appears to be made of yarns of -nearly 100 hanks in the pound, with 140 threads in an inch in the -warp and about 64 in the woof.” Another piece of linen, which -the same distinguished traveller obtained at Thebes, has 152 -threads in the warp and 71 in the woof.</p> - -<p>Although from all antiquity upwards, till within some few years -back, the unbroken belief had been that such mummy-clothing -was undoubtedly made of linen woven out of pure unmixed flax, -some writers led, or rather misled, by a few stray words in -Herodotus (speaking of the corslet of Amasis, quoted just now)<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> -took that historian to mean wool, and argued that Egyptian -textiles wrought a thousand years before were mixed with cotton. -While the question was agitated, specimens of mummy-cloth were -submitted to the judgment of several persons in the weaving -trade deemed most competent to speak upon the matter. Helped -only by the fingers’ feel and the naked eye, some among them -agreed that such textures were really woven of cotton. This -opinion was but shortlived. Other individuals, more philosophical, -went to work on a better path. In the first place they -clearly learned, through the microscope, the exact and never-varying -physical structure of both these vegetable substances. -They found cotton to be in its fibre a transparent tube without -joints, flattened so that its inward surfaces are in contact along -its axis and also twisted spirally round its axis; flax on the contrary -is a transparent tube, jointed like a cane and not flattened -or twisted spirally. Examined in the same way, old samples of -byssus or mummy-bandages from Egypt in every instance were -ascertained to be of fine unmixed flaxen linen.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">For</span> many reasons the history of silk is not only curious but -highly interesting. In the earliest ages even its existence was -unknown, and when discovered the knowledge of it stole forth -from the far east, and straggled westward very slowly. For all -that lengthened period during which their remarkable civilization -lasted, the older Egyptians probably never saw silk: neither they, -nor the Israelites, nor any other of the most ancient kingdoms of -the earth, knew of it in any shape, either as a simple twist or -as a woven stuff. Not the smallest shred of silk has hitherto -been found in the tombs or amid the ruins of the Pharaonic -period.</p> - -<p>No where does Holy Writ, old or new, tell anything of silk -but in one single place, the Apocalypse xviii. 12. It is true that -in the English authorized version we read of “silk” as if spoken -of by Ezekiel xvi. 10, 13; and again, in Proverbs xxxi. 22; yet -there can be no doubt that in both these passages, the word silk -is wrong through the translators misunderstanding the original -Hebrew. The Hebrew word is not so rendered in any ancient -version: and the best Hebraists have decided that silk was not -known by the old Israelites. When St. John speaks of it he -includes it with the gold, and silver, and precious stones, and -pearls, and fine linen and purple which, with many other costly -freights, merchants were wont to bring to Rome.</p> - -<p>It was long after the days of Ezekiel that silk in its raw form<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> -only, made up into hanks, first found its way to Egypt, western -Asia, and eastern Europe.</p> - -<p>We owe to Aristotle the earliest notice of the silkworm, and -although his account be incorrect it has much value, because -he gives us information about the original importation of raw silk -into the western world. Brought from China through India the -silk came by water across the Arabian ocean, up the Red Sea, and -thence over the isthmus of Suez (or perhaps rather by the overland -route, through Persia) to the small but commercial island of -Cos, lying off the coast of Asia minor. Pamphile, the daughter -of Plates, is reported to have first woven silk in Cos. Here, -by female hands, were wrought those light thin gauzes which -became so fashionable; these were stigmatized by some of the -Latin poets, as well as by heathen moralists, as anything but -seemly for women’s wear. Tibullus speaks of them; and Seneca -condemns them: “I behold” he says “silken garments, if garments -they can be called, which are a protection neither for the -body nor for shame.” Later still, and in the Christian era, we -have an echo to the remarks of Seneca in the words of Solinus: -“This is silk, in which at first women but now even men have -been led, by their cravings after luxury, to show rather than to -clothe their bodies.”</p> - -<p>Looking over very ancient manuscripts we often find between -richly gilt illuminations, to keep them from harm or being hurt -through the rubbings of the next leaf, a covering of the thinnest -gauze, just as we now put sheets of silver paper for that purpose -over engravings. It is not impossible that some at least of these -may be shreds from the translucent textiles which found favour in -the world for so long a time during the classic period. The -curious example of such gauzy interleafings in the manuscript of -Theodulph, now at Puy en Velay, will occur perhaps to more -than one of our readers.</p> - -<p>It may be easily imagined that silken garments were brought, -at an early period, to imperial Rome. Not only, however, were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> -the prices asked for them so high that few could afford to buy -such robes for their wives and daughters, but, at first, they were -looked upon as quite unbecoming for men’s wear; hence, by a -law of the Roman senate under Tiberius, it was enacted: “Ne -vestis serica vicos fœdaret.” While noticing how womanish -Caligula became in his dress Suetonius remarks his silken attire: -“Aliquando sericatus et cycladatus.” An exception was made -by some emperors for very great occasions, and both Titus and -Vespasian wore dresses of silk when they celebrated at Rome -their triumph over Judæa. Heliogabalus was the first emperor -who wore whole silk for clothing. Aurelian, on the other hand, -neither had himself in his wardrobe a garment wholly silk nor -gave one to be worn by another. When his own wife begged him -to allow her to have a single mantle of purple silk he replied, -“Far be it from us to allow thread to be reckoned worth its weight -in gold.” For then a pound of gold was the price of a pound of -silk.</p> - -<p>Clothing made wholly or in part out of silk, nevertheless, -became every year more and more sought for. So remunerative -was the trade of weaving the raw material into its various forms, -that, by the revised code of laws for the Roman empire published -<span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 533, a monopoly in it was given to the court, and looms -worked by women were set up in the imperial palace. Thus -Byzantium became and long continued famous for the beauty -of its silken stuffs. Still, the raw silk itself had to be brought -thither from abroad; until two Greek monks, who had lived many -years among the Chinese, learnt the whole process of rearing the -worm. Returning, they brought with them a number of eggs -hidden in their walking-staves; and, carrying them to Constantinople, -they presented these eggs to the emperor who gladly -received them. When hatched the worms were distributed over -Greece and Asia minor, and very soon the western world reared -its own silk. In some places, at least in Greece, the weaving not -only of the finer kinds of cloth but of silk fell into the hands of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> -the Jews. Benjamin of Tudela, writing in 1161, tells us that the -city of Thebes contained about two thousand Jewish inhabitants. -“These are the most eminent manufacturers of silk and purple -cloth in all Greece.”</p> - -<p>South Italy wrought rich silken stuffs by the end of the -eleventh century; for we are told by our countryman Ordericus -Vitalis, who died in the first half of the twelfth century, that -Mainerius, the abbot of St. Evroul at Uzey in Normandy, on -coming home brought with him from Apulia several large pieces -of silk, and gave to his church four of the finest ones, with which -four copes were made for the chanters.</p> - -<p>From a feeling alive in the middle ages throughout the length -and breadth of Christendom, that the best of all things ought to -be given for the service of the Church, the garments of its celebrating -priesthood were, if not always, at least very often wholly -of silk; holosericus. Owing to this fact, we are now able to -learn from the few but tattered shreds before us what elegantly -designed and gorgeous stuffs the foreign mediæval loom could -weave, and what beautiful embroidery our own countrywomen -knew so well how to work. These specimens help us also to -rightly understand the description of the splendid vestments -enumerated with such exactness in the old inventories of our -cathedrals and parish churches, as well as in the early wardrobe -accompts of our kings, and in the wills and bequests of dignified -ecclesiastics and nobility.</p> - -<p>Coming westward among us, these much coveted stuffs brought -with them the several names by which they were commonly known -throughout the east, whether Greece, Asia minor, or Persia. -Hence when we read of samit, ciclatoun, cendal, baudekin, and -other such terms unknown to trade now-a-days, we should bear -in mind that, notwithstanding the wide variety of spelling which -each of these appellations has run through, we arrive at their -true derivations, and discover in what country and by whose -hands they were wrought.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span> -As commerce grew these fine silken textiles were brought to -our markets, and articles of dress were made of silk for men’s as -well as women’s wear among the wealthy. At what period the -raw material came to be imported here, not so much for embroidery -as to be wrought in the loom, we do not exactly know; but -from several sides we learn that our countrywomen of all degrees, -in very early times, busied themselves in weaving. Among the -home occupations of maidens St. Aldhelm, at the end of the -seventh century, includes weaving. In the council at Cloveshoo, -in 747, nuns are exhorted to spend their time in reading or singing -psalms rather than weaving and knitting vainglorious garments of -many colours. By that curious old English book the ‘Ancren -Riwle,’ written towards the end of the twelfth century, ankresses -are forbidden to make purses or blodbendes (which were narrow -strips to bind round the arm after bleeding), to gain friends therewith. -Were it not that the weaving especially of silk was so -generally followed in the cloister by English women, it had been -useless to have so strongly discountenanced the practice.</p> - -<p>But on silk weaving by our women in small hand-looms a -very important witness, especially about several curious specimens -in the great collection at South Kensington, is John Garland, -born at the beginning of the thirteenth century in London, where -many of his namesakes were and are still known. First, a John -Garland, in 1170, held a prebend’s stall in St. Paul’s cathedral. -Another was sheriff at a later period. A third, a wealthy draper -of London, gave freely towards the building of a church in Somersetshire. -A fourth, who died in 1461, lies buried in St. Sythe’s; -and, at the present day, no fewer than twenty-two tradesmen of -that name, of whom six are merchants of high standing in the -city, are mentioned in the London post office directory for the -year 1868. We give these instances as some have tried to rob us -of John Garland by saying he was not an Englishman, though he -has himself told us he was “born in England and brought up in -France.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span> -In a kind of short dictionary drawn up by that writer and -printed at the end of ‘Paris sous Philippe le Bel,’ edited by M. -Geraud, our countryman tells us that, besides the usual homely -textiles, costly cloth-of-gold webs were wrought by women; and -very likely, among their other productions, were those blodbendes -“cingula” the weaving of which had been forbidden to ankresses -and nuns. Perhaps, also, some of the narrow gold-wrought -ribbons in the South Kensington collection, nos. 1233, 1256, -1270, 8569, etc., may have been so employed.</p> - -<p>John Garland’s “cingula” may also mean the rich girdles or -sashes worn by women round the waist, of which there is one -example in the same collection, no. 8571. Of this sort is that -fine border, amber coloured silk and diapered, round a vestment -found in a grave at Durham; which is described by Mr. Raine -in his book about St. Cuthbert as “a thick lace, one inch and a -quarter broad—evidently owing its origin, not to the needle, but -to the loom.” In an after period the same bands are shown on -statuary, and in the illuminated manuscripts of the thirteenth -century: as instances of the narrow girdle, the effigy of a lady in -Romney church, Hants and of Ann of Bohemia in Westminster -abbey may be referred to; both to be found in Hollis’s monumental -effigies of Great Britain; for the band about the head, -the examples in the wood-cuts in Planchè’s British costumes, -p. 116.</p> - -<p>Specimens of such head bands may be seen at South Kensington, -nos. 8569, 8583, 8584, and 8585.</p> - -<p>They are, no doubt, the old snôd of the Anglo-saxon period. -For ladies they were wrought of silk and gold; women of lower -degree wore them of simpler stuff. The silken snood, used in -our own time by young unmarried women in Scotland, is a truthful -witness to the fashion in vogue during Anglo-saxon and later ages -in this country.</p> - -<p>The breeding of the worm and the manufacture of its silk -spread themselves with steady though slow steps over most of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span> -countries which border on the shores of the Mediterranean; so -that, by the tenth century, those processes had reached from the -far east to the uttermost western limits of that sea. Even then, -and a long time after, the natural history of the silkworm became -known but to a very few. Our countryman Alexander Neckham, -abbot of Cirencester <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 1213, was probably the first who tried -to help others to understand the habits of the insect: his brief -explanation may be found in his once popular book ‘De natura -rerum,’ which has been lately reprinted by order of the Master -of the Rolls.</p> - -<div id="ip_13" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 25em;"> - <img src="images/i_013.jpg" width="399" height="358" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Indian woman reeling silk from a wheel.</div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Of</span> the several raw materials which from the earliest periods have -been employed in weaving, though not in such frequency as silk, -one is gold: which, when judiciously brought in, adds not a -barbaric but artistical richness.</p> - -<p>The earliest written notice which we have about the employment -of this precious metal in the loom, or of the way in which -it was wrought for such a purpose, is in the Pentateuch. Among -the sacred vestments made for Aaron was an ephod of gold, violet, -and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, with -embroidered work; and the workman cut also thin plates of gold -and drew them small into strips, that they might be twisted with -the woof of the aforesaid colours. Instead of “strip,” the authorised -protestant version says “wire;” the Douay translation -reads “thread:” but neither can be right, for both of these -English words mean a something round or twisted in the shape -given to the gold before being wove, whereas the metal must have -been worked in quite flat, as we learn from the text.</p> - -<p>The use of gold for weaving, both with linen or by itself, -existed almost certainly among the Egyptians long before the -days of Moses. The psalmist describing the dress of the king’s -daughter (that is, Pharaoh’s daughter), not only speaks of her -being “in raiment of needlework” but that “her clothing is of -wrought gold.” In order to be woven the precious metal was at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span> -first wrought in a flattened, never in a round or wire shape. To -this hour the Chinese and the people of India work the gold into -their stuffs after the ancient form. In the same fashion, even now, -the Italians weave their lama d’oro, or the more glistening toca: -those cloths of gold which to all Asiatic and many European -eyes do not glare with too much garishness, but shine with a glow -that befits the raiment of personages in high station.</p> - -<p>Among the nations of ancient Asia garments made of webs -dyed with the costly purple tint, and interwoven with gold, were -on all grand occasions worn by kings and princes. So celebrated -did the Medes and Persians become in such works of the loom, -that cloths of extraordinary beauty got their several names from -those peoples, and Medean, Lydian, and Persian textiles were -everywhere sought for.</p> - -<p>Writing of the wars carried on in Asia and India by Alexander -the great almost four centuries before the birth of Christ, Quintus -Curtius often speaks about the purple and gold garments worn by -the Persians and more eastern Asiatics. Among the many thousands -of those who came forth from Damascus to the Greek general, -Parmenio, numbers were so clad: “They wore robes splendid -with gold and purple.” All over India the same fashion was -followed in dress. When an Indian king with his two sons came -to Alexander, the three were so arrayed. Princes and the high -nobility, all over the east, are called by Quintus Curtius “purpurati.” -Not only garments but hangings were made of the same -costly fabric. When Alexander wished to give some ambassadors -a splendid reception, the golden couches upon which they lay to -eat their meat were screened with cloths of gold and purple; and -the Indian guests themselves were not less gorgeously clothed in -their own national costume, as they came wearing linen (perhaps -cotton) garments equally resplendent.</p> - -<p>The dress worn by Darius, as he went forth to do battle, is -thus described by the same historian: “the waist part of the -royal purple tunic was wove in white, and upon his mantle of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> -cloth of gold were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at one -another with their beaks.”</p> - -<p>From the east this love for cloth of gold reached the southern -end of Italy, and thence soon got to Rome; where, even under -its early kings, garments made of it were worn. Pliny, speaking -of this rich textile, says: “gold may be spun or woven like -wool, without any wool being mixed with it.” We are told by -Verrius that Tarquinius Priscus rode in triumph in a tunic of gold; -and Agrippina the wife of the emperor Claudius, when he exhibited -the spectacle of a naval combat, sat by him covered with a -robe made entirely of gold woven without any other material. -About the year 1840 the marquis Campagna dug up near Rome -two old graves, in one of which had been buried a Roman lady -of high birth, inferred from the circumstance that all about her -remains were found portions of such fine gold flat thread, once -forming the burial garment with which she had been arrayed for -her funeral.</p> - -<p>When pope Paschal, <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 821, sought for the body of St. Cecily -who was martyred in the year 230, the pontiff found the body in -the catacombs, whole and dressed in a garment wrought all of -gold, with some of her raiment drenched in blood lying at her feet. -In making the foundations for the new St. Peter’s at Rome the -workmen came upon and looked into the marble sarcophagus in -which had been buried Probus Anicius, prefect of the Pretorian, -and his wife Proba Faltonia, each of whose bodies was wrapped -in a winding-sheet woven of pure gold strips. The wife of the -emperor Honorius died sometime about the year 400, and when -her grave was opened, in 1544, the golden tissues in which her -body had been shrouded were taken out and melted, amounting -in weight to thirty-six pounds. The late father Marchi also found -among the remains of St. Hyacinthus several fragments of the -same kind of golden web.</p> - -<p>Childeric, the second king of the Merovingean dynasty, was -buried <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 482, at Tournai. In the year 1653 his grave was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span> -discovered, and amid the earth about it so many remains of pure -gold strips were turned up that there is every ground for thinking -that the Frankish king was wrapped in a mantle of golden stuff -for his burial. We have reason to conclude that the strips of -pure gold out of which the burial cloak of Childeric was woven -were not round but flat, from the fact that in a Merovingean -burial ground at Envermeu the distinguished archæologist Cochet -a few years ago came upon the grave once filled by a lady whose -head had been wreathed with a fillet of pure golden web, the -tissue of which is thus described: “Ces fils aussi brillants et aussi -frais que s’ils sortaient de la main de l’ouvrier, n’étaient ni étirés -ni cordés. Ils étaient plats et se composaient tout simplement -de petites lanières d’or d’un millimètre de largeur, coupée à même -une feuille d’or épaisse de moins d’un dixième de millimètre. La -longeur totale de quelques-uns atteignait parfois jusqu’à quinze -ou dix-huit centimètres.”</p> - -<p>Our own country can furnish an example of this kind of golden -textile. On Chessel down, in the isle of Wight, when Mr. Hillier -was making some researches in an old Anglo-saxon place of -burial, the diggers found pieces of gold strips, thin and quite flat, -which are figured in M. l’abbé Cochet’s learned book just mentioned. -Of the same rich texture must have been the vestment -given to St. Peter’s at Rome in the middle of the ninth century, -and described in the Liber Pontificalis as made of the purest -gold, and covered with precious stones: “Carolus rex sancto -Apostolo obtulit ex purissimo auro et gemmis constructam -vestem, etc.”</p> - -<p>Such a weaving of pure gold was, here in England, followed -certainly as late as the beginning of the tenth century; very likely -much later. In the chapter library belonging to Durham cathedral -may be seen a stole and maniple, which bear these inscriptions: -“Ælfflaed fieri precepit. Pio episcopo Fridestano.” -Fridestan was consecrated bishop of Winchester <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 905. With -these webs under his eye, Mr. Raine writes thus: “In the first,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> -the ground work of the whole is woven exclusively with thread of -gold. I do not mean by thread of gold, the silver-gilt wire frequently -used in such matters, but real gold thread, if I may so -term it, not round, but flat. This is the character of the whole -web, with the exception of the figures, the undulating cloud-shaped -pedestal upon which they stand, the inscriptions and the -foliage; for all of which, however surprising it may appear, vacant -spaces have been left by the loom, and they themselves afterwards -inserted with the needle.” Further on, in his description of a -girdle, the same writer tells us: “Its breadth is exactly seven-eighths -of an inch. It has evidently proceeded from the loom; -and its two component parts are a flattish thread of pure gold, -and a thread of scarlet silk.” Another very remarkable piece, a -fragment (probably) of a stole, was also found lately at Durham in -the grave of bishop Pudsey, who was buried about the middle of -the twelfth century. This was exhibited at the Society of antiquaries, -in the present year, 1875. It is made of rich silk, with a -diaper pattern in gold thread.</p> - -<p>This love for such glittering attire, not only for sacred use but -secular wear, lasted long in England. The golden webs went -under different names; at first they were called “ciclatoun,” “siglaton,” -or “siklatoun,” as the writer’s fancy led him to spell the -Persian word common for them at the time throughout the east.</p> - -<p>By the old English ritual plain cloth of gold was allowed, as -now, to be used for white when that colour happened to be -ordered by the rubric. Thus in the reign of Richard the second, -among the vestments at the chapel of St. George, Windsor castle, -there was “one good vestment of cloth of gold:” and St. Paul’s, -London, had at the end of the thirteenth century two amices -embroidered with pure gold.</p> - -<p>This splendid web was often wrought so thick and strong -that each string, whether it happened to be of hemp or of silk had -in the warp six threads, while the weft was of flat gold shreds. -Hence such a texture was called “samit,” a word shortened from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> -its first and old Byzantine name “exsamit.” The quantity of this -costly cloth kept in the wardrobe of Edward the first was so great, -that the nobles of that king were allowed to buy it out of the -royal stores; for instance, four pieces at thirty shillings each were -sold to Robert de Clifford, and another piece at the same price -to Thomas de Cammill. Not only Asia minor but the island of -Cyprus, the city of Lucca, and Moorish Spain, sent us these rich -tissues. With other things left at Haverford castle by Richard -the second were twenty-five cloths of gold of divers suits, of -which four came from Cyprus, the others from Lucca: “xxv. -draps d’or de diverses suytes dount iiii. de <i>Cipres</i> les autres de -<i>Lukes</i>.” How Edward the fourth liked cloth of gold for his personal -wear may be gathered from his wardrobe accounts, edited -by Nicolas; and the lavish use of this stuff ordered by Richard -the third for his coronation is recorded in the Antiquarian Repertory.</p> - -<p>A “gowne of cloth-of-gold, furred with pawmpilyon, ayenst -Corpus Xpi day” was bought for Elizabeth of York, afterwards -queen of Henry the seventh, for her to wear as she walked in the -procession on that great festival. The affection shown by Henry -the eighth and all our nobility, men and women, of the time, for -cloth of gold in their garments was unmistakingly set forth in -many of the paintings brought together in the very instructive -exhibition of national portraits in 1866, in the South Kensington -museum. The price of this stuff seems to have been costly; for -princess (afterwards queen) Mary, thirteen years before she came -to the throne, “payed to Peycocke, of London, for xix yerds -iii. qřt of clothe of golde at xxxviij.š the yerde, xxxvij<i>li.</i> x<i>s.</i> vj<i>d.</i>” -And for “a yerde and d<sup>r</sup> qřt of clothe of siluer xl<i>s.</i>”</p> - -<p>As between common silk and satin there runs a broad difference -in appearance, one being dull, the other smooth and glossy, -so there is a great distinction to be made among cloths of gold; -some are, so to say, dead; others, brilliant and sparkling. When -the gold is twisted into its silken filament it takes the deadened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> -look; when the flattened, filmy strip of metal is rolled about it so -evenly as to bring its edges close to one another, it seems to be -one unbroken wire of gold, sparkling and lustrous. This kind -during the middle ages went by the term of Cyprus gold; and rich -samits woven with it were allied damasks of Cyprus.</p> - -<p>As time went on cloths of gold had other names. What the -thirteenth century called, first, “ciclatoun,” then “baudekin,” -afterward “nak,” was called, two hundred years later, “tissue”: -a bright shimmering golden textile. The very thin smooth paper -which still goes by the name of tissue-paper was originally made -to be put between the folds of this rich stuff to prevent fraying or -tarnish, when laid by.</p> - -<p>The gorgeous and entire set of vestments presented to the -altar at St. Alban’s abbey, by Margaret, duchess of Clarence, -<span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 1429, and made of the cloth of gold commonly called -“tyssewys,” must have been as remarkable for the abundance and -purity of the gold in its texture, as for the splendour of the -precious stones set on it and the exquisite beauty of its embroideries. -The large number of vestments made out of gold -tissue, and of crimson, light blue, purple, green, and black, once -belonging to York cathedral, are all duly registered in the valuable -“Fabric rolls” of that church lately published by the Surtees -society.</p> - -<p>Among the many rich and costly vestments in Lincoln cathedral, -some were made of this sparkling golden tissue contra-distinguished -in its inventory from the duller cloth of gold, thus: -“Four good copes of blew tishew with orphreys of red cloth of -gold, wrought with branches and leaves of velvet;” “a chesable -with two tunacles of blew tishew having a precious orphrey of -cloth of gold.”</p> - -<p>Silken textures ornamented with designs in copper gilt thread -were manufactured and honestly sold for what they really were: -of such inferior quality we find mention in the inventory of vestments -at Winchester cathedral, drawn up by order of Henry the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span> -eighth, where we read of “twenty-eight copys of white bawdkyne, -woven with copper gold.” Another imitation of woof of gold was -possibly fraudulent. This, originally perhaps Saracenic, was practised -by the Spaniards of the south, and was not easily discovered. -The very finest skins were sought out for the purpose, as thin as -that now rare kind of vellum called “uterine” by collectors of -manuscripts. These were heavily gilt and then cut into very -narrow strips, to be used instead of the true golden thread.</p> - -<p>The gilding of fine silk and canvas in imitation of cloth of -gold, like our gilding of wood and other substances, was also -sometimes resorted to for splendour’s sake on temporary occasions; -such, for instance, as some stately procession or a solemn -burial service. Mr. Raine tells us he found in a grave at Durham, -among other textiles, “a robe of thinnish silk; the ground colour -of the whole is amber; and the ornamental parts were literally -covered with <i>leaf gold</i>, of which there remained distinct and very -numerous portions.” In the churchyard of Cheam, Surrey, in -1865, the skeleton of a priest was found who had been buried -some time during the fourteenth century; around the waist was a -flat girdle made of brown silk that had been gilt. In the ‘Romaunt -of the rose’ translated by Chaucer, dame Gladnesse is -thus <span class="locked">described:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i6">—in an over gilt samite<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Clad she was;<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">and on a piece of German orphrey-web, in the South Kensington -collection, no. 1373, and probably made at Cologne in the sixteenth -century, the gold is laid by the gilding process.</p> - -<p>Silver also, as well as gold, was hammered out into very thin -sheets which were cut into narrow long shreds to be woven, -unmixed with anything else, into a web for garments. Of this -we have a striking illustration in the Acts of the apostles, where -St. Luke, speaking of Herod Agrippa, says that he presented himself -to the people arrayed in kingly apparel, who, to flatter him,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span> -shouted that his was the voice not of a man but of a god; and -forthwith he was smitten by a loathsome disease which shortly -killed him. This royal robe, as Josephus informs us, was a tunic -made of silver and wonderful in its texture.</p> - -<p>Intimately connected with the raw materials, and how they -were wrought in the loom, is the question about the time when -wire drawing was found out. At what period and among what -people the art of working up pure gold, or gilded silver, into -a long, round, hair-like thread—into what may be correctly called -“wire”—began, is quite unknown. That with their mechanical -ingenuity the ancient Egyptians bethought themselves of some -method for the purpose is not unlikely. From Sir Gardiner -Wilkinson we learn that at Thebes were found objects which appeared -to be made of gold wire. We may fairly presume that the -work upon the corslets of king Amasis, already spoken of as done -by the needle in gold, required by its minuteness that the metal -should be not flat but in the shape of wire. By delicate management -perhaps of the fingers, the narrow flat strips might have -been pinched or doubled up so that the two edges should meet, -and then rubbed between two pieces of hard material a golden -wire of the required fineness would be produced. In Etruscan and -Greek jewellery wire is often to be found; but in all instances it -is so well shaped and so even that it must have been fashioned by -some rolling process. The filigree work of the middle ages is -often very fine and delicate. Probably the embroidery which we -read of in the descriptions of the vestments belonging to our old -churches (for instance “An amice embroidered with pure gold”) -was worked with gold wire. To go back to Anglo-saxon times in -this country, such gold wire would seem to have been then well -known and employed, since in Peterborough minster there were -two golden altar-cloths: “ii. gegylde þeofad sceatas;” and there -were at Ely cathedral “two girdles of gold wire” in the reign of -William Rufus.</p> - -<p>The first use of a wire-drawing machine seems to have been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span> -about the year 1360, at Nuremberg; and it was not until two hundred -years after, in 1560, that the method was brought to England. -Two examples of a stuff with pure wire in it may be seen in the -South Kensington collection, nos. 8581 and 8228.</p> - -<p>The process of twining long narrow strips of gold, or gilt -silver, round a line of silk or flax and thus producing gold thread -is much earlier than has been supposed; and when Attalus’s name -was bestowed upon a new method of interweaving gold with wool -or linen, thence called “Attalic,” it was probably because he -suggested to the weaver the introduction of the long-known -golden thread as a woof into the textiles from his loom. It would -seem, from a passage in Claudian, that ladies at an early Christian -period used to spin their own gold thread. Writing at the end of -the fourth century, the poet thus compliments Proba:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The joyful mother plies her learned hands,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And works all o’er the trabea golden bands,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Draws the thin strips to all their length of gold,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To make the metal meaner threads enfold.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The superior quality of some gold thread was known to the -mediæval world under the name of the place where it had been -made. Thus we find mention at one time of Cyprus gold thread; -“a vestment embroidered with eagles of gold of Cyprus:” later, -of Venice gold thread, “for frenge of gold of Venys at vj<i>s.</i> the -ounce;” and again, “one cope of unwatered camlet laid with -strokes of Venis gold.” What may have been their difference -cannot now be pointed out: perhaps the Cyprian thread was -esteemed because its somewhat broad shred of flat gold was -wound about the hempen twist beneath it so nicely as to have -the smooth unbroken look of gold wire; while the manufacture of -Venice showed everywhere the twisting of common thread.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">In</span> earlier times, as at present, silks had various names, distinguishing -either their kind of texture, their colour, the design -woven on them, the country from which they were brought, or the -use for which, on particular occasions, they happened to be -especially set apart.</p> - -<p>All these designations are of foreign growth; some sprang up -in the seventh and following centuries at Byzantium; some are -half Greek, half Latin, jumbled together; others, borrowed from -the east, are so shortened, so badly and variously spelt, that their -Arabic or Persian derivation can be hardly recognized at present. -Yet without some slight knowledge of them we hardly understand -a great deal belonging to trade, and the manners of the -times glanced at by old writers; much less can we see the true -meaning of many passages in our mediæval English poetry.</p> - -<p>Among the terms significative of the kind of web, or mode -of getting up some sorts of silk, we have <i>Holosericum</i>, the texture -of which is warp and woof wholly pure silk. From a passage in -Lampridius we learn that so early as the reign of Alexander -Severus the difference between “vestes holosericæ” and “subsericæ” -was strongly marked, and that <i>subsericum</i> implied that -the texture was not entirely but in part, probably the woof, -of silk.</p> - -<p><i>Examitum</i>, <i>xamitum</i>, or, as it is called in old English documents, -<i>samit</i>, is made up of two Greek words, ἑξ, “six,” and μίτοι,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> -“threads;” the number of the strings in the warp of the texture. -It is evident that stuffs woven so thick must have been of the best -quality. Hence, to say of any silken tissue that it was “examitum” -or “samit” meant that it was six-threaded, and therefore -costly and splendid. At the end of the thirteenth and beginning -of the fourteenth centuries “examitum” was much used -for vestments in Evesham abbey, as we gather from the chronicle -of that house, published lately for the Master of the Rolls. -About the same period among the best copes, chasubles, and -vestments in St. Paul’s, London, many were made of samit. So, -again among the nine gorgeous chasubles bequeathed to Durham -cathedral by its bishop in 1195, the chief was of red samit -superbly embroidered. And, to name no more, we find in the -valuable inventory, lately published, of the rich vestments belonging -to Exeter cathedral in 1277 that the best of its numerous -chasubles, dalmatics, and copes, were made of samit. In a later -document, <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 1327, this precious silk is termed “samicta.”</p> - -<p>The poets did not forget to array their knights and ladies in -this gay attire. When Sir Lancelot of the lake brought back -Gawain to king Arthur:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Launcelot and the queen were cledde<br /></span> -<span class="i2">In robes of a rich wede,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of samyte white, with silver shredde:<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The other knights everichone,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">In samyte green of heathen land,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And their kirtles, ride alone.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>In his ‘Romaunt of the rose,’ Chaucer describes the dress -of Mirth thus:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Full yong he was, and merry of thought<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And in samette, with birdes wrought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And with gold beaten full fetously,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">His bodie was clad full richely.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Many of the beautifully figured damasks in the South Kensington<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span> -collection are what anciently were known as “samits;” and -if they really be not six-thread, according to the etymology of -their name, it is because at a very early period the stuffs so called -ceased to be woven of such a thickness.</p> - -<p>The strong silks of the present day with the thick thread called -“organzine” for the woof, and a slightly thinner thread known by -the technical name of “tram” for the warp, may be taken to -represent the old “examits.”</p> - -<p>No less remarkable for the lightness of its texture than was -the samit on account of the thick substance of its web, and quite -as much sought after, was another kind of thin glossy silken stuff -“wrought in the orient,” and here called first by the Persian name -which came with it, <i>ciclatoun</i>, that is, bright and shining; but -afterwards <i>sicklatoun</i>, <i>siglaton</i>, <i>cyclas</i>. Sometimes a woof of golden -thread lent it still more glitter; and it was used both for ecclesiastical -vestments and for secular articles of stately dress. In the -inventory of St. Paul’s cathedral, 1295, there was a cope made of -cloth of gold, called ciclatoun: “capa de panno aureo qui vocatur -ciclatoun.” Among the booty carried off by the English when -they sacked the camp of Saladin,</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">King Richard took the pavillouns<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of sendal, and of cyclatoun.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">In his ‘Rime of Sire Thopas,’ Chaucer says</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Of Brugges were his hosen broun<br /></span> -<span class="i0">His robe was of ciclatoun.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Though so light and thin, this cloak of “ciclatoun” was often -embroidered in silk and had golden ornaments sewn on it; we -read in the ‘Metrical romances’ of a maiden who sat</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">In a robe ryght ryall bowne<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Of a red syclatowne<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Be hur fader syde;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A coronell on hur hedd set,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Hur clothys with bestes and byrdes wer bete<br /></span> -<span class="i2">All abowte for pryde.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> -Knights in the field wore over their armour a long sleeveless -gown slit up almost to the waist on both sides; sometimes of -“samit,” often of “cendal,” oftener still of “ciclatourn:” and the -name of the gown itself, shortened from the material, became -known as “cyclas.” Matthew of Westminster records that when -Edward the first knighted his son in Westminster abbey he sent -to three hundred sons of the nobility, whom the prince was afterward -to dub knights in the same church, a most splendid gift of -attire, fitting for the ceremony; among which were clycases -woven with gold. That these garments were very light and thin -we gather from the quiet wit of John of Salisbury, who jeers a man -affecting to perspire in the depth of winter, though clad in nothing -but his fine cyclas.</p> - -<p>Not so costly was a silken stuff known as <i>cendal</i>, <i>cendallus</i>, -<i>sandal</i>, <i>sandalin</i>, <i>cendatus</i>, <i>syndon</i>, <i>syndonus</i>, as the way of writing -the word altered as time went on. When Sir Guy of Warwick -was knighted,</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">And with him twenty good gomes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Knightes’ and barons’ sons,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of cloth of Tars and rich cendale<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Was the dobbing in each deal.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The Roll of Caerlaverock tells us that among the grand array -which joined Edward the first at Carlisle in 1300, there was to be -seen many a rich caparison embroidered upon cendal and samit:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">La ot meint riche guarnement<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Brodé sur sendaus e samis:<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">and Lacy, earl of Lincoln, leading the first squadron, hoisted his -banner made of yellow cendal blazoned with a lion rampant purpre</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Baner out de un cendal safrin,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O un lioun rampant purprin.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>When Sir Bevis of Southampton wished to keep himself -unknown at a tournament, we thus read of him:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Sir Bevis disguised all his weed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of black cendal and of rede,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Flourished with roses of silver bright, etc.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Of the ten silken albs which Hugh Pudsey left to Durham, -two were made of samit and two of cendal, or as the bishop calls -it, <i>sandal</i>. Exeter cathedral had a red cope with a green lining -of sandal and a cape of sandaline: “Una capa de sandalin.” -Piers Ploughman speaks thus to the women of his day:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">And ye lovely ladies<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With youre long fyngres,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That ye have silk and sandal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To sowe, whan tyme is.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Chesibles for chapeleyns,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Chirches to honoure, etc.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>A stronger kind of cendal was wrought and called, in the Latin -inventories of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, “cendatus -afforciatus:” there was a cope of this material at St. Paul’s, and -another cope of cloth of gold was lined with it.</p> - -<p><i>Syndonus</i> or <i>Sindonis</i>, as it would seem, was a bettermost sort -of cendal. St. Paul’s had a chasuble as well as a cope of this -fabric.</p> - -<p><i>Taffeta</i>, if not a thinner, was a less costly silken stuff than -cendal; which word, to this day, is used in the Spanish language, -and is defined to be a thin transparent textile of silk or linen: -“Tela de seda ó lino muy delgada y trasparente.” Taffeta and -cendal were used for linings in mediæval England. Chaucer says -of his “doctour of phisike,”</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">In sanguin and in perse he clad was alle<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Lined with taffeta and with sendalle.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><i>Sarcenet</i> during the fifteenth century took by degrees the place -of cendal, at least here in England.</p> - -<p>By some improvement in their weaving of cendal, the Saracens -in the south of Spain earned for this light web a good name in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span> -our markets, and it became much sought for here. Among other -places, York cathedral had several sets of curtains for its high -altar, “de sarcynet.” At first this stuff was called from its makers -“saracenicum.” But, in Anglicising, the name was shortened -into “sarcenet;” a word which we use now for the thin silk -which of old was known among us as “cendal.”</p> - -<p><i>Satin</i>, though far from being so common as other silken -textures, was not unknown to England in the middle ages; and -Chaucer speaks of it in his ‘Man of lawes tale:’</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">In Surrie whilom dwelt a compagnie<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of chapmen rich, and therto sad and trewe,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That wide were senten hir spicerie,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Clothes of gold, and satins rich of hewe.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>When satin first appeared in trade it was called round the -shores of the Mediterranean “aceytuni.” The term slipped -through early Italian lips into “zetani;” coming westward this -name, in its turn, dropped its “i,” and smoothed itself into “satin.” -So, also, it is called in France; while in Italy it now goes by the -name of “raso,” and the Spaniards keep up its first designation.</p> - -<p>In the earlier inventories of church vestments no mention can -be found of satin; but this fine silk is spoken of among the various -rich bequests made to his cathedral at Exeter by bishop Grandison, -about 1340; though later, and especially in the royal wardrobe -accompts, it is very commonly specified. Hence we may fairly -assume that till the fourteenth century satin was unknown in -England; afterwards it met with much favour. Flags were made -of it. On board the stately ship in which Beauchamp earl of -Warwick, in the reign of Henry the sixth, sailed from England to -France, there were flying “three penons of satten,” besides “sixteen -standards of worsted entailed with a bear and a chain,” and -a great streamer of forty yards in length and eight yards in breadth, -with a great bear and griffin holding a ragged staff poudred full of -ragged staffs. Like other silken textiles, satin seems to have -been in some instances interwoven with flat gold thread: for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span> -example, Lincoln had of the gift of one of its bishops eighteen -copes of red tinsel sattin with orphreys of gold.</p> - -<p>Though not often, yet sometimes we read of a silken stuff -called <i>cadas</i>, <i>carda</i>, <i>carduus</i>, and used for inferior purposes. The -outside silk on the cocoon is of a poor quality compared with the -inner filaments, from which it is kept apart in reeling, and set -aside for other uses. We find mention of such cloths as belonging -to the cathedrals of Exeter and St. Paul’s in the thirteenth century. -More frequently, instead of being spun, it served as wadding -in dress: on the barons at the siege of Caerlaverock might be -seen many a rich gambeson garnished with silk, cadas, and -cotton:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Meint riche gamboison guarni<br /></span> -<span class="i0">De soi, de cadas e coton.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The quantity of card purchased for the royal wardrobe, in the -year 1299, is set forth in the Liber quotidianus.</p> - -<p><i>Camoca</i>, <i>camoka</i>, <i>camak</i>, as the name is differently written, was -a textile of which in England we hear nothing before the latter -end of the fourteenth century. No sooner did it make its appearance -than this camoca rose into great repute; the Church used it -for her vestments, and royalty employed it for dress as well as in -adorning palaces, especially in draping beds of state. In the year -1385, besides some smaller articles, the royal chapel in Windsor -castle had a whole set of vestments and other ornaments for the -altar, of white camoca; and our princes must have arrayed themselves, -on grand occasions, in the same material; for Herod, in -one of the Coventry mysteries—the adoration of the Magi—is -made to boast of himself: “In kyrtyl of cammaka kynge am I -cladde.” But it was in draping its state-beds that our ancient -royalty showed its affection for camoca. Edward the Black -Prince bequeaths to his confessor “a large bed of red camoca -with our arms embroidered at each corner,” and the prince’s -mother leaves to another of her sons “a bed of red camak.” -Edward lord Despencer, in 1375, wills to his wife “my great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span> -bed of blue camaka, with griffins, also another bed of camaka, -striped with white and black.” What may have been the real -texture of this stuff, thought so magnificent, we do not positively -know, but it was probably woven of fine camels’ hair and silk, -and of Asiatic workmanship.</p> - -<p>From this mixed web we pass to another more precious, the -<i>Cloth of Tars</i>; which we presume to have been the forerunner of -the now celebrated cashmere, and together with silk made of the -downy wool of goats reared in several parts of Asia, but especially -in Tibet.</p> - -<p><i>Velvet</i> is a silken textile, the history of which has still to be -written. Of the country whence it first came, or the people who -were the earliest to hit upon the happy way of weaving it, we -know nothing. A very old piece was in the beautiful crimson -cope embroidered by English hands in the fourteenth century, -now kept at the college of Mount St. Mary, Chesterfield.</p> - -<p>We are probably indebted to central Asia, or perhaps China, -for velvet as well as satin; and among the earliest places in -Europe where it was manufactured, were perhaps first the south of -Spain, and then Lucca.</p> - -<p>In the earliest of the inventories which we have of church -vestments, that of Exeter cathedral, 1277, velvet is not spoken of; -but in St. Paul’s, London, <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 1295, there is some notice of -velvet with its kindred web “fustian,” for chasubles. Velvet is -for the first time mentioned at Exeter in 1327, but as in two -pieces not made up, of which some yards had been then sold for -vestment-making. From the middle of the fourteenth century -velvet is of common occurrence.</p> - -<p>The name itself of velvet, “velluto,” seems to point out Italy -as the market through which we got it from the east, for the word -in Italian indicates something which is hairy or shaggy, like an -animal’s skin.</p> - -<p><i>Fustian</i> was known at the end of the thirteenth century. St. -Paul’s cathedral at that date had “a white chasuble of fustian.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span> -In an English sermon preached at the beginning of the same -century great blame is found with the priest who had his chasuble -made of middling fustian: “þe meshakele of medeme fustian.” -As then wove, fustian had a short nap on it, and one of the -domestic uses to which during the middle ages it had been put -was for bed clothes, as thick undersheets. Lady Bargavenny -bequeaths, in 1434, “A bed of gold of swans, two pair sheets of -raynes (fine linen, made at Rheims), a pair of fustians, six pair of -other sheets, etc.” It is not unlikely that this stuff may have -hinted to the Italians the way of weaving silk in the same manner, -and so of producing velvet. Other nations took up the manufacture, -and the weaving of velvet was wonderfully improved. It -became diapered and, upon a ground of silk or of gold, the -pattern came out in a bold manner, with a raised pile. At last, -the most beautiful of all manners of diapering, namely, making -the pattern to show itself in a double pile, one pile higher than -the other and of the same tint, now, as formerly, known as velvet -upon velvet, was brought to its highest perfection; and velvets in -this fine style were wrought in greatest excellence in Italy, in -Spain and in Flanders. Our old inventories often specify these -differences in the making of the web. York cathedral had “four -copes of crimson velvet plaine, with orphreys of clothe of goulde, -for standers;” “a greene cushion of raised velvet;” and “a cope -of purshed velvet (redd):” “purshed” means that the velvet was -raised in a network pattern.</p> - -<p><i>Diaper</i> was a silken fabric, held everywhere in high estimation -during many hundred years, both abroad and in England. We -know this from documents beginning with the eleventh century: -but the origin of the name is uncertain. Possibly, in order to -indicate a one-coloured yet patterned silk, which diaper is, the -Byzantine Greeks of the early middle ages invented the term -διαςπρὸν, diaspron, from διαςπαω, I separate, to signify “what -distinguishes or separates itself from things about it,” as every -pattern does on a one-coloured silk. With this textile the Latins<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span> -took the name for it from the Greeks and called it “diasper,” -which in English has been moulded into “diaper.” In the year -1066 the empress Agnes gave to Monte Cassino a diaper-chasuble -of cloth of gold, “planetam diasperam.” This early mention of -the name seems to be a conclusive argument against those writers -who derive it from Yprès, in Flanders; a town celebrated for linen -manufactures at a somewhat later period: yet even then, according -to Chaucer, rivalled by workwomen in England. He tells us -of the “good wif of Bathe” that</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Of cloth-making she hadde swiche an haunt<br /></span> -<span class="i0">She passed hem of Ipres and of Gaunt.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">In the South Kensington collection, no. 1270 shows how these -cloths were wrought; and it would seem that cloth of gold was -often diapered with a pattern, at least in the time of Chaucer, who -describes it on the housing of a king’s horse:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i18">——trapped in stele,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Covered with cloth of gold diapred wele.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Church inventories make frequent mention of such diapered -silks for vestments. Exeter cathedral had a cope of white diaper -with half moons, the gift of bishop Bartholomew, in 1161. Sometimes -the pattern of the diapering is noticed; for instance, at St. -Paul’s, “a chasuble of white diaper, with coupled parrots in places, -among branches.” Probably the most elaborate specimen of -diaper-weaving on record is that which Edmund, earl of Cornwall, -gave to the same cathedral; “a cope of a certain diaper of Antioch -colour covered with trees and diapered birds, of which the heads, -breasts and feet, as well as the flowers on the tress, were woven -in gold thread.”</p> - -<p>By degrees the word “diaper” became widened in its meaning. -Not only all sorts of textile, whether of silk, of linen, or of -worsted, but the walls of a room were said to be diapered when -the self-same ornament was repeated and sprinkled well over it.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> -Thus, in ‘the squire of low degree,’ the king of Hungary promises -his daughter a chair or carriage, that</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Shal be coverd wyth velvette reede<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And clothes of fyne golde al about your heede,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With damaske whyte and azure blewe<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Well dyaperd with lylles newe.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The bow for arrows held by Sweet-looking is, in Chaucer’s -‘Romaunt of the rose,’ described as</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i12">painted well, and thwitten<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And over all diapred and written, etc.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>So now, we call our fine table linen “diaper” because it is -figured with flowers and fruits. Sometimes silks diapered were -called “fygury:” as the cope mentioned in the York fabric rolls, -“una capa de sateyn fygury.”</p> - -<div id="ip_34" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 17em;"> - <img src="images/i_034.jpg" width="263" height="290" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Ladies spinning and weaving; from a manuscript of the fifteenth century.</div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">There</span> are some very ancient names, distinguishing different -textiles, which require notice: such as “chrysoclavus,” “stauraccin,” -“polystaurium,” “gammadion” or “gammadiæ,” “de -quadruplo,” “de octoplo,” and “de fundato.” Textiles of silk and -gold are, over and over again, enumerated as then commonly -known under such names, in the ‘Liber pontificalis seu de gestis -Romanorum pontificum:’ a book of great value for every student -of early Christian art-work, and in particular of textiles and embroidery.</p> - -<p>The <i>Chrysoclavus</i>, or golden nail-head, was a remnant which -lingered a long time among the ornaments embroidered on ecclesiastical -vestments and robes for royal wear of that once so -coveted “latus clavus,” or broad nail-head-like purple round -patch worn upon the outward garment of the old Roman dignitaries. -In the court of Byzantium this mark of dignity was -elevated, from being purple on white, into gold upon purple. -Hence it came that all rich purple silks, woven or embroidered -with the “clavus” in gold, were known from their pattern as gold -nail-headed, or chrysoclavus; and silken textiles of Tyrian dye, -sprinkled all over with large round spots, were once in great -demand. Pope Leo in 795, among his several other gifts to the -churches at Rome, bestowed a great number of altar frontals -made of this purple and gold fabric, as we are told by Anastasius<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> -in the Liber pontificalis. Sometimes these “clavi” were made so -large that upon their golden ground an event in the life of a saint -or the saint’s head was embroidered, and then the whole piece -was called “sigillata,” or <i>sealed</i>.</p> - -<p><i>Stauracin</i> or “stauracinus,” taking its name from σταυρὸς -the Greek for “cross,” was a silken stuff figured with small plain -crosses, and therefore from their number sometimes farther distinguished -by the word signifying that meaning in Greek, <i>Polystauron</i>.</p> - -<p>The crosses woven on the various fabrics were sometimes of -the simplest shape; oftener they were designed after an elaborate -type with a symbolic meaning about it that afforded an especial -name to the stuffs upon which they were figured.</p> - -<p>This name <i>Gammadion</i>, or <i>Gammadiæ</i>, was a word applied as -often to the pattern upon silks as to the figures wrought upon -gold and silver.</p> - -<p>In the Greek alphabet the capital letter gamma takes the -shape of an exact right angle thus, Γ. Being so, many writers -have seen in it an emblem of our Lord as our corner-stone. -Following this idea artists at a very early period struck out a way -of forming the cross after several shapes by various combinations -with it of this letter Γ. Four of these gammas put so;</p> - -<div id="ip_36" class="figcenter tight" style="max-width: 4em;"> - <img src="images/i_036.jpg" width="54" height="49" alt="" /></div> - -<p class="in0">fall into the shape of the so-called Greek cross; and in this form it -was woven upon the textiles denominated <i>stauracinæ</i>; or patterned -with a cross. Being one of the four same-shaped elements -of the cross’s figure, the part was significant of the whole: and as -an emblem of the corner-stone, our Lord, the gamma or Γ, was -frequently shown at one edge of the tunic worn by the apostles -in ancient mosaics; wherein sometimes we find, in place of the -single gamma, the figure H; another combination of the four -gammas in the cross. Whatsoever, therefore, whether of metal -or of silk, was found to be marked in this or any other way of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span> -putting the gammas together, or with only a single one, was -called “gammadion,” or “gammadiæ.”</p> - -<p>Ancient ingenuity for throwing its favourite gamma into other -combinations, and thus bringing out pretty and graceful patterns to -be wrought on all sorts of work for ecclesiastical use, did not stop -here. In the Liber pontificalis of Anastasius we meet not unfrequently -with accounts of vestments, etc. “de stauracin seu quadrapolis”; -or “de quadrapolo”; or “de octapolo.” The author here -evidently means to imply a distinction between a something amounting -to four, and to eight, in or upon these textiles. It cannot be to -say that one fabric was woven with four, the other with eight -threads; had that been so meant, the fact would probably then have -been explained by a word constructed like “examitus,” p. 24. As -the contrast is not in the texture it must be in the pattern of the -stuffs; that is, in the number of the crosses: and we further -see why “stauracin” and “de quadrapolis” are interchangeable -terms.</p> - -<p>At the end of Du Cange’s glossary is an engraving of a -work of Greek art; plate IX. Here St. John Chrysostom stands -between St. Nicholas and St. Basil. All three are arrayed in their -liturgical garments, which being figured with crosses are of the -textile called of old “stauracin;” but there is a marked difference -in the way in which the crosses are inserted. The crosses are -arranged upon the vestment of St. John thus;</p> - -<div id="ip_37" class="figcenter tight" style="max-width: 7em;"> - <img src="images/i_037.jpg" width="112" height="62" alt="" /></div> - -<p class="in0">St. Nicholas and St. Basil have chasubles which are not only worked -all over with crosses made with gammas, but are surrounded with -other gammas joined so as to edge in the crosses, thus;</p> - -<div id="ip_37b" class="figcenter tight" style="max-width: 5em;"> - <img src="images/i_037b.jpg" width="76" height="71" alt="" /></div> - -<p>As four gammas only are necessary to form all the crosses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span> -upon St. John’s vestment, we there see the textile called “stauracin -de quadruplo,” or the stuff figured with a cross of four -(gammas); while as eight of these letters are required for the -pattern on the others, we have in them an example of the “stauracin -de octapolo,” or “octapulo,” a fabric with a pattern composed -of eight gammas.</p> - -<p>A far more ancient and universal shape fashioned out of the -repetition of the same letter Γ, is that known as <i>Gammadion</i>; or, -as commonly called at one time in England, the <i>Filfot</i>. Several -pieces in the South Kensington collection exhibit on them some -modification of it: for example, nos. 1261, 1325, 7052, 829<span class="smcap smaller">A</span>, -8305, 8635, and 8652. Its figure is made out of the usual four -gammas, so that they should fall together thus;</p> - -<div id="ip_38" class="figcenter tight" style="max-width: 3em;"> - <img src="images/i_038.jpg" width="42" height="44" alt="" /></div> - -<p>Of silks patterned with the plain Greek cross or “stauracin” -there are also several examples in the same collection; and though -not of the remotest period are interesting. No. 8234, perhaps -wrought in Sicily by the Greeks brought as prisoners from the Morea -in the twelfth century, is not without some value. In the chapter -library at Durham may be seen (as we learn from Mr. Raine) an -example of Byzantine stauracin “colours purple and crimson; the -only prominent ornament a cross—often repeated, even upon the -small portion which remains.” Those who have seen in St. -Peter’s sacristy at Rome that beautiful light-blue dalmatic said to -have been worn by Charlemagne when he sang the gospel, vested -as a deacon, on the day he was crowned emperor, will remember -how plentifully it is sprinkled with crosses between its exquisite -embroideries, so as to make the vestment a real “stauracin.” It -has been well given by Sulpiz Boisserée in his ‘Kaiser dalmatika -in der St. Peterskirche;’ but far better by Dr. Bock in his splendid -work on the coronation robes of the German emperors.</p> - -<p>Silks called <i>de fundato</i>, from the pattern woven on them, are -frequently spoken of by Anastasius. From the text of that writer, -and from passages in other authors of his time, it would seem<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span> -that the silks themselves were dyed of the richest purple and -figured with gold in the pattern of netting. As one of the meanings -for the word “funda” is a fisherman’s net, rich textiles so -figured in gold were denominated “de fundato” or netted. We -gather also from Fortunatus that the costly purple-dyed silks -called “blatta” were always interwoven with gold. This net-pattern -lingered long and, no doubt, we find it under a new name -“laqueatus”—meshed—upon a cope belonging to the church of St. -Paul’s, London, 1295: where an inventory, printed by Dugdale, -includes a cope of baudekin with fir-cones “in campis laqueatis.” -Modifications of this very old pattern may be seen at South -Kensington, nos. 1264, 1266, and 8234. In the diapered pattern -on some of the cloth of gold found lately in the grave of an archbishop, -buried at York about the end of the thirteenth century, -the same netting is discernible.</p> - -<p><i>Stragulatæ</i>, striped or barred silks, were at one time in much -request. Frequent mention is made of them in the Exeter inventories; -for example, in 1277, there were two palls of baudekin, -one “stragulata.” The illuminations in the manuscript in the -Harley collection at the British museum of the deposition of -Richard the second affords us instances of this textile. The -young man to the right sitting on the ground at the archbishop’s -sermon is entirely, hood and all, arrayed in this striped silk; and -at the altar, where Northumberland is swearing on the eucharist, -the priest who is saying mass wears a chasuble of the same stuff. -Old St. Paul’s had an offertory-veil of the same pattern; “stragulatum” -with the stripes red and green.</p> - -<p>At the end of the twelfth century there was brought to England, -from Greece, a sort of precious silk named there <i>Imperial</i>.</p> - -<p>Ralph, dean of St Paul’s cathedral, tells us that William de -Magna Villa, on coming home from his pilgrimage to the holy -land about 1178, made presents to several churches of cloths -which at Constantinople were called “Imperial.” We are told by -Roger Wendover, and after him by Matthew Paris, that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> -apparition of king John was dressed in royal robes made of the -stuff they call imperial. In the inventory of St. Paul’s, drawn up -in 1295, four tunicles (vestments for subdeacons and lower -ministers at the altar) are mentioned as made of this imperial. -No colour is specified, except in the one instance of the silk being -marbled; and the patterns are noticed as of red and green, with -lions woven in gold. It seems not to have been thought good -enough for the more important vestments, such as chasubles and -copes. Probably the name was not derived from its colour (supposed -royal purple) nor its costliness, but for quite another -reason: woven at a workshop kept up by the Byzantine emperors, -like the Gobelins is to-day in Paris, and bearing about it some -small though noticeable mark, it took the designation of “Imperial.” -We know it was partly wrought with gold; but that its -tint was always some shade of the imperial purple is a gratuitous -assumption. In France this textile was in use as late as the -second half of the fifteenth century, but looked upon as old. At -York somewhat later, in the early part of the sixteenth, one of its -deans bestowed on that cathedral “two (blue) copes of clothe -imperialle.”</p> - -<p><i>Baudekin</i> was a costly stuff much employed and often spoken -of in our literature during many years of the mediæval period.</p> - -<p>Ciclatoun, as we have already remarked, was the usual term -during centuries throughout western Europe by which the showy -golden textiles were called. When, however, Bagdad or Baldak -held for no short length of time the lead all over Asia in weaving -fine silks, and in especial golden stuffs shot as now in different -colours, tinted cloths of gold became known, and more particularly -among the English, as “baldakin,” “baudekin,” or “baudkyn,” -or silks from Baldak. At last the earlier term “ciclatoun” -dropped out of use. Remembering this the reader will more -readily understand several otherwise puzzling passages in our old -writers, as well as in the inventories of royal furniture and church -vestments.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span> -Kings and the nobility affected much this rich stuff for the -garments worn on high occasions. When Henry the third -knighted William of Valence, in 1247, he had on a robe of cloth -of gold made of baudekin; “facta de pretiosissimo baldekino.” -In the year 1259 the master of Sherborn hospital in the north -bequeathed to that house a cope made of the like stuff: “de -panno ad aurum scilicet baudekin.” Vestments of this material -are frequently mentioned in the old church inventories.</p> - -<p>These Bagdad or Baldak silks, with a weft of gold, known -among us as “baudekins” were often woven very large in size, and -applied here in England to especial ritual purposes. As a thanks-offering -after a safe return home from a journey they were -brought and given to the altar; at the solemn burial of our kings -and queens and other great people, the mourners, when offertory -time came, went to the hearse and threw a baudekin of costly -texture over the coffin. We may learn the ceremonial from the -descriptions of many of our mediæval funerals. At the obsequies -of Henry the seventh in Westminster abbey:—“Twoe herauds -came to the duke of Buck. and to the earles, and conveyed them -into the revestrie where they did receive certen palles which -everie of them did bringe solemly betwene theire hands and comminge -in order one before another as they were in degree unto -the said herse, thay kissed theire said palles and delivered them -unto the said heraudes which laide them uppon the kyngs corps, -in this manner: the palle which was first offered by the duke -of Buck. was laid on length on the said corps, and the residewe -were laid acrosse, as thick as they might lie.” In the same -church at the burial of Anne of Cleves in 1557, a like -ceremonial of carrying cloth-of-gold palls to the hearse was -followed. So also the religious guilds, or other companies, in the -middle ages kept palls to be thrown over the bodies of all brothers -or sisters at their burial, however lowly may have been their rank.</p> - -<p>The word “baudekin” itself became at last enlarged in its -meaning. So warm, so mellow, so fast were the tones of crimson<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span> -which the dyers of Bagdad knew how to give their silks that, -without a thread of gold in them, the mere glowing tints of the -plain crimson silken webs won for themselves the name of baudekins. -Furthermore, when they quite ceased to be partly woven -in gold and from their consequent lower price and cheapness -came into use for cloths of estate over royal thrones, the canopy -hung over the high altar of a church acquired and yet keeps -the appellation (at least in Italy) of “baldachino.”</p> - -<p>How very full in size, how costly in materials and embroidery, -must have sometimes been the cloth of estate spread overhead -and behind the throne of our kings, may be gathered from the -privy purse expenses of Henry the seventh; wherein this item -occurs: “To Antony Corsse for a cloth of an estate conteyning -47½ yerds, £11 the yerd, £522 10<i>s.</i>” Canopies of this kind are -still occasionally to be seen in the throne-room of some of the -Roman palaces, whose owners have the old feudal right to the -cloth of estate.</p> - -<p>The custom itself is thus noticed by Chaucer:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Yet nere and nere forth in I gan me dress<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Into an hall of noble apparaile,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With arras spred, and cloth of gold I gesse,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And other silke of easier availe:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Under the cloth of their estate sauns faile<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The king and quene there sat as I beheld.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>This same rich golden stuff had a third and even better -known name, to be found all through our early literature as <i>Cloth -of Pall</i>.</p> - -<p>The state cloak (in Latin pallium, in Anglo-saxon paell), -worn alike by men as well as women, was always made of the -most gorgeous stuff that could be found. From a very early -period in the mediæval ages golden webs shot in silk with one or -other of the various colours, occasionally blue but oftener crimson, -were sought for through so many years, and everywhere, that -at last each sort of cloth of gold had given to it the name of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span> -“pall,” no matter the immediate purpose to which it might have -to be applied or after what fashion. Vestments for sacred use -and garments for knights and ladies were equally made of it. -The word is common enough in the church inventories.</p> - -<p>As to worldly use, the king’s daughter in the ‘Squire of low -degree’ had</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Mantell of ryche degre<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Purple palle and armyne fre:<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">and in the poem of Sir <span class="locked">Isumbras—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The rich queen in hall was set;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Knights her served, at hand and feet<br /></span> -<span class="i4">In rich robes of pall.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>For ceremonial receptions our kings used to order that every -house should be “curtained” along the streets which the procession -would have to take through London, “incortinaretur.” -How this was done we learn from Chaucer in the ‘Knight’s -tale’;</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">By ordinance, thurghout the cite large<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Hanged with cloth of gold, and not with sarge;<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">as well as from the ‘Life of Alexander:’</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Al theo city was by-hong<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of riche baudekyns and pellis (palls) among.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">Hence, when Elizabeth, queen of Henry the seventh, “proceeded -from the towre throwge the citie of London (for her coronation) -to Westminster, al the strets ther wich she shulde passe by, were -clenly dressed and besene with clothes of tappestreye and arras. -And some strets, as Cheepe, hangged with rich clothes of gold, -velvetts, and silks, etc.” Machyn in his diary tells us that as -late as 1555 “Bow chyrche in London was hangyd with cloth of -gold and with ryche hares (arras).”</p> - -<p>Both in England and abroad, it was customary in the middle -ages to provide richly decorated palls with which to cover the -biers of dead people: more especially the members of various -guilds. Some of these are still existing; one, belonging to the<span class="pagenum"><a class="hidep" id="Page_44">44</a><a id="Page_45">45</a></span> -London fishmongers’ company; another, of the fifteenth century, -is in the museum at Amiens.</p> - -<div id="ip_44" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 26em;"> - <img src="images/i_044.jpg" width="415" height="579" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Mortuary Cloth from the church of Folleville (Somme), now in the museum at Amiens.</div></div> - -<p>A celebrated Mohammedan writer, Ebn-Khaldoun, who died -about the middle of the fifteenth century, while speaking of -that spot in an Arab palace, the “Tiraz,” so designated from -the name itself of the rich silken stuffs therein woven, tells us -that one of the privileges of the Saracenic kings was to have -the name of the prince himself, or the special ensign chosen -by his house, woven into the stuffs intended for his personal -wear, whether wrought of silk, brocade, or even coarser kind of -silk. While gearing his loom the workman contrived that the -letters of the title should come out either in threads of gold, -or in silk of another colour from that of the ground. The -royal apparel thus bore about it its own especial marks, and -distinguished not only the sovereign but those personages -around him who were allowed by their official rank in his -court to wear it; or those again upon whom he had bestowed -rich garments as especial tokens of the imperial favour, like -the modern pelisse of honour. Before the time of Mahomet -the eastern princes used to have woven upon the stuffs wrought -for their personal use, or as gifts to others, their own especial -likeness, or at times the peculiar ensign of their royalty. But -afterwards the custom was changed and names were substituted, -to which words were added foreboding good or certain formulas -of praise. Wherever the Moslem ruled the practice was introduced; -and thus, whether in Asia, in Egypt, or other parts of -Africa, or in Moorish Spain, the silken garments for royalty -and its favourites showed woven in them the prince’s name, -or his chosen text. The robes wrought in Egypt for the far-famed -Saladin, and worn by him as caliph, bore very conspicuously -upon them the name of that conqueror.</p> - -<p>In the old lists of church ornaments frequent mention is -found of vestments inscribed with words in real or pretended -Arabic; and when St. Paul’s inventory more than once speaks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> -of silken stuffs “de opere Saraceno” it is not improbable that -some at least of those textiles were so called from having -Arabic characters woven on them. Such, too, were the letters -on the red pall figured with elephants and a bird, belonging in -the fourteenth century to the cathedral at Exeter. Somewhat -later, our trade with the south of Spain led us to call such -words on woven stuffs Moorish: thus, Joane lady Bergavenny -bequeaths (1434) a “hullyng (hangings for a hall) of black -red and green, with morys letters, etc.”</p> - -<div id="ip_46" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 21em;"> - <img src="images/i_046.jpg" width="333" height="404" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Silk damask (Sicilian) with imitated Arabic letters.</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> -The weaving of letters in textiles is neither a Moorish nor -Saracenic invention; ages before, the ancient Parthians used to -do so, as we learn from Pliny: “Parthi literas vestibus intexunt.” -A curious illustration of the frequent use of silken stuffs bearing -letters, borrowed from some real or supposed oriental alphabet, -is the custom which many of the illuminators had of figuring on -frontals and altar canopies, evidently intended to represent silk, -meaningless words; and the artists of Italy up to the middle -of the sixteenth century did the same on the hems of the -garments worn by great personages, in their paintings.</p> - -<p>The eagle, single and double-headed, may frequently be -found in the patterns of old silks. In all ages certain birds of -prey have been looked upon by heathens as ominous for good -or evil. Upon the standard which was carried at the head of -the Danish invaders of Northumbria was figured the raven, the -bird of Odin. This banner had been worked by the daughters -of Regnar Lodbrok, in one noontide’s while; and it is recorded -by Asser that if victory was to follow, the raven would -seem to stand erect and as if about to soar before the warriors; -but if a defeat was impending, the raven hung his head and -drooped his wings. Another and a more important flag, that -which Harold fought under at Hastings, is described by -Malmesbury as having been embroidered in gold with the figure -of a man in the act of fighting, and studded with precious -stones, woven sumptuously.</p> - -<p>In still earlier ages the eagle, known for its daring and its -lofty flight, was held in high repute; as the emblem of power -and victory it is to be seen flying in triumph over the head -of some Assyrian conqueror, as may be witnessed in Layard’s -work on Nineveh. Homer calls it the bird of Jove. Quintus -Curtius says that a golden eagle was carved upon the yoke of -the war chariot of king Darius, as if outstretching his wings. -The Romans bore the bird upon their standards; the Byzantine -emperors kept it as their device; and, following the ancient<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span> -traditions of the east and heedless of their law that forbids the -making of images, the Saracens, especially when they ruled in -Egypt, had the eagle figured on several things about them, sometimes -single at others double-headed, which latter was the -shape adopted by the emperors of Germany as their blazon; in -which form it is borne to this day by several reigning houses. -It is not strange, therefore, that eagles of both fashions are so -often to be observed woven upon ancient and eastern textiles.</p> - -<p>As early as 1277 Exeter cathedral reckoned among her -vestments several so decorated; for instance, a cope of baudekin -figured with small two-headed eagles: and Richard king -of Germany, brother of Henry the third of England, gave to -the same church a cope of black baudekin with eagles in gold -figured on it. These are recorded in the inventories printed by -Dr. Oliver; and many like instances might be noticed in other -lists.</p> - -<div id="ip_48" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 22em;"> - <img src="images/i_048.jpg" width="276" height="318" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Ladies carding and spinning; from MSS. of the fourteenth century, in the British -museum.</div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Hitherto</span> no attempt has been made to distribute olden silken -textiles into various schools; but the numerous specimens in the -admirable collection at South Kensington enable us to separate -them into several groups—Chinese, Persian, Byzantine, Indian, -Syrian, Saracenic, Moresco-Spanish, Sicilian, Italian, Flemish, -British, and French. We shall now especially refer to that -collection.</p> - -<p>The Chinese examples are not many: but, whether plain or -figured, they are beautiful in their own way. From all that we -know of the people, we are led to believe that their style two -thousand years ago is the same still; so that the web wrought by -them this year or three hundred years ago, like no. 1368, would differ -hardly in a line from their far earlier textiles; of which Dionysius -Periegetes wrote that “the Seres make precious figured garments, -resembling in colour the flowers of the field, and rivalling in fineness -the work of spiders.” In these stuffs, warp and woof are of -silk and both of the best kinds.</p> - -<p>Persian textiles, as we see them at South Kensington, must -also have been for many centuries very much the same in design -and character. Sometimes the design is made up of various kinds -of beasts and birds, real or imaginary, with the sporting cheetah -spotted among them; and the “homa” or tree of life conspicuously -set above all. In such cases we may conclude that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> -web was wrought by Persians, and generally the textile will be -found in all its parts to be of the richest materials.</p> - -<p>No. 8233, may be referred to as an illustration of the Persian -type.</p> - -<p>A school of design sprung up among the Byzantine Greeks, -from the time when in the sixth century they began to weave -home-grown silk, which retained not a little of the beauty, breadth, -and flowing outline of ancient art. Together with this, a strong -feeling of Christianity showed itself as well in many of the -subjects which they took out of holy writ as in the smaller -elements of ornamentation. Figures, whether of the human form -or of beasts, are given in a much larger and bolder size than on -any other ancient stuffs. Though there are not many known -specimens from the old looms of Constantinople there is one, -no. 7036, showing Samson wrestling with a lion, which may serve -as a type. In the year 1295 St. Paul’s cathedral would seem to -have possessed several vestments made of Byzantine silk. A -very splendid dalmatic of Byzantine silk, probably of the twelfth -century, is preserved in the treasury of St. Peter’s at Rome. The -colour is dark blue, and the embroidery in gold and colours.</p> - -<p>The specimens at South Kensington from the Byzantine and -later Greek loom are not to be taken as by any means first-rate -examples of its general production. They are poor both in -material and, when figured, in design. There are, however, many -pieces: nos. 1241, 1246, 1257, 1266, etc.</p> - -<p>Indian ancient silks and textiles have their own distinctive -marks.</p> - -<p>From Marco Polo, who wandered much over the far east some -time during the thirteenth century, we learn that the weaving in -India was done by women who wrought in silk and gold, after a -noble manner, beasts and birds upon their webs:—“Le loro -donne lavorano tutte cose a seta e ad oro e a uccelli e a bestie -nobilmente e lavorano di cortine ed altre cose molto ricamente.”</p> - -<div id="ip_51" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 30em;"> - <img src="images/i_051.jpg" width="475" height="535" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Byzantine Dalmatic: preserved at Rome.</div></div> - -<p>Several of the South Kensington mediæval specimens from<span class="pagenum"><a class="hidep" id="Page_51">51</a><a id="Page_52">52</a></span> -Tartary and India show well the truthfulness of the great Venetian -traveller, while speaking about the textiles which he saw in those -countries. The dark purple piece of silk figured in gold with birds -and beasts of the thirteenth century, no. 7086, is good; but -better still is the shred of blue damask, no. 7087, with its birds, -its animals, and flowers wrought in gold and different coloured -silks. India, also, has ever been famous for its cloud-like -transparent muslins, which since Marco Polo’s days have kept -that oriental name, through being better woven at Mosul than -elsewhere.</p> - -<p>The Syrian school is well represented at South Kensington by -several fine pieces.</p> - -<p>The whole sea-board of that part of Asia minor, as well as far -inland, was inhabited by a mixture of Jews, Christians, and -Saracens; and all were workers in silk. The reputation of the -neighbouring Persia had of old stood high for the beauty and -durability of her silken textiles, which caused them to be sought for -by the European traders. Persia’s outlet to the west for her goods -lay through the great commercial ports on the coast of Syria. -Persia was accustomed to set her own peculiar seal upon her -figured webs, by mingling in her designs the mystic “homa:” -and, naturally, this part of the pattern became in the eyes of -Europeans, at first, a sort of assurance that those goods had been -made in Persian looms. By one of the tricks of imitation followed -in that day, as well as now, the Syrian designers threw the -“homa” into their patterns. Borrowed perhaps originally from -Hebrew tradition, this symbol of “the tree of life” had in it -nothing objectionable either to the Christian, the Jew, or the -Moslem: all three, therefore, took it and made it a leading -portion of design in the patterns of their silks; and hence it is -that we meet with it so often. Though at the beginning, it may be, -done with a fraudulent intention of palming on the world Syrian -for Persian silks, the Syrians usually put also into their fabrics a -something which declared the real workmanship. Mixed with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span> -“homa,” the “cheetah,” and other elements of Persian patterns, -the discordant two-handled vase or the badly-imitated Arabic -sentence betrays the textile to be not Persian but Syrian. No. -8359 exemplifies this. Furthermore, probably in ignorance about -Persia’s superstitious use of the “homa” in her old religious -services, the Christian weavers of Syria put the sign of the cross -by the side of the “tree of life:” as we find upon the piece of -silk, no. 7094. Another remarkable specimen of the Syrian loom -is no. 7034, whereon the Nineveh lions come forth conspicuously. -As good examples of well-wrought “diaspron” or diaper, -no. 8233 and no. 7052 may be mentioned.</p> - -<p>Saracenic weaving, as shown by the design upon the web, is -exemplified in several specimens at South Kensington.</p> - -<p>However much against what looks like a heedlessness of the -teaching of the Koran, it is certain that the Saracens, those of the -upper classes in particular, felt no difficulty in wearing robes upon -which animals and the likenesses of created things were woven; -with the strictest of their princes a double-headed eagle, possibly -borrowed from the crusaders, was a royal heraldic device. Stuffs -figured with birds and beasts, with trees and flowers, were not the -less on that account of Saracenic workmanship, and meant for -Moslem wear. What, however, may be chiefly looked for upon -Saracenic textures is a pattern consisting of longitudinal stripes -of blue, red, green, and other colour; some of them charged with -animals, small in form; some written, in large Arabic letters, with -a word or sentence.</p> - -<p>Moresco-Spanish or Saracenic textiles wrought in Spain, though -partaking of the striped pattern and bearing words in real or -imitated Arabic, had some distinctions of their own. The designs -shown upon these stuffs are almost always drawn out of strap-work, -reticulations, or some combination of geometrical lines, -amid which are occasionally to be found different forms of conventional -flowers. Sometimes, but very rarely, the crescent moon is -figured as in the curious piece, no. 8639. The colours of these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span> -silks are usually either a fine crimson or a deep blue with almost -always a fine toned yellow as a ground. But one remarkable -feature in these Moresco-Spanish textiles is the presence of the -ingenious imitation (before spoken of) of gold; for which shreds -of gilded parchment cut up into narrow flat strips are substituted -and woven with the silk. This, when fresh, must have looked -very bright, and have given the web all the appearance of the -favourite stuffs called here in England “tissues.” The fraud, as -already explained, if fraud it were, is not easily discovered -without a magnifying glass. A guide may be found in the -blackness of the gold. Nos. 7095, 8590, and 8639, are -examples of this gilded vellum.</p> - -<p>The Sicilian school strongly marked wide differences between -itself and all the others which had lived before; and the history -of its loom is as interesting as it is varied.</p> - -<p>The first to teach the natives of Sicily how to rear the silkworm -and spin its silk were, as it would seem, the Mahomedans, who -coming over from Africa brought with them, besides the art of -weaving silken textiles, a knowledge of the fauna of that vast -continent—its giraffes, its antelopes, its gazelles, its lions, its -elephants. These invaders told them also of the parrots of India -and the hunting sort of leopard,—the cheetahs; and when the -stuff was wrought for European wear both beast and bird were -imaged upon the web, and at the same time a word in Arabic was -woven in. Like all other Saracens, those in Sicily loved to mingle -gold in their tissues; and, to spare the silk, cotton thread was -not unfrequently worked up in the warp. When, therefore, we -meet with beasts taken from the fauna of Africa, such, especially, -as the giraffe and the several classes of the antelope family, with -perhaps also an Arabic motto, and part of the pattern wrought in -gold, as well as cotton in the warp, we may fairly take the specimen -as a piece of Sicily’s work in its first period of weaving silk.</p> - -<p>The second epoch was when in the twelfth century Roger, -king of Sicily, took Corinth, Thebes, and Athens; from each of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span> -which cities he led away captives all the men and women he could -find who knew how to weave silks, and carried them to Palermo. -These Grecian new comers brought fresh designs which were -adopted sometimes wholly, at others but in part and mixed up -with the older Saracenic style. In this second period of the -island’s loom we discover what traces the Byzantine school impressed -upon Sicilian silks, and helped so much to alter the type -of their first designs. On one silk, the pattern is a grotesque -mask amid the graceful twinings of luxuriant foliage, such as might -have been then found upon many a fragment of old Greek sculpture; -this may be seen on no. 8241; on another, a sovereign on horseback -wearing the royal crown and carrying a hawk upon his -wrist, as in no. 8589; on a third, no. 8234, is the Greek cross, -with a pattern much like the old netted or “de fundato” kind -which has been described, p. 38.</p> - -<p>But Sicily’s third is quite her own peculiar style. At the end -of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century she -struck into an untried path. Without throwing aside the old -elements employed by the Mahomedans Sicily put with them the -emblem of Christianity, the cross, in various forms, on some -occasions with the letter V. four times repeated.</p> - -<p>From the east to the uttermost western borders of the -Mediterranean the weavers of every country had been in the -habit of figuring upon their silks those beasts and birds they saw -around them: the Tartar, the Indian, and the Persian gave us the -parrot and the cheetah; the Africans, the giraffe and the gazelle; -the people of each continent, the lions, the elephants, the eagles, -and the other birds common to both. From the sculpture of the -Greeks and Romans the Sicilians could have easily copied the -fabled griffin and the centaur; but it was left for their own wild -imaginings to figure such an odd compound in one being as the -animal—half elephant, half griffin—which we see in no. 1288. -Their daring flights of fancy in coupling the difficult with the -beautiful are curious; in one piece large eagles are perched in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> -pairs with a radiating sun between them, and beneath are dogs, -in pairs, running with heads turned back; in another, running -harts have caught one of their hind legs in a cord tied to their -collar, and an eagle swoops down upon them; and the same -animal, in another place on the same piece, has switched its tail -into the last link of a chain fastened to its neck; on a third -sample are harts, the letter M floriated, winged lions, crosses -floriated, crosses sprouting out on two sides with <i>fleurs-de-lis</i>, and -four-legged monsters, some like winged lions, some biting their -tails. Hardly elsewhere to be found are certain elements peculiar -to the patterns upon silks from mediæval Sicily; such, for -instance, as harts, and demi-dogs with very large wings, both -animals having remarkably long manes streaming far behind them; -or harts lodged under green trees in a park with paling about it. -The hawk, the eagle, double and single headed, or the parrot, -may be found on stuffs all over the east; not so, however, the -swan, which was a favourite with Sicilians and may be seen often -drawn with much gracefulness.</p> - -<p>The Sicilians showed their strong affection for certain plants -and flowers. On a great many of the silks in the South Kensington -collection from Palermitan looms we see figured upon a -tawny coloured grounding beautifully drawn foliage in green; -sometimes vine leaves, sometimes what looks like parsley, so -curled, crispy, and serrated are its leaves. Another peculiarity -is the introduction of the letter U, repeated so as to mark the -feathering upon the tails of birds; or to fall into the shape of an -O; as in nos. 8591, 8599.</p> - -<p>Whether it was that the crusaders made Sicily so often the -halting spot on their way to the holy land, or that knights -crowded there for other purposes, and thus dazzled the eyes of the -islanders with the bravery of their armorial bearings, it is certain -that the Sicilians were particularly given to introduce many -heraldic charges—wyverns, eagles, lions rampant, and griffins—into -their designs. The occasions in which such elements of<span class="pagenum"><a class="hidep" id="Page_57">57</a><a id="Page_58">58</a></span> -blazoning come in are so numerous that one of the features -belonging to the Sicilian loom in its third period is that, bating -tinctures, it is decidedly heraldic.</p> - -<div id="ip_57" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 21em;"> - <img src="images/i_057.jpg" width="331" height="618" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Silk damask—Sicilian: fourteenth century.</div></div> - -<p>All this beauty and happiness of invention, set forth by bold, -free, spirited drawing, were bestowed too often upon stuffs of a -very poor inferior quality, in which the gold if not actually base -was always scanty, and a good deal of cotton was wrought up with -the silk.</p> - -<p>Till within a few years past the royal manufactory at Sta. -Leucia, near Naples, produced silks of remarkable richness; and -the piece, no. 721, does credit to its loom, as it wove in the seventeenth -century. Northern Italy was not idle; and the looms -which she set up in several of her great cities, in Lucca, Florence, -Genoa, Venice, and Milan, earned for themselves a good repute -and a wide trade for their gold and silver tissues, their velvets, -and their figured silken textiles. Yet, in the same way as each -of these free states had its own accent and provincialisms in -speech, so also had it a something often thrown into its designs -and style of drawing which told of the place and province whence -the textiles came.</p> - -<p>Lucca at an early period made herself known in Europe for -her textiles; but her workmen, like those of Sicily, seem to have -thought themselves bound to follow the style brought by the -Saracens of figuring parrots and peacocks, gazelles, and even -cheetahs, as we see in the specimens no. 8258 and no. 8616. -But with these eastern animals she mixed up emblems of her own, -such as angels clothed in white. She soon dropped what was -oriental from her patterns which she began to draw in a larger, -bolder manner, and showing an inclination for light blue as a -colour.</p> - -<p>As in other places abroad so at Lucca cloths of gold and of -silver were often wrought, and the Lucchese cloths of this costly -sort were in much request in England during the fourteenth century. -In all likelihood they were not of the deadened but the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span> -sparkling kind, afterwards especially known as “tissue.” Exeter -cathedral, in 1327, had a cope of silver tissue, or cloth of Lucca:—“de -panno de Luk.” At a later date, belonging to the same -church, were two fine chasubles—one purple, the other red—of the -same glittering stuff: “de purpyll panno.” York cathedral possessed -many copes of tissue shot with every colour required by -its ritual, and among them were “a reade cope of clothe of tishewe -with orphry of pearl, a cope with orphrey, a cope of raised clothe -of goulde,” making a distinction between tissue and the ordinary -cloth of gold. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward the second -the golden tissue, or Lucca cloth, is several times mentioned. -Whether the ceremony happened to be sad or gay this glittering -web was used; palls made of Lucca cloth were, at masses for the -dead, strewed over the corpse; at marriages the care-cloth was -made of the same stuff: thus when Richard de Arundell and -Isabella, Hugh le Despenser’s daughter, had been wedded at the -door of the royal chapel, the veil held spread out over their heads -as they knelt inside the chancel during the nuptial mass was of -Lucca cloth.</p> - -<p>About the same time velvet became known, and came into use -both for vestments and for personal wear; and Lucca probably -was among the first places in Europe to weave it. The specimens -at South Kensington of this fine textile from Lucchese looms, -though few in comparison with those from Genoa, still have a -certain historical value for the English workman: no. 1357, with -its olive green plain silken ground and trailed all over with -flowers and leaves in a somewhat deeper tone, and the earlier -example, no. 8322, with its ovals and feathering stopped with -graceful cusps and artichokes, afford us good instances of what -Lucca could produce in the way of artistic velvets.</p> - -<p>Genoa, though in mediæval times not so conspicuous as she -afterwards became for her textile industry, encouraged over her -narrow territory the weaving of silken webs. Of these the earliest -mention we have found is in the inventory of vestments belonging<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span> -to St. Paul’s cathedral, London, in 1295: besides a cope of Genoa -cloth that church had, of the same manufacture, a hanging patterned -with wheels and two-headed birds. Though this first -description be scant, we may reasonably gather that the Genoese -cloths must have resembled the textiles wrought at Lucca. Genoa -still keeps up her old reputation for beautiful velvets.</p> - -<p>In the collection at South Kensington there are examples of -every kind of Genoese velvets; some with a smooth unbroken -surface, some elaborately patterned and showing, together with -wonderful skill in the weaving, much beauty of design. Some -are raised or cut, the design being worked in a pile standing well -up by itself out of a flat ground of silk, either of the same or -of another colour, and not unfrequently wrought in gold. No. -7795 is an example of a very costly kind; in which the ground is -velvet, and again of velvet is the pattern itself but raised one pile -higher than the other, so as to show its form and shape distinctly. -No. 8323 shows how the design was worked in various coloured -velvet. This last was a favourite in England and called motley; -in his will, 1415, printed in Rymers Fœdera, Henry lord Scrope -bequeathed two vestments, one, motley velvet rubeo de auro; the -other, motley velvet nigro, rubeo et viridi, etc.</p> - -<p>Venice does not seem to have been at any time, like Sicily and -Lucca, smitten with the taste of imitating in her looms the patterns -which she saw abroad upon textile fabrics, but appears to have -borrowed from the orientals only one kind of weaving cloth of -gold: the yellow chasuble at Exeter cathedral in 1327, figured -with beasts, is the only instance we know where she wove animals -upon silks. Venice, however, set up for herself a new branch of -textiles, and wrought for church use square webs of a crimson -ground on which were figured, in gold or on yellow silk, subjects -taken from the Scriptures or the persons of saints and angels. -These square pieces were employed, sewed together, as frontals to -altars, but when longwise more generally as orphreys to chasubles, -copes, and other vestments.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span> -There is a remarkable similarity between the drawing of the -figures upon old Venetian silks and the woodcuts in books published -at Venice in the early part of the sixteenth century; such -as the fine pontifical by Giunta, or the “Rosario” by Varisco. -We find in both the same style and manner; the same broad fold -and fall of drapery; the same plumpness and outline of the human -face and figure. So near is the likeness in design that we may -almost believe that the artists who supplied the blocks for the -printers sketched also the drawings for the looms.</p> - -<p>By the fifteenth century Venice knew how to produce good -damasks in silk and gold: if we had nothing more than the -specimen, no. 1311, where St. Mary of Egypt is so well represented, -it would be quite enough for her to claim for herself such a distinction. -Nor can there be much doubt that Venice wrought in -velvet; and if those rich stuffs were made there, sometimes raised, -sometimes pile upon pile, in which her painters loved to dress the -personages, men especially, in their pictures, then Venetian velvets -were certainly beautiful. Of this any one may satisfy himself by -one visit to our National gallery. There, in the “Adoration of -the magi” painted by Paulo Veronese, the second of the wise men -is clad in a robe of crimson velvet, cut or raised after a design in -keeping with the style of the period.</p> - -<p>No insignificant article of Venetian textile workmanship were -her laces wrought in every variety; in gold, in silk, in thread. -The portrait of a Doge usually shows him clothed in his dress of -state. His wide mantle, with large golden buttons, is made of -some rich dull silver cloth; and on his head is the Phrygian-shaped -ducal cap bound round with broad gold lace diapered, as -we see in the bust portrait of Loredano, painted by John Bellini, -in the National gallery. Not only was the gold in the thread -particularly good but the lace itself in great favour at the English -court at one time; bought, not by yard measure but by weight, -“a pounde and a half of gold of Venys” was employed “aboute -the making of a lace and botons for the king’s mantell of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> -garter.” This was for Henry the seventh. “Frenge of Venys -gold” appears twice in the wardrobe accounts of Edward the -fourth. Laces in worsted or in linen thread wrought by the -bobbin at Venice, but more especially her point laces or such as -were done with the needle, always had, as they still have, a great -reputation.</p> - -<p>Venetian linens, for fine towelling and napery in general, were -in favourite use in France during a part of the fifteenth century. -In the ‘Ducs de Bourgogne’ by Laborde, more than once we -meet with such an entry as “une pièce de nappes, ouvraige de -Venise.”</p> - -<div id="ip_62" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 26em;"> - <img src="images/i_062.jpg" width="404" height="352" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Silk damask—Florentine: fifteenth century.</div></div> - -<p>Florence, about the middle of the fourteenth century, obtained<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span> -a place in the foremost rank amid the weavers of northern Italy. -Specimens of her earliest handicraft are rare; there are two at -South Kensington. One of these, no. 8563, shows the excellence -of her work in secular silks. Other pieces witness to the delicacy -of her design at a later time, the sixteenth century. The orphrey-webs -of Florence are equally conspicuous for drawing and skill in -weaving, and in beauty come up to those made at Venice, far -surpassing anything of the kind ever wrought at Cologne.</p> - -<p>But it was of her velvets that Florence was warrantably proud. -Henry the seventh bequeathed “to God and St. Peter, and to the -abbot and prior and convent of our monastery of Westminster, the -whole suit of vestments made at Florence in Italy.” We may yet -see how gorgeous this textile was in one of these Westminster -abbey copes still in existence, preserved at Stonyhurst college. -The golden ground is trailed all over with leaf-bearing boughs of -a bold type, in raised or cut ruby-toned velvet of a rich soft pile, -which is freckled with gold thread sprouting up like loops. -Though not so rich in material nor so splendid in pattern, there -are at South Kensington, nos. 7792 and 7799, two specimens of -Florentine cut crimson velvet on a golden ground, like the royal -vestments in their kind and having the same peculiarity, the little -gold thread loop shooting out of the velvet pile. These pieces are -a full century later than the cope at Stonyhurst.</p> - -<p>That peculiar sort of ornamentation—the little loop of gold -thread standing well up and in single spots—upon some velvets, -seems at times to have been replaced, perhaps with the needle, by -small dots of solid metal, gold or silver gilt, upon the pile: of the -gift of one of its bishops, John Grandisson, Exeter cathedral had -a crimson velvet cope, the purple velvet orphrey of which was so -wrought: “purpyll velvette worked with pynsheds” of pure gold.</p> - -<p>Milan, though now-a-days she stands in such high repute for -the richness and beauty of her silks of all sorts, was not, we believe, -at any period during mediæval times as famous for her velvets, her -brocades, or cloths of gold, as for her armour, so strong and trustworthy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span> -for the field, so exquisitely demascened for courtly service. -Still, in the sixteenth century, she earned a name for rich cut -velvets as may be seen in the specimen, no. 698; for her silken -net-work, no. 8336, which may have led the way to weaving silk -stockings; and for her laces of the open tinsel kind once in great -vogue for both sacred and secular use, as in no. 8331.</p> - -<p>England, from her earliest period, had textile fabrics varying in -design and material; the colours in the woollen garments worn by -each of the three several classes into which the Bardic order was -divided, and of the chequered pattern in Boadicea’s cloak, have -been already mentioned. It would seem from John Garland, -whose witness is referred to above, p. 12, that the lighter and more -tasteful webs wrought here came from women’s hands; and the -loom, one of which must have been in almost every English nunnery -and homestead, was of the simplest make.</p> - -<p>In ancient times the Egyptians wove in an upright loom, and -beginning at top so as to weave downwards sat at their work. -In Palestine also the weaver had an upright loom, but, beginning -at bottom and working upwards, was obliged to stand. During -the mediæval period the loom in England was horizontal, as is -shown by that figured in the Bedford book of Hours (preserved in -the British museum), fol. 32; at which the blessed Virgin is seated -weaving curtains for the temple.</p> - -<p>There are several examples at South Kensington of the work -of English women, showing the excellence of their handicraft as -well as elegance in design during the thirteenth century. Nos. -1233, 1256, and 1270 may be referred to. But for specimens of -the commoner sorts of silken textiles and of wider breadth, which -began to be woven in this country under Edward the third, it would -be hazardous to direct the reader. Recent examples, velvets -among the rest, may be found in the Brooke collection. To some -students the piece of old English printed chintz, no. 1622, will -not be without an interest.</p> - -<p>For the finer sort of linen napery Eylisham or Ailesham in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span> -Lincolnshire was famous during the fourteenth century. Exeter -cathedral, in 1327, had a hand towel of “Ailesham cloth.”</p> - -<p>Our coarser native textiles in wool or in thread, or in both -woven together, formed a stuff called “burel.” St. Paul’s in -1295 had a light blue chasuble, and Exeter cathedral in 1277 a -long pall of this texture. Burel and, in short, all the coarser -kinds of work were wrought by men: sometimes in monasteries. -The old Benedictine rule obliged the monks to give a certain -number of hours every week-day to hand-work, either at home or -in the field.</p> - -<p>The weaving in this country of woollen cloth, as a staple -branch of trade, is very old. Of the monks at Bath abbey we are -told by a late writer, “that the shuttle and the loom employed -their attention (about the middle of the fourteenth century), and -under their active auspices the weaving of woollen cloth (which -made its appearance in England about the year 1330, and received -the sanction of an act of parliament in 1337) was introduced, -established, and brought to such perfection at Bath as rendered -the city one of the most considerable in the west of England for -this manufacture.” Worcester cloth was so good that, by a chapter -of the Benedictine order held in 1422 at Westminster abbey, it -was forbidden to be worn by the monks and declared smart enough -for military men. Norwich also wove stuffs that were in demand -for costly household furniture; and Sir John Cobham, in 1394, -bequeathed “a bed of Norwich stuff embroidered with butterflies.” -In one of the chapels at Durham priory there were four blue -cushions of Norwich work. Worsted, a town in Norfolk, by a -new method of its own for the carding of the wool with combs of -iron well heated, and then twisting the thread harder than usual in -the spinning, enabled our weavers to produce a woollen stuff of a -peculiar quality, to which the name itself of worsted was immediately -given. To such a high repute did the new web grow that -church vestments and domestic furniture of the choicest sorts were -made out of it. Exeter cathedral among its chasubles had several<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span> -“de nigro worsted” in cloth of gold. Vestments made of worsted, -variously spelt “worsett” and “woryst,” are enumerated in the -fabric rolls of York minster. Elizabeth de Bohun, in 1356, bequeathed -to her daughter the countess of Arundel “a bed of red -worsted embroidered;” and Joane lady Bergavenny leaves to John -of Ormond “a bed of cloth of gold with lebardes, with those -cushions and tapettes of my best red worsted.”</p> - -<p>Irish cloth, white and red, in the reign of king John was much -used in England; and in the household expenses of Swinford, -bishop of Hereford in 1290, an item occurs of Irish cloth for -lining.</p> - -<p>English weavers knew also how to work artificially designed -and well-figured webs. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward the -second is this item: “to a mercer of London for a green hanging -of wool wove with figures of kings and earls upon it, for the king’s -service in his hall on solemn feasts at London.” Such “salles,” -as they were called in France, and “hullings” or rather “hallings” -the name they went under here, were much valued abroad and in -common use at home. Under the head of “Salles d’Angleterre” -among the articles of costly furniture belonging to Charles the fifth -of France, in 1364, one set of hangings is thus entered: “une -salle d’Angleterre vermeille brodée d’azur, et est la bordeure à -vignettes et le dedens de lyons, d’aigles et de lyepars.” Here in -England, Richard earl of Arundel in 1392 willed to his dear wife -“the hangings of the hall which was lately made in London, of -blue tapestry with red roses with the arms of my sons,” etc.; and -lady Bergavenny, after bequeathing her hullying of black, red, and -green to one friend, left to another her best stained “hall.”</p> - -<p>Flemish textiles, at least of the less ambitious kinds such as -napery and woollens, were much esteemed centuries ago; and our -countryman Matthew of Westminster says of Flanders that, made -from the material which we sent her, the wool, she sent us back -precious garments. So important was the supply of wool to the -Flemings in the fourteenth century that the check given to it by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> -the wars between England and France at that time led to a special -treaty between Edward the third and the burghers of the Flemish -communes under the guidance of James van Artevelde.</p> - -<p>Though industrious everywhere within her limits, some of the -towns of Flanders stood foremost for certain kinds of stuff, and -Bruges became in the latter end of the fifteenth century conspicuous -for its silken textiles. The satins of Bruges were used in England -for church garments. Haconbie church, in 1566, had “one white -vestmente of bridges satten repte in peces and a clothe made -thereof to hange before our pulpitt;” and in 1520 York cathedral -had “a vestment of balkyn (baudekin) with a crosse of green satten -in bryges.” Her damasks silks were equally in demand; and -the specimens at South Kensington will interest the student. -Nos. 8318 and 8332 show the ability of the Bruges loom; -while the favourite pattern with the pomegranate in it betrays -the likings of the Spaniards, at that time the rulers of the country, -for this token of their renowned Isabella. No. 8319 is another -sample of Flemish weaving, rich in its gold and full of beauty in -design.</p> - -<p>In her velvets Flanders had no need to fear a comparison -with anything of the kind that Italy ever threw off from her -looms, whether at Venice, Florence, or Genoa. Not to name -others one example, with its cloth of gold ground and its pattern -in a dark blue deep-piled velvet, is not surpassed in gorgeousness -even by that splendid stuff from Florence of which the Stonyhurst -cope, just spoken of, was made.</p> - -<p>Block-printed linen toward the end of the fourteenth century -was another production of Flanders. Though existing examples -to the eyes of many may look poor or mean, yet to men like -the cotton-printers of Lancashire they will have a strong attraction; -and to the scholar they will be deeply interesting as suggestive -of the art of printing. Such specimens are rare, but it is -likely that England can show in the chapter library at Durham -the earliest sample of the kind as yet known; a fine sheet wrapped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> -about the body of some old bishop found in a grave opened by -Mr. Raine in 1827, within the cathedral. Several pieces of -ancient silks and English embroidery were found at the same -time.</p> - -<p>What Bruges was in silks and velvets, Yprès, in the sixteenth -century, became for linen; and for many years Flemish linens -were in favourite use throughout England. Hardly a church -of any size, scarcely a gentleman’s house in this country, but used -a quantity of towels and other napery that was made in Flanders, -especially at Yprès.</p> - -<p>French silks, now in such extensive use, were not much cared -for until the end of the sixteenth century in France itself, and -seldom heard of abroad. The reader, then, must not be astonished -at finding so few examples of the French loom in any -collection of ancient silken textiles.</p> - -<p>In France, as in England, women in mediæval days, old and -young, rich and poor, while filling up their leisure hours in-doors -used to work on a small loom, weaving narrow webs, often of -gold and diapered with coloured silks. At South Kensington, -nos. 1250, 7062, and 7064 are examples of such French wrought -stuffs belonging to the thirteenth century. In damasks, the -earliest French productions are of the sixteenth century; and -no. 8352 is a favourable example of what this manufacture then -was in France; everything later is of the type so well known to -everybody. In several of her textiles a leaning towards classicism -in design is discernible.</p> - -<p>Like Flanders, France knew how to weave fine linen which -here in England was much employed for ecclesiastical as well -as household purposes. Three new cloths of Rains (Rennes -in Brittany) were, in 1327, in use for the high altar in Exeter -cathedral, and many altar cloths of Paris linen. In the poem of -the ‘Squire of low degree’ the lady is told</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Your blankettes shal be of fustyane,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Your shetes shal be of cloths of rayne;<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span> -and, in 1434, lady Bergavenny devises in her will “two pair -sheets of Raynes, a pair of fustians,” etc.</p> - -<p>Cologne, the queen of the Rhine, became famous during the -whole of the fifteenth and part of the sixteenth century for a -certain kind of ecclesiastical textile which, from the very general -use to which it has been applied, we may call “orphrey web.” -The productions of Cologne, however, are every way far below -in beauty the similar works of Italy. Italian orphrey-webs are -generally worked in gold or yellow silk upon a crimson ground of -silk. Florentine are often distinguished from the Venetian by -the introduction of white for the faces; those of Cologne vary -from both by introducing blue, while the material is almost always -poor and the weaving coarse. In England this orphrey web was -in church use and called, as we learn from the York “wills and -testaments,” “rebayn de Colayn.”</p> - -<p>The piece of German napery, no. 8317 (of the beginning of -the fifteenth century), will be to those curious about household -linen an acceptable specimen.</p> - -<p>If in some old inventory of church vestments we find an entry -mentioning a chasuble made of cloth of Cologne, we should -understand it to mean not a certain broad textile woven there, but -merely a vestment composed of several pieces of this kind of web -sewed together; like the frontal made of pieces of woven Venice -orphreys, no. 8976.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> countries whence silks came to England are numerous; we -find early notices of Antioch, Tarsus, Alexandria, Damascus, -Byzantium, Cyprus, Trip or Tripoli, and Bagdad, and later of -Venice, Genoa, and Lucca. To fix the localities of others would -be but guess work.</p> - -<p>At the beginning of the fourteenth century a silk called -“<i>Acca</i>” is occasionally mentioned: and, from the description, -it must have been a cloth of gold shot with coloured silk, figured -with animals: William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, gave to St. -Alban’s monastery a whole vestment of cloth of gold shot with -sky-blue and called cloth of Acca. It would look as if this stuff -took its name from having been brought to us through the port of -Acre: and Macri, in his valuable Hierolexicon, says that the -name of the ancient Ptolemais in Syria was so written.</p> - -<p>What in one age and at a particular place happened to be -well made and therefore was eagerly sought for, at a later period -and in another place was better wrought and at a lower price. -Time, indeed, changed the name of the market, but did not alter -in any great degree either the quality of the material or the style -of the design wrought upon it. Throughout the kingdom of the -Byzantine Greeks the loom had to change its gearing very little. -The Saracenic loom, whether in Asia, Africa, or Spain, was -always Arabic, though Persia could not forget her old traditions -about the “hom” or tree of life, and cheetahs, and birds of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span> -various sorts. With regard to the whole of Asia, its many -peoples from the earliest ages knew how not only to weave cloth -of gold but to figure it with birds and beasts. In later times, -Marco Polo in the thirteenth century found exactly the same -kinds of textile known in the days of Darius still everywhere, -from the shores of the Mediterranean to the far east. What he -says of Bagdad he repeats in fewer words about many other -cities. In finding their way to England these fabrics received, if -not in all at least in most instances, the names of the seaports in -the Mediterranean where they had been shipped.</p> - -<p>For beautifully wrought and figured silk, one of the few terms -that still outlive the mediæval period is Damask.</p> - -<p>China, no doubt, was the first country to ornament its silken -webs with a pattern. India, Persia, and Syria, then Byzantine -Greece, followed, but at long intervals between, in China’s footsteps. -Stuffs so figured brought with them to the west the name -“diaspron” or diaper, bestowed upon them at Constantinople. -But about the twelfth century the city of Damascus, even then -long celebrated for its looms, so far outstripped all other places -for beauty of design that her silken textiles were in demand everywhere; -and thus, as often happens, traders fastened the name -of Damascen or Damask upon every silken fabric richly wrought -and curiously designed, no matter whether it came or not from -Damascus. At last, samit, having long been the epithet betokening -all that was rich and good in silk, was forgotten, and -diaper, from being the very word significant of pattern, became -a secondary term descriptive of merely a part in the elaborate -design on damask.</p> - -<p>Baudekin, that sort of costly cloth of gold spoken of so much -during so many years in English literature, took (as was said -before) its famous name from Bagdad. Many specimens of baudekin -in the South Kensington collection furnish proofs of the -ancient weavers’ dexterity in their management of the loom, and -especially of the artists’ taste in setting out their intricate and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> -beautiful designs. An identification between very many samples -there brought together of ancient textiles in silk and the descriptions -of similar stuffs given us in those valuable records, our old -church inventories, might be carried on if necessary to a very -lengthened extent.</p> - -<p>Dorneck was the name given to an inferior kind of damask -wrought of silk, wool, linen thread and gold, in Flanders. This -was manufactured towards the end of the fifteenth century mostly -at Tournay; which city in Flemish was often called Dorneck—a -word variously spelt as Darnec, Darnak, Darnick, and sometimes -even Darness.</p> - -<p>The guild of the blessed Virgin at Boston had a care cloth of -“silke dornex” and church furniture. The “care cloth” was a -sort of canopy held over the bride and bridegroom as they knelt -for the nuptial blessing, according to the Salisbury rite, at the -marriage mass. At Exeter dorneck was used in chasubles for -orphreys. A specimen of dorneck may be seen, no. 7058. It is -several times mentioned in the York fabric rolls.</p> - -<p>Buckram, so called from Bokkara where it was originally -made, in the middle ages was much esteemed for being costly and -very fine; and consequently fit for use in church vestments and for -secular personal wear. “Panus Tartaricus” or Tartary cloth is -often spoken of. John Grandison, bishop of Exeter in 1327, -gave to his cathedral flags of white and red buckram; and among -the five very rich veils for covering the moveable lectern in that -church three were lined with blue “bokeram.” As late as the -beginning of the sixteenth century this stuff was held good enough -for lining to a black velvet gown for a queen, Elizabeth of York. -The coarse thick fabric which now goes by the name is very -different from the older production known as “bokeram.”</p> - -<p>Burdalisaunder, Bordalisaunder, Bourde de Elisandre, with -other varieties in spelling, is a term often to be met with in old -wills and church inventories. In the year 1327 Exeter had a -chasuble of Bourde de Elisandre of divers colours: and from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span> -Yorkshire wills we find that sometimes it was wide enough for -half a piece to form the adornment of a high altar.</p> - -<p>“Bord” in Arabic means a striped cloth; and we know, both -from travellers and the importation of the textile itself, that many -tribes in north and eastern Africa weave stuffs for personal wear -of a pattern consisting of white and black longitudinal stripes. -St. Augustin, living in north Africa near the modern Algiers, -speaks of a stuff for clothing called “burda” in the end of the -fourth and beginning of the fifth century. It is not impossible -that the curtains for the tabernacle as well as the girdles for Aaron -and his sons, of fine linen and violet and purple and scarlet twice -dyed, were wrought with this very pattern, so that in the “burd -Alisaunder” we behold the oldest known design for any textile. -This stuff in the middle ages was a silken web in different coloured -stripes, and specimens also may be found at South Kensington. -Though made in many places round the Mediterranean this silk -took its name, at least in England, from Alexandria.</p> - -<p>Fustian, of which we still have two forms in velveteen and -corduroy, was originally wove at Fustat on the Nile, with a warp -of linen thread and a woof of thick cotton, so twilled and cut that -it showed on one side a thick but low pile; and the web thus -managed took its name of Fustian from that Egyptian city. At -what period it was invented we do not rightly know, but we are -well aware it must have been brought very early to this country; -for our countryman St. Stephen Harding, when a Cistercian -abbot and an old man about the year 1114, forbade chasubles in -his church to be made of anything but fustian or plain linen. -The austerity of his rule reached even the ornaments of the -church. From such a prohibition we are not to draw as a conclusion -that fustian was at the time a mean material; quite the -contrary, although not splendid it was a seemly textile. Years -afterwards, in the fourteenth century, Chaucer tells us of his -<span class="locked">knight:—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Of fustian he wered a gepon.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> -In the fifteenth century Naples had a repute for weaving -fustians; and our English churchwardens, not being learned in -geography or spelling, made some odd mistakes in their accounts -about this as about some other continental stuffs: “Fuschan -in appules” for fustian from Naples is droll; yet droller -still is “mustyrd devells,” for a cloth made in France at a town -called Mustrevilliers.</p> - -<p>Muslin, as it is now throughout the world so from the earliest -antiquity, has been everywhere in Asia in favourite use both as an -article of dress and as furniture. Its cloud-like thinness and its -lightness were not the only charms belonging to this stuff: it was -esteemed equally as much for the taste with which stripes of gold -had been woven in its warp. As we learn from the travels of -Marco Polo, the further all wayfarers in Asia wandered among -eastern nations the higher they found the point of excellence -which had been reached in weaving silk and gold into splendid -fabrics. The silkworm lived and thrived there and the cotton -plant also was in its home, its birth-place, in those regions.</p> - -<p>Like many cities of central Asia, Mosul had earned for itself a -reputation of old for the beauty of its gold-wrought silken textiles. -Cotton grew all around in plenty; the inhabitants, especially the -women, were gifted with such quick feeling of finger that they -could spin thread from this cotton of more than hair-like fineness. -Cotton with them took the place of silk in the loom; and gold -was not forgotten in the weaving. Their work, not only because -it was so much cheaper but from its own peculiar beauty and -comeliness, won for itself a high place in common estimation: and -the name of the town where it was wrought in such perfection was -given to it as its distinctive name. Hence, whether wove with or -without gold, we call this cotton web muslin, from the Asiatic city -of Mosul.</p> - -<p>Cloth of Areste is another term for woven stuffs, to be found -in our old English deeds and inventories. The first time we -meet it is in an order given, 1244, by Henry the third for finding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> -two cloths of Areste with which two copes were to be made for -royal chapels. Again it comes a few years later at St. Paul’s, -which cathedral <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 1295 had, besides a dalmatic and tunicle -of this silk “white silk of Areste diapered,” as many as thirty and -more hangings of the same texture.</p> - -<p>From the description of these pieces we gather that this so-called -cloth of Areste must have been both beautiful and rich, -being for the most part cloth of gold figured elaborately; some -with lions and double-headed eagles, others, for example, with the -death and burial of our Lord.</p> - -<p>We are not disposed to agree with the suggestion that this -cloth was a kind of arras. Arras had not won for itself a reputation -for its tapestry before the fourteenth century. Tapestry -itself is too thick and heavy for use in vestments; yet this cloth of -Areste was light enough for tunicles, and when worn out was -sometimes condemned at St. Paul’s to be put aside for lining -other ritual garments. Among the three meanings for the mediæval -“Aresta” one is any kind of covering. It seems, therefore, -probable that these cloths of Areste took their name not -from the place where they had been woven, but from the use to -which they were generally put; namely, for hangings about -churches. Moreover, tapestry or Arras work, being thick and -heavy, could never have been employed for such light use as that -of apparels nor would it have been diapered like silk, yet we find -“Areste” to have been so fashioned and so used.</p> - -<p>Silks also were distinguished through their colours and shades -of colours: and the men who drew up the mediæval inventories -seem to have been gifted with a keen eye for varieties of shades -and tints. For instance, a chasuble at St. Paul’s is set down, late -in the thirteenth century, as made of samit dyed in a purple -somewhat bordering on a blood-red tone. Tarsus colour is often -mentioned: and it was, probably, some shade of purple. The -people of Tarsus no doubt got from their murex, a shell-fish of the -class mollusca and purpurifera family to be found on their coast,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span> -their dyeing matter; and when we remember what changes are -wrought in the animal itself by the food it eats, and what strong -effects are made by slight variations in climate, even atmosphere, -upon materials for colouring in the moment of application, we -may easily understand how the difference arose between the two -tints of purple.</p> - -<p>“Cloth of Tarsus” itself was of a rare and costly kind, of fine -goats’ hair and silk. The tint was some shade of royal purple. -Chaucer tells us that</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The great Emetrius, the king of Inde,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Upon a stede bay, trapped in stele,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Covered with cloth of gold diapred wele,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Came riding like the god of armes Mars.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">His cote armure was of a cloth of Tars,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Couched with perles, etc.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Other cities besides Tarsus gave their names to various shades -of purple; according as they were dyed at Antioch, Alexandria, -or Naples. Each place had a particular shade which distinguished -it from the others. It is not now possible to ascertain -what were the exact distinctions of tint. Sky-blue was a colour -everywhere in church use for certain festivals throughout England. -In the early inventories the name for that tint is “Indicus,” -“Indus,” reminding us of our present <i>indigo</i>. In later lists it is -called “Blodius,” not sanguinary but blue. Murrey, or a reddish -brown, is also often specified.</p> - -<p>Silks woven of two colours, so that one of them showed itself -unmixed and quite distinct on one side, and the second appeared -equally clear on the other—a thing sometimes now looked upon -as a wonder in modern weaving—might occasionally be met with -here at the mediæval period: Exeter cathedral had, in 1327, a silk -cloth “of red colour inside and yellow outside.” At York, in -1543, there was “a vestment of changeable silke,” “besides one -of changeable taffety for Good Friday.”</p> - -<p>Marble silk had a weft of several colours so woven as to make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> -the whole web look like marble, stained with a variety of tints. -There were many such vestments in old St. Paul’s. During full -three centuries this marble silk found great favour among us; for -Henry Machyn, in his curious diary, tells us how “the old qwyne -of Schottes rod thrught London,” and how “then cam the lord -tresorer with a C. gret horsse and ther cotes of marbull,” etc., to -meet her the 6th of November, 1551.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">We</span> must now speak of embroidery. The art of working with the -needle flowers, fruits, human and animal forms, or any fanciful -design, upon webs woven of silk, linen, cotton, wool, hemp, besides -other kinds of stuff, is of the highest antiquity.</p> - -<p>Those patterns, after so many fashions, which we see figured -upon the garments worn by men and women on Egyptian and -Assyrian monuments, but especially on the burned-clay vases -made and painted by the Greeks in their earliest as well as -in later times, or which we read about in the writings of that -people, were not wrought in the loom, but worked by the needle.</p> - -<p>The old Egyptian loom—and that of the Jews must have been -like it—was, as we know from paintings, of the simplest shape, -and seems to have been able to do little more diversified in -design than straight lines in different colours; and at best nothing -higher in execution than checker-work: beyond this, all was put -in by hand with the needle. In Paris, at the Louvre, are several -pieces of early Egyptian webs coloured, drawings of which have -been published by Sir Gardner Wilkinson in his work ‘The -Egyptians in the time of the Pharaohs.’ There are two pieces -wrought up and down with needlework; the second piece of blue -is figured all over in white embroidery with a pattern of netting, -the meshes of which shut in irregular cubic shapes, and in the -lines of the reticulation the mystic “fylfot” is seen. Sir J. G. -Wilkinson says of them: “They are mostly cotton, and, though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span> -their date is uncertain, they suffice to show that the manufacture -was Egyptian; and the many dresses painted on the monuments -of the eighteenth dynasty show that the most varied patterns -were used by the Egyptians more than 3000 years ago, as they -were at a later period by the Babylonians, who became noted for -their needlework.”</p> - -<p>It is clear from the book of Exodus that the Israelites from -very early times, having learnt the art in Egypt, embroidered their -garments; although the word “embroidery” which occurs so -frequently in every English version probably sometimes means -merely weaving in stripes, and not work with the needle. The -embroidering also of the sails of vessels was not uncommon in the -east; boats used in sacred festivals on the Nile were so decorated; -and the prophet Ezekiel says to the people of Tyre, “Fine linen -with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest -forth to be thy sail.” The reader will here also remember Shakspeare’s -description of the barge of Cleopatra;</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Burned on the water:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The winds were love-sick with them; she did lie<br /></span> -<span class="i0">In her pavilion, cloth of gold, of tissue, etc.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Pliny says that the Phrygians invented embroidery, and that -garments so ornamented were called Phrygionic. Of such a fashion -were “the art-wrought vests of splendid purple tint” brought -forth by Dido, and the cloak given by Andromache to Ascanius. -Hence, an embroiderer was called in Latin “Phrygio,” and -needlework “Phrygium” or “Phrygian” work. When the design, -as often happened, was wrought in solid gold wire or golden -thread, the embroidery so worked was named “auriphrygium.” -From this term comes the old English word “orphrey.”</p> - -<p>While Phrygia in general, Babylon in particular (as Pliny also -tells us) became celebrated for the beauty of its embroideries. -All who have seen the sculptures in the British museum brought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span> -from Nineveh, and described and figured by Layard, must have -remarked how lavishly the Assyrians adorned their robes with the -needlework for which one of their greatest cities was so famous. -Up to the first century of our era the reputation which Babylon -had won for her textiles and needlework still lived. We know -from Josephus, who had often been to worship at Jerusalem, that -the veils of the Temple were Babylonian; and of the outer one -that writer says: “there was a veil of equal largeness with the -door. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue and -fine linen, and scarlet and purple, and of a texture that was -wonderful.”</p> - -<p>What the Jews did for the Temple we may be sure was done -by Christians for the Church. The faithful, however, went even -further, and wore garments figured all over with sacred subjects -in embroidery. We learn this from a stirring sermon preached by -St. Asterius, bishop of Amasia in Pontus, in the fourth century. -Taking for his text “a certain rich man who was clothed in -purple and fine linen” he upbraids the world for its follies in dress, -and complains that some people went about arrayed like painted -walls, with beasts and flowers all over them; while others, pretending -a more serious tone of thought, dressed in clothes depicting -the doings and wonders of our Lord. “Strive,” St. -Asterius exhorts them, “to follow in your lives the teachings of -the Gospel, rather than have the miracles of our Redeemer embroidered -upon your outward dress.” To have had so many -subjects shown upon one garment it is clear that each must have -been done very small, and wrought in outline; a style which is -being brought back, with great effect, into modern ecclesiastical -use.</p> - -<p>The discriminating accuracy with which our old writers noted -the several kinds of textile gifts bestowed upon a church is as -instructive as praiseworthy. Ingulph did not think it enough to -say that abbot Egelric had given many hangings to the church at -Croyland, the great number of which were silken, but he explains<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> -also that some were ornamented with birds wrought in gold and -sewed on; in fact, of cut-work; others with those birds woven -into the stuff; others quite plain. We find the same care taken -in old inventories.</p> - -<p>By the latter end of the thirteenth century embroidery obtained -for its several styles and various sorts of ornamentation a -distinguishing and technical nomenclature. One of the earliest -documents in which we meet with this set of terms is the inventory -drawn up, in 1295, of the vestments belonging to St. -Paul’s cathedral, printed by Dugdale: herein, the “opus plumarium,” -the “opus pectineum,” the “opus pulvinarium,” “consutum -de serico,” “de serico consuto,” may be severally found.</p> - -<p>“Opus plumarium” was the then usual term for what is now -commonly called embroidery; and was given to needlework of -this kind because the stitches were laid down longwise and not -across: that is, so put together that they seemed to overlap one -another like the feathers in the plumage of a bird. This style -was aptly called “feather-stitch” work, in contradistinction to -that done in cross and tent stitch, or the “cushion-style.”</p> - -<p>The “opus pulvinarium,” or “cushion-style,” was like the -modern so-called Berlin work. As now, so then it was done in -the same stitching with pretty much the same materials and -generally, if not always, put to the same purpose; for cushions, to -sit or to kneel upon in church or to uphold the mass-book at the -altar; hence its name of “cushion-style.” In working it silken -thread is known to have been often used. Among other specimens, -and in silk, there is a beautiful cushion of a date corresponding -to the London inventory at South Kensington, no. -1324. Being well adapted for working heraldry this stitch has -been used from an early period for the purpose; and emblazoned -orphreys, like the narrow hem on the Syon cope, were wrought -in it.</p> - -<p>The “opus pectineum” was a kind of woven work imitative -of embroidery, and employed to supply it. John Garland, in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> -dictionary, explains that it was made by means of a comb, or -some comb-like instrument: and from this the work itself received -the distinctive appellation of “pectineum,” or comb-wrought. -Before John Garland left England for France, to teach -a school there, he must have often seen his countrywomen at -such an occupation; and the amice given by Katherine Lovell to -St. Paul’s, “de opere pectineo,” may perhaps have been the -work of her own hands.</p> - -<p>Women in the middle ages were so ready at the needle that -they could make their embroidery look as if it had been done in -the loom, really woven. A shred of crimson cendal figured in -gold and silver thread with a knight on horseback, armed as of -the latter time of Edward the first, was shown to us some time -ago. At first sight the mounted warrior seemed to have been -not hand-worked but woven; so flat, so even was every thread. -Looking at it however through a glass and turning it about, we -found it to have been embroidered by the finger in such a way that -the stitches laid down upon the surface were carried through into -the canvas lining at the back of the thin silk. In this same -manner all the design, both before and behind, upon the fine -English-wrought chasuble at South Kensington, no. 673, was -probably worked.</p> - -<p>At the latter end of the thirteenth century our countrywomen -invented a new way of embroidery. Without giving up altogether -the old “opus plumarium” or feather-stitch, they mixed it with a -new style, both of needlework and mechanism. So beautiful was -the novel method deemed abroad that it won for itself the complimentary -appellation of “opus Anglicum,” or English work. -In what its peculiarity consisted has long been a question and a -puzzle among foreign archæological writers; and a living one of -eminence, M. Voisin, noticing a cope of English work given to -the church of Tournai, says: “Il serait curieux de savoir quelle -broderie ou quel tissu on designait sous le nom de <i>opus Anglicum</i>.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> -But if we examine that very fine piece of English needlework, -the Syon cope, at South Kensington, no. 9182, we find that the -first stitches for the human face were begun in the centre of the -cheek, and worked in circular lines; falling (after the further side -had been made) into straight lines, which were so carried on -through the rest of the fleshes; in some instances, also, through -the draperies. But this was done in a sort of chain-stitch, and a -newly practised mechanical appliance was brought into use. -After the whole figure had thus been wrought with this kind -of chain-stitch in circles and straight lines, then with a little thin -iron rod ending in a small bulb or smooth knob slightly heated, -those middle spots in the faces that had been worked in circular -lines were pressed down; and the deep wide dimples in the throat, -especially of aged persons. By the hollows thus lastingly sunk -a play of light and shadow is brought out, which at a short distance -lends to the portion so treated the appearance of low relief. -Chain-stitch, then, worked in circular lines and relief given to -parts by hollows sunk into the faces and other portions of the -persons, constitute the elements of the “opus Anglicum,” or -embroidery after the English manner. How the chain-stitch was -worked into circles for the faces, and straight lines for the rest of -the figures, is well shown by a woodcut, after a portion of the -Steeple Aston embroideries, given in the archæological journal, -vol iv. p. 285.</p> - -<p>Although not merely the faces and the extremities but the -dresses also of the persons figured were generally wrought in -chain-stitch, and afterwards treated as we have just described, -another practice was to work the draperies in feather-stitch, which -was also employed for the grounding, and diapered after a simple, -zigzag design; as we find in the Syon cope.</p> - -<div id="ip_84" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 27em;"> - <img src="images/i_084.jpg" width="424" height="516" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Part of the orphrey of the Syon cope.</div></div> - -<p>How highly English embroideries were at one period appreciated -by foreigners may be gathered from the especial notice -taken of them abroad; as we may find in continental documents. -Matilda, queen of William the conqueror, carried away from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span> -abbey of Abingdon its richest vestments, and would not be put -off with inferior ones. In his will <span class="smcap smaller">A. D.</span> 1360 cardinal Talairand, -bishop of Albano, speaks of the English embroideries on a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> -costly set of white vestments. A bishop of Tournai, in 1343, -bequeathed to that cathedral an old English cope, as well -as a beautiful corporal “of English work.” Among the -copes reserved for prelates’ use in the chapel of Charles duke -of Bourgogne, brother-in-law to John duke of Bedford, there was -one of English work very elaborately fraught with many figures, -as appears from this description of it: “une chappe de brodeure -d’or, façon d’Engleterre, à plusieurs histoires de N.D. et anges et -autres ymages, estans en laceures escriptes, garnie d’un orfroir -d’icelle façon fait à apostres, desquelles les manteulx sont tous -couvertes de perles, et leur diadesmes pourphiler de perles, estans -en manière de tabernacles, faits de deux arbres, dont les tiges sont -touts couvertes de perles, et à la dite chappe y a une bille des -dites armes, garnie de perles comme la dessus dicte.”</p> - -<p>While so coveted abroad, our English embroidery was highly -prized and well paid for at home. We find in the Issue Rolls -that Henry the third had a chasuble embroidered by Mabilia of -Bury St. Edmund’s; and that Edward the second paid a hundred -marks to Rose the wife of John de Bureford, a citizen and mercer -of London, for a choir-cope of her embroidering, and which was -to be sent to the Pope as an offering from the queen.</p> - -<p>English embroidery afterwards lost its first high reputation. -Through those years wasted with the wars of the Roses the work -of the English needle was very poor, very coarse, and, so to say, -ragged; as, for instance, the chasuble at South Kensington, -no. 4045. Nothing of the celebrated chain-stitch with dimpled -faces in the figures can be found about it: every part is worked in -the feather-stitch, slovenly put down. During the early part of -the seventeenth century our embroiderers again struck out a new -style, which consisted in throwing up the figures a good height -above the grounding. Of this raised work there is a fine specimen -in the fourth of the copes preserved in the chapter library at -Durham. It is said to have been wrought for and given by -Charles the first to that cathedral. This red silk vestment is well<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> -sprinkled with bodiless cherubic heads crowned with rays and -borne up by wings; while upon the hood is David, holding in one -hand the head of Goliah; the whole done in highly raised embroidery. -Bibles of the large folio size, covered in rich silk or -satin and embroidered with the royal arms done in bold raised-work, -are still to be found in our libraries. More than one of -these volumes is said to have been a gift from the king to a forefather -of the present owner.</p> - -<p>This style of raised embroidery remained in use for many years. -Not only large Bibles but smaller volumes, especially prayer-books, -had bindings enriched with it. Generally such examples -are attributed, and in most cases wrongly, to the so-called nuns of -Little Gidding. The same kind of work is sometimes found on -the broad frames of old looking-glasses: setting forth perhaps, as -in the specimen no. 892, the story of Ahasuerus and Esther, or -a passage in some courtship carried on after the manners of -Arcadia.</p> - -<p>Few people at the present day have a just idea of the labour, -the money, and the length of time often bestowed of old upon -embroideries, which had been sketched as well as wrought by the -hands of men, each in his own craft the ablest and most cunning -of his time. In behalf of England plenty of evidence has been -produced already: as a proof of the same labour elsewhere a -remarkable passage may be quoted, given, in his life of Antonio -Pollaiuolo, by Vasari: “For San Giovanni in Florence there were -made certain very rich vestments after the design of this master, -all of gold-wove velvet with pile upon pile (di broccato riccio -sopra riccio), each woven of one entire piece and without seam, -embroidered with the most subtile mastery of that art by Paolo da -Verona, a man most eminent of his calling, and of incomparable -ingenuity. This work took twenty-six years for its completion, -being wholly in close stitch (questi ricami fatti con punto serrato); -but the excellent method of which is now all but lost, the custom -being in these days to make the stitches much wider (il punteggiare<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span> -piu largo), whereby the work is rendered less durable and -much less pleasing to the eye.” These vestments may yet be seen -framed and glazed in presses around the sacristy of San Giovanni. -Antonio died in 1498. The magnificent cope before referred to, -now at Stonyhurst, is of one seamless piece of gorgeous gold tissue -figured with bold wide-spreading foliage in crimson velvet, pile -upon pile, and dotted with small gold spots; probably it came -from the same loom that threw off these famous San Giovanni -vestments.</p> - -<div id="ip_87" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 25em;"> - <img src="images/i_087.jpg" width="392" height="396" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Embroidered Saddle-cloth of the sixteenth century.</div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> old English “opus consutum” or cut-work, called in French -“appliqué,” is a term of rather wide meaning, as it takes in several -sorts of decorative accompaniments to needlework.</p> - -<p>When anything—flower, fruit, or figure—is wrought by itself -upon a separate piece of silk or canvas and afterwards sewed on -to the vestment for church use, or article for domestic purpose, it -comes to be known as cut-work. This kind of work was employed -for dresses and vestments; but we find it most commonly on bed-curtains, -hangings for rooms and halls, and other items in household -furniture.</p> - -<p>Of cut-work in embroidery those pieces of splendid Rhenish -needlework with the blazonment of Cleves, sewed upon a ground -of crimson silk, nos. 1194–5, at South Kensington, and the -chasuble of crimson double-pile velvet, no. 78, are good -examples. In the last, the niches in which the saints stand are -loom-wrought, but those personages themselves are exquisitely -worked on separate pieces of fine canvas and afterwards let into -the unwoven spaces left open for them. A Florentine piece of -cut-work, no. 5788, is alike remarkable for its great beauty and -the skill shown in bringing together both weaving and embroidery. -Much of the architectural accessories is loom-wrought, while the -extremities of the evangelists are all done by the needle; but the -head, neck, and long beard are worked by themselves upon very -fine linen, and afterwards put together in such a way that the full -white beard overlaps the tunic.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span> -Other methods gave a quicker help in this cut-work. For the -sake of expedition all the figures were sometimes at once shaped -out of woven silk, satin, velvet, linen, or woollen cloth as wanted, -and sewed upon the grounding of the article: the features of the -face and the contours of the body were then wrought by the needle -in very narrow lines done in brown silk thread. At times, even -this much of embroidery was set aside for the painting brush, and -instances are to be found in which the spaces left uncovered by -the loom for the heads and extremities of the human figures are -filled in with the brush. Sometimes, again, the cut-work done in -these ways is framed, as it were, with an edging, either in plain or -gilt leather, hempen, or silken cord, like the leadings of a stained -glass window. Perhaps in no collection open anywhere to public -view can a piece of cut-work be found so full of teaching about -the process of this easy way of execution as no. 1370 at South -Kensington: and we earnestly recommend the attention of our -readers to that example.</p> - -<p>For the invention of cut-work, or “di commesso” as Vasari -calls it, that writer tells us we are indebted to one of his -Florentine countrymen: “It was by Sandro Botticelli that the -method of preparing banners and standards in what is called cut-work -was invented; and this he did that the colours might not -sink through, showing the tint of the cloth on each side. The -baldachino of Orsanmichele is by this master, and is so -treated, etc.” But Vasari is not correct: the piece just -spoken of, no. 1370, was made half a century before Botticelli -was born.</p> - -<p>There are other accessories in mediæval embroidery which -ought not to be overlooked.</p> - -<p>In some few instances, gold and silver gilt star-like flowers are -to be found sewed upon the silks or amid the embroidery from -Venice and other provinces in Italy, and from southern Germany. -Some fragments of silk damask, no. 8612, are curious examples of -Italian taste. These at one time have been thickly strewed with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> -trefoils cut out of gilt metal but very thin, and not sewed but glued -on to the silk: many of the leaves have fallen off, and those -remaining turned black. Precious stones also, coral, and seed -pearls were sewed upon textiles; and, not uncommonly, small -coloured beads and bugles of glass. Belonging to St. Paul’s, in -1295, among many other amices there was one having glass stones -upon it, both large and small.</p> - -<p>Another form of glass fastened by heat to gold and copper, -enamel, was extensively employed as an adornment upon textiles. -The gorgeous “chesable of red cloth of gold with orphreys before -and behind set with pearls, blue, white, and red, with plates of -gold enamelled, wanting fifteen plates, etc.,” described in -Dugdale’s Monasticon, and given by John of Gaunt’s duchess -to Lincoln cathedral, shows how this rich ornamentation was -applied to garments, especially for church use, in very large -quantities.</p> - -<p>In England the old custom was to sew a great deal of goldsmith’s -work, for enrichment, upon articles meant for personal -wear. When our first Edward’s grave in Westminster abbey was -opened in 1774 there was seen upon the body, besides other -silken robes, a stole-like band of rich white tissue about the neck -and crossed upon the breast: it was studded with gilt quatrefoils -in filigree work and embroidered with pearls. From the knees -downwards the body was wrapped in a pall of cloth of gold. -Henry the third gave a frontal to the high altar in Westminster -abbey upon which, besides carbuncles in golden settings and -several large pieces of enamel, were as many as 866 smaller ones: -perhaps the “esmaux de plique” of the French.</p> - -<p>In the Norman-French silken stuffs thus ornamented were said -to be “batuz,” that is, beaten with hammered-up gold. The -Treasury calendars, edited by Palgrave, tell us that Richard the -second gave to the chapel in the castle of Haverford “ii rydell -batuz;” two altar-curtains beaten (probably with ornaments in -gilt silver; like an amice so described which belonged to St. Paul’s).<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span> -For the secular employment of this same sort of decoration we -have several curious examples. Ladies’ dresses were so adorned, -as we may see in these verses:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">A coronell on hur hedd sett,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Hur clothys wyth bestes and byrdes wer bete,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">All abowte for pryde.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div id="ip_91" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 30em;"> - <img src="images/i_091.jpg" width="468" height="396" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Ancient banner of the city of Strasburg: see next page.</div></div> - -<p>King John in 1215 sent an order (extant in the Close rolls) -to Reginald de Cornhull and William Cook to have made for him,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span> -besides five tunics, five banners with his arms upon them, -well beaten in gold: “bene auro batuatas.” A very remarkable -example attributed to the fourteenth century “the banner of -Strasbourg” was preserved there until very lately, when it -was unhappily destroyed in the bombardment of that city in -1870.</p> - -<p>Dugdale (in his Baronage) gives the original bill for fitting out -one of the ships in which Beauchamp earl of Warwick, during the -reign of Henry the sixth, went over to France. Among other items -are these: “Four hundred pencils (long narrow strips of silk, used -as flags) beat with the raggedstaff in silver; the other pavys (one -of two shields probably of wood, and fastened outside the ship at -its bows) painted with black, and a raggedstaff beat with silver -occupying all the field; one coat for my lord’s body, beat with -fine gold; two coats for heralds, beat with demi gold; a great -streamer for a ship of forty yeards in length and eight yeards in -breadth, with a great bear and griffin holding a raggedstaff poudred -full of raggedstaffs; three penons (small flags) of satten; sixteen -standards of worsted entailed with the bear and a chain.” The -quatrefoils on the robe of Edward the first, the silver lions on the -Glastonbury cope, the beasts and birds on the lady’s gown, the -bear and griffin and raggedstaff belonging to the Beauchamp’s -blazoning, and all similar enrichments put upon silken stuffs, were -cut out of very thin plates of gold or silver, so as to hang upon -them lightly, and were hammered up to show in low relief the -fashion of the flower and the lineaments of the beast or bird meant -to be represented. Such a style of ornamentation in gold or silver, -stitched on silken stuffs, was far more common once than is now -thought. It had also a technical description: in speaking of it -people would either write or say, “silk beaten with gold or silver;” -as, for example, Barbara Mason used the term when in 1538 she -bequeathed to a church “a vestment of grene sylke betyn with -goold.”</p> - -<p>Spangles, when they happened to be used, were not like those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span> -now employed but fashioned after another and artistic shape, and -put on in a different manner. A fragment still exists from the -chasuble belonging to the set of vestments wrought, it is said, by -Isabella of Spain and her maids of honour; and used the first time -high mass was sung in Granada, after it had been taken by the -Spaniards from the Moors. Upon this are flowers, well thrown up -in relief, done in spangles on a crimson velvet ground. The -spangles—some in gold, some in silver—are, though small, of -several sizes; all are voided; that is, hollow in the middle; -with the circumference not flat but convex, and are sewed on -like tiles, one overlapping the other, producing a rich and -pleasing effect. Our present spangles, in the flat shape, are quite -modern.</p> - -<p>Another kind of embroidery for garments was in gold, worked -sometimes by itself, sometimes with coloured silk thread laid down -alternately beside it; so as to lend a tinge of green, crimson, pink, -or blue to the imagined tissue of the robe, as if it were made of a -golden stuff shot with another tint.</p> - -<p>This gold “passing” was sewn on. The workwomen taking -thin silk, while fastening the passing, dotted it all over in small -stitches set exactly in a way that showed the same pattern. With -no other appliance they were thus enabled to lend to their draperies -the appearance of having been not wrought by the needle but -actually cut out of a piece of textile; for which they have been -sometimes mistaken.</p> - -<p>Anciently, also, in England another mode of embroidering -articles, either for church use or for household furniture, was by -darning or working the subject upon linen netting. This was -called net-work, filatorium, as we learn from the Exeter inventory, -where we read that its cathedral possessed in 1327 three pieces of -it for use at the altar: one in particular for throwing over the desk. -These thread embroideries were chiefly wrought during the fourteenth -century; but as early as 1295 St. Paul’s had a cushion of -the kind.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span></p> - -<div id="ip_94" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 22em;"> - <img src="images/i_094.jpg" width="285" height="234" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Embroidered hangings of a bed; from a MS. of the fifteenth -century, in the British museum.</div></div> - -<p>Crochet, knitting done with linen thread, and the thick -kinds of lace wrought (chiefly in Flanders) upon the cushion -with bobbins, were much employed under the name of nun’s -lace from the sixteenth century and upwards, for bordering -altar-cloths, albs, and every sort of towel required for church -purposes.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Tapestry</span> is neither real weaving nor true embroidery, but in a -manner unites in its working those two processes into one. -Though wrought in a loom and upon a warp stretched out along -its frame, it has no woof thrown across those threads with a shuttle -or any like appliance but its weft is done with many short threads, -all variously coloured and put in by a needle. It is not embroidery, -though so very like it, for tapestry is not worked upon what -is really a web, having both warp and woof, but upon a series of -closely set fine strings.</p> - -<p>From the way in which tapestry is spoken of in Holy Writ -we may be sure that the art is very old; and if it did not take -its first rise in Egypt, we are led by the same authority to conclude -that it soon became successfully cultivated by the people of that -land. The woman in the book of Proverbs says: “I have woven -my bed with cords. I have covered it with painted tapestry, -brought from Egypt.” We find, therefore, not only that it was -employed as an article of household furniture among the Israelites, -but that the Egyptians were the makers.</p> - -<p>From Egypt through western Asia the art of tapestry-making -found its way to Europe, and after many ages at last to England. -Among the other manual labours followed in religious houses -this handicraft was one; and monks became some of the best -workmen. The altars and the walls of their churches were hung -with tapestry. Matthew Paris tells us that among other ornaments<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> -which, in the reign of Henry the first, abbot Geoffrey had made -for his church of St. Alban’s were three reredoses; the first a large -one wrought with the finding of the body of St. Alban; the other -two figured with the parables of the man who fell among thieves, -and of the prodigal son. While in London in the year 1316 Simon -abbot of Ramsey bought looms, staves, shuttles, and a slay: “pro -weblomes emptis xx<sup>s</sup>. Et pro staves ad easdem vj<sup>d</sup>. Item pro -iiij shittles pro eodem opere ij<sup>s</sup> vj<sup>d</sup>. Item in j. slay pro textoribus -viij<sup>d</sup>.” Collier, in his history, quotes a letter from Giffard, one of -the commissioners for the suppression of the smaller houses, written -to Cromwell; in which he says, speaking of the monastery of -Wolstrope in Lincolnshire: “Not one religious person there but -that he can and doth use either imbrothering, writing books with -very fair hand, making their own garments, carving, painting, or -graving, etc.”</p> - -<p>We may collect from Chaucer that working tapestry was not -an uncommon trade; among his pilgrims he mentions in the -prologue,</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">An haberdasher and a carpenter,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A webbe, a dyer, and a tapisser.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Pieces of English-made tapestry still remain. That fine though -greatly damaged specimen at St. Mary’s hall, Coventry, representing -the marriage of Henry the sixth, is one; a second is the curious -reredos for an altar, belonging to the vintner’s company; this last -is figured with St. Martin on horseback cutting his cloak in two -that he might give one half to a poor man, and with St. Dunstan -singing mass. A third piece, of large size and in good preservation, -is in private possession, and hangs upon the wall in a house -in Cornwall. It is one of four pieces, of which two have been -lost, representing the marriage of Henry the seventh and Elizabeth -of York; and was probably made about the year 1490.</p> - -<p>The art of weaving tapestry was successfully followed in many -parts of France and throughout ancient Flanders; where secular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> -trade-guilds were formed for its especial manufacture in many of -the towns. Several of these places won for themselves an especial -fame; but so far, at last, did Arras outrun them all that arras-work -came to be the common word, both here and on the continent, to -mean all sorts of tapestry, whether wrought in England or abroad. -Thus the fine hangings for the choir of Canterbury cathedral, -now at Aix-en-Provence, though probably made at home by his -own monks and given to that church by prior Goldston in 1595, -are spoken of as arras-work: “de arysse subtiliter intextos.”</p> - -<div id="ip_97" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 11em;"> - <img src="images/i_097.jpg" width="165" height="191" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Banner of the tapestry workers of Lyons.</div></div> - -<p>Arras is but one among other terms by which, during the middle -ages, tapestry was called. Its earliest name was Saracenic work; -“opus Saracenicum;” and, at first, tapestry was wrought as in the -east, in a low or horizontal loom. The artisans of France and -Flanders were the first to introduce the upright or vertical frame, -afterwards known abroad as “de haute lisse,” in contradistinction -to the low or horizontal frame called “de basse lisse.” Workmen -who kept to the unimproved loom were known, in the trade, as -Saracens, for retaining the method of their paynim teachers; and -their work, Saracenic. In the year 1339 John de Croisettes, a -Saracen-tapestry worker living at Arras, sells to the duke of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> -Touraine a piece of gold Saracenic tapestry figured with the story -of Charlemagne: “Jean de Croisettes, tapissier Sarrazinois demeurant -à Arras, vend au duc de Touraine un tapis sarrazinois à or de -l’histoire de Charlemaine.” The high frame, however, soon superseded -the low one; and among the pieces of tapestry belonging -to Philippe duke of Bourgogne and Brabant many are especially -entered as of the high frame; one of which is thus described: -“ung grant tapiz de haulte lice, sauz or, de l’istoire du duc -Guillaume de Normandie comment il conquist Engleterre.” A -very fine example is still to be seen in the collection at the Louvre, -representing the history of St. Martin.</p> - -<div id="ip_98" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 28em;"> - <img src="images/i_098.jpg" width="442" height="339" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">The legend of St. Martin.—From a piece of tapestry of the fourteenth century -in the Louvre.</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span> -With the upright, as with the flat frame, the workman had to -grope in the dark a great deal upon his path. In both, he was -obliged to put in the threads on the back or wrong side of the -piece, following his sketch as best he could behind the strings or -warp. As the face was downward in the flat frame it was much -less easy to observe and correct a fault. In the upright frame he -might go in front, and with his own work in open view on one -hand and the original design full before him on the other, he -could mend as he went on, step by step, the smallest mistake, -were it but a single thread. Put side by side, when finished, the -pieces from the upright frame were in beauty and perfection far -beyond those from the flat one. We can scarcely particularize -the details in which that superiority consisted, for not one single -flat sample is to be identified as certain from evidence within our -reach. It is possible that at South Kensington the specimens -nos. 1296 and 1465 are “Saracenic;” that is, wrought in the low -flat loom, or “de basse lisse;” but all the rest are of the -“de haute lisse,” worked in the upright frame. The “weaver” is -among the trades engraved in the curious volume printed at -Frankfort in 1574, <i>de mechanicis artibus</i>, with plates by Amman.</p> - -<p>When the illuminators of manuscripts began to put in golden -shadings all over their painting the tapestry-workers did the -same. Such a manner cannot be relied on as a criterion whereby -to judge of the exact place where any specimen of tapestry had -been wrought, or to tell its precise age. To work figures on a -golden ground and to shade garments, buildings, and landscapes -with gold, are two different things. Upon several pieces at South -Kensington gold thread has been very plentifully used, but the -metal is of so debased a quality that it has become almost black.</p> - -<p>The use of tapestry for church decoration and household -furniture, both in England and abroad, was for a long period -very great. Many large pieces, mostly of a scriptural character, -were provided by cardinal Wolsey for his palace at Hampton -court. In the next generation, a very famous set was made in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span> -Flanders, which for many years decorated the walls of the House -of Lords: it represented the defeat of the Spanish Armada. This -magnificent memorial was destroyed in the fire of 1834. One -fragment only is known to exist. This piece was cut out to make -way for a gallery at the time of the trial of queen Caroline, and -was secreted by a German servant of the Lord Chamberlain. -The relic was bought some years after for £20 and presented to -the corporation of Plymouth, who still possess it.</p> - -<div id="ip_100" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 16em;"> - <img src="images/i_100.jpg" width="245" height="319" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">The Weaver; from the engraving by J. Amman.</div></div> - -<p>The most beautiful series now in the world is in the Vatican at -Rome, and may be judged of by looking at a few of the original cartoons -(at present in the S. K. museum). Duke Cosimo tried to set -up tapestry work at Florence but did not succeed. Later, Rome -produced some good things; among others, the fine copy of Da -Vinci’s Last Supper still hung up on Maunday Thursday. England<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> -made several attempts to re-introduce the manufacture: first -at Mortlake, then afterwards in London, at Soho. Works from -these two establishments may be met with. At Northumberland -house there was a room hung with large pieces of tapestry wrought -at Soho, and for that mansion, in the year 1758. The designs -were by Francesco Zuccherelli and consisted of landscapes composed -of hills crowned here and there with the standing ruins of -temples or strewed with broken columns, among which groups -of country folks are wandering and amusing themselves. Mortlake -and Soho were failures. Not so the Gobelins at Paris, as -every one well knows.</p> - -<p>In many English houses, especially in the country, good -samples of late Flemish tapestry may be found. Close to London, -Holland house is adorned with some curious specimens, particularly -in the raised style. An earlier example (engraved on the -next page) of the fifteenth century, representing the marriage of -Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany is in a foreign collection.</p> - -<p>Imitated tapestry existed here long ago under the name of -“stayned cloth,” and the workers of it were embodied into a -London guild. At the beginning of the sixteenth century Exeter -cathedral had several pieces of old painted or “stayned” cloth: -“i front stayned cum crucifixo, Maria et Johanne, Petro et Paulo; -viij panni linei stayned, etc.” The great use at that time of such -articles in household furniture may be witnessed in the will, 1503, -of Katherine lady Hastings who bequeaths, besides several other -such pieces, “an old hangin of counterfeit arres of Knollys, which -now hangeth in the hall and all such hangyings of old bawdekyn, -or lynen paynted as now hang in the chappell.” We may also -remember that Falstaff speaks of it as an illustration easily understood; -he says that his troops are “as ragged as Lazarus in the -painted cloth.”</p> - -<p>Carpets are akin to tapestry, and though the use of them may -perhaps be not so ancient yet is very old. Here, again, we must -look to the people of Asia for the finest as well as the earliest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> -examples of this textile. Mediæval specimens are rare anywhere, -and we are glad to recommend attention to two pieces of that -period fortunately in the collection at South Kensington, no. 8649, -of the fourteenth century, and no. 8357, of the sixteenth, both of -Spanish make.</p> - -<div id="ip_102" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 37em;"> - <img src="images/i_102.jpg" width="578" height="502" alt="" /> - <div class="caption p1">Marriage of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany.</div></div> - -<p>The chambers of our royal palaces and the chancels of our -parish churches used to be strewed with rushes. When however -they could afford it the authorities of our cathedrals, even in very<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> -early times, spread the sanctuary with carpets; and at last old -tapestry came to be so employed, as now in Italy. Among such -coverings for the floor before the altar Exeter had a large piece of -Arras cloth figured with the life of the duke of Burgundy, the gift -of one of its bishops, Edmund Lacy, in 1420; besides two large -carpets, one bestowed by bishop Nevill in 1456, the other, of a -chequered pattern, by lady Elizabeth Courtney: “carpet et -panni coram altari sternendi; i pannus de Arys de historia ducis -Burgundie; i larga carpeta, etc.” In an earlier inventory we find -that among the “bancaria” or bench-coverings in the choir of the -same cathedral, one was a large piece of English-made tapestry -with a fretted pattern. It is very probable that as the work of the -Record Commission goes on, and our ancient historians are -printed, evidence may be found that the looms at work in all our -great monasteries among other webs wrought carpets. From -existing testimony we believe that such must have been the practice -at Croyland, where abbot Egelric (the second of the name) -gave to that church, before the year 992, “two large foot-cloths -[so carpets were then called] woven with lions to be laid out -before the high altar on great festivals, and two shorter ones -trailed all over with flowers, for the feast days of the apostles.” -The quantity of carpeting in our palaces may be seen by the way -in which Leland tells us that “my lady the queen’s rooms” were -strewed with them “when she took her chamber.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> value of such a collection of textile fabrics as that at South -Kensington can scarcely be overrated. Without such aid it is -not possible for the painter or the historian to bring before his -own mind, much less bring before another’s, a true representation -of ancient ceremonies and pageants. Whether his subject be a -coronation or a royal marriage, a queen’s “taking her chamber,” -a progress, or a funeral, he cannot correctly set forth the splendour -or the details of the occasion, unless he can refer to existing -examples of the cloths of gold, the figured velvets, the rich embroidery, -or the splendid silks, which used to be worn of old. Take -for example nos. 1310 and 8624. Upon these are figured stags -with tall branching horns, couchant, chained, upturning their -antlered heads to sunbeams darting down upon them amid a -shower of rain; and beneath the stags are eagles. This Sicilian -textile, woven about the end of the fourteenth century, brings to -one’s mind the bronze recumbent figure of a king in Westminster -abbey. It is that of Richard the second; made for him before his -downfall, and by two coppersmiths of London, Nicholas Broker -and Godfrey Prest. This effigy, once finely gilt, is as remarkable -for its beautiful workmanship as for the elaborate manner in which -the cloak and kirtle worn by the king are diapered all over with a -pattern, copied from the silken stuff out of which those garments -must have been cut for his personal wear while living. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span> -pattern consists of a sprig of the planta genesta, the humble -broom plant—the haughty Plantagenet’s device—along with a -couchant hart chained and gazing straight forwards, and above it -a cloud with rays darting up from behind. These were Richard’s -favourite cognizances: the one from his grandfather Edward the -third; the other from his mother Joan of Kent. It is very probable -that the king’s dress was of the same kind of silk Sicilian -textile as the examples just referred to: and that those very -examples are portions of pieces wrought, perhaps at Palermo, for -the court of Richard. They are of the same date and they show -his devices; the chained hart and the sunbeams issuing from a -cloud.</p> - -<p>The seemliness, not to say comfort, of private life was improved -by the use of textiles. Let the historian contrast the -custom even in a royal palace, during the middle ages, with that -now followed in every tradesman’s home. Then straw and rushes -were strewed in houses upon the floor in every room; and Wendover, -in his life of St. Thomas, speaks of the king’s courtiers -platting knots with the litter, and flinging them with a gibe at a -man who had been slighted by the prince. Not quite a hundred -years later when Eleanor of Castile came to London for her -marriage with our first Edward she found her lodgings furnished, -under the directions of the Spanish courtiers who had arrived -before her, with hangings and curtains of silk around the walls, -and carpets spread upon the ground. This offended some of the -people; more of them, as Matthew Paris records, laughed at the -thought that such costly things were laid down to be walked -upon.</p> - -<p>Take, again, the famous Syon cope. Not only is it full of -interest to writers upon liturgies and rituals but of even more to -the herald and genealogist. Covered as its orphreys are with -armorial bearings, this cope carries with it evidences as important -and as valuable as any contemporary roll of arms; and no inquirer -into the pedigrees of the ancient families of the Percies or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span> -Ferrers, of Cliffords or Botelers, and of many others, can afford to -neglect it.</p> - -<p>We have several records of evidence in courts of law taken -from heraldic embroideries upon robes and vestments. In the -famous controversy between the houses of Scrope and Grosvenor, -in the fourteenth century, inquiries were made and proofs were -offered on both sides as to the right of bearing upon their shields -the bend <i>or</i> upon a field <i>azure</i>. Witnesses produced at Westminster -corporas cases, copes, and albs embroidered with the arms -of Scrope. Chaucer was one of the witnesses; and said he had -seen those arms on banners and vestments and commonly called -the arms of Scrope. Again; the fact that in her wardrobe was -found a vestment embroidered with the royal arms was brought -forward to prove the charge of treason against the old countess of -Salisbury, the mother of cardinal Pole; and for which crime she -was condemned.</p> - -<p>Collections of ancient textiles are of still greater use to students -of ecclesiastical history and church rituals than even to the -secular historian. It is probable that the greater number of the -specimens which now exist formed originally portions of sacred -vestments and furniture for altars. Formerly so common, fragments -even of such cloths and robes have become of very great -rarity, especially in England; where for the last two or three -centuries the use of the numerous old church vestments and decorations -has entirely ceased.</p> - -<p>Again, for example: the three cases nos. 5958, 8329, and -8327 are of the kind known as the “capsella cum serico decenter -ornata” of the mediæval writers; small cases or boxes decently -fitted up with silk; or the “capsula corporalium,” the box in -which were kept the corporals or square pieces of fine linen, -required for service during holy week. The name as well as the -use of this appliance is very old, and both are spoken of in the -very ancient ‘Ordines Romani’ edited by Mabillon. One of -these, in the rubric for Good Friday, speaks of the Host as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span> -having been kept in the corporal’s case or box: “in capsula corporialium.” -In England, such small wooden boxes covered with -silks and velvets richly embroidered were once employed for the -same purpose: and several are mentioned in the Exeter inventories.</p> - -<p>The two pyx-cloths, nos. 8342 and 8691, have an especial -interest for the student of mediæval liturgy. There was a custom -during the middle ages in England, as well as in France and -several other countries on the continent, of keeping the Eucharist -hung up over the high altar beneath a canopy, within a pyx of -gold, silver, ivory, or enamel, mantled with a fine linen cloth or -veil. This veil for the pyx was sometimes embroidered with -golden thread and coloured silks. Such an one is mentioned in -the records of the Exchequer, edited by Palgrave: among the -valuables belonging to Richard the second in Haverford castle -and sent by the sheriff of Hereford to the exchequer, at the -beginning of the reign of Henry the fourth, were “i coupe d’or -pour le Corps Ihu Cryst. i towayll ove (avec) i longe parure de -mesure la suyte.”</p> - -<p>Several names were given to this fine linen covering. In the -inventory of things taken from Dr. Caius, and in the college of his -own founding at Cambridge, are “corporas clothes, with the pix -and ‘sindon’ and canopie.” This variety in nomenclature doubtless -has led some writers to state that before Mary queen of Scots -laid her head upon the block she had a “corporal,” strictly so -called, bound over her eyes: as it is given in one of our histories -of England, “a handkerchief in which the Eucharist had formerly -been enclosed.” But this bandage must have been the veil for a -pyx. As Mary wrought much with her needle, and specimens of -her work yet remain at Chatsworth and at Greystock, this piece -may have been embroidered by her own hand and perhaps also -had been once used.</p> - -<p>One of these old English pyx or Corpus Christi cloths, was -found a few years ago at the bottom of a chest in Hessett church,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> -Suffolk. As it is a remarkable specimen of the ingenious handicraft -of our mediæval countrywomen it deserves description. To -make this pyx-cloth a piece of thick linen, about two feet square, -was chosen, and being marked off into small equal widths on all -its four edges, the threads at every other space were, both in the -warp and woof, pulled out. The checquers or squares so produced -were then drawn in by threads tied on the under side, -having the shape of stars, so well and delicately worked that, till -it had been narrowly looked into, the piece was thought to be -guipure lace. An old alb, no. 8710, and an amice, 8307, having -the apparels yet remaining upon both, are well worth attention on -account of somewhat similar curious ornamental needlework in -an intricate manner. In the middle ages in England it was not -unusual to suspend upon pastoral staffs, just below the crook, -a piece of fine linen. We see them represented on effigies and in -illuminations; but existing examples are of the utmost rarity. -Two are at South Kensington: nos. 8279 A, and 8662.</p> - -<p>There are also there several specimens of the christening -cloaks, anciently in use. These were not only conspicuous in -royal christenings but, varying in costliness according to the -parent’s rank, were handed down in inventories and wills. At the -christening of Arthur prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry the -eighth, “my lady Cecill, the queen’s eldest sister, bare the prince -wrapped in a mantell of cremesyn clothe of golde furred with -ermyn,” etc. Shakespeare makes the shepherd, in the Winter’s -tale, cry out, “Here’s a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing cloth -for a squire’s child!” A well-to-do tradesman, whose will is -printed among the Bury wills, bequeathed in 1648 to his daughter -Rose his “beareing cloath, such ... linnen as is belonginge -to infants at their tyme of baptisme.”</p> - -<p>Small square pieces of embroidered linen are sometimes found -in country houses in some old chest, of which the original use is -said not to be now known. But in most cases these were made -for children’s quilts; and very often have the emblems of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span> -evangelists figured at the corners: reminding us of the nursery -rhyme, once common both in England and <span class="locked">abroad—</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="iq">“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Bless the bed that I lie on.”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">The quilts also for grown people were ornamented in the same -way. At Durham, in 1446, in the dormitory of the priory was a -quilt “cum iiij or evangelistis in corneriis.”</p> - -<p>Very few examples now exist of the ceremonial shoe anciently -worn by bishops. These were of velvet, or damask, or strong -linen embroidered. One is preserved at South Kensington, no. -1290: another, once worn by Waynflete bishop of Winchester, is -still at Magdalen college, Oxford. We learn from the York wills -that these shoes were a part of the episcopal vestments: bishop -Pudsey left his mitre, staff, and sandals, “et cætera episcopalia” -to Durham cathedral in 1195. Later the name of “sabatines” -was given them; and archbishop Bowet’s inventory mentions two -pairs: “pro j pare de sabbatones, brouddird et couch’ cum -perell’; pro j pare de sabbatones de albo panno auri.”</p> - -<p>Collections of textile fabrics are of the highest value to the -artist. There is none, anywhere, so rich or complete as that at -South Kensington; and before it was purchased for public use, -painters were glad to refer to any scanty collection in private -hands, or to old pictures or illuminated manuscripts, or engravings.</p> - -<p>But, now, artists may see pieces of the actual stuffs represented -in the pictures, say, of the national Gallery. For example: in -Orcagna’s coronation of the blessed Virgin the blue silk diapered -in gold, with flowers and birds, hung as a back ground; our -Lord’s white tunic diapered in gold with foliage; the mantle of -His mother made of the same stuff; St. Stephen’s dalmatic of -green samit, diapered with golden foliage, are Sicilian in design -and copied from the rich silks which came, in the middle of the -fourteenth century, from the looms of Palermo. While standing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> -before Jacopo di Casentino’s St. John our eye is drawn to the -orphrey on that evangelist’s chasuble embroidered, after the -Tuscan style, with barbed quatrefoils, shutting in the busts of -apostles. Isotta da Ramini, in her portrait by Pietro della Francesca, -wears a gown made of velvet and gold like the cut velvets -at South Kensington.</p> - -<p>So, again, instead of copying patterns taken from the rich -cloth of gold worn by St. Laurence in Francia’s picture, or from -the mantle of the doge in that by Cappaccio, or from the foot-cloths -on the steps in the pictures by Melozzo da Forli, he may -find for his authorities in the same collection existing specimens of -contemporary and similar fabrics.</p> - -<p>Not merely artists of a higher class but decorators also may -be equally benefited by the patterns and examples preserved of -old wall-hangings and tapestry. From early times up to the -middle of the sixteenth century our cathedrals and parish -churches, our castles and manorial houses, in short the dwellings -of the wealthy everywhere, used to be ornamented with wall-painting -done not in “fresco” but in “secco;” that is, distemper. -Upon high festivals the walls of the churches were overspread -with tapestry and needlework; so, too, those in the halls of -palaces, for some solemn ceremonial.</p> - -<p>Warton, in his history of English poetry, gives a passage from -Bradshaw’s life of St. Werburgh written late in the sixteenth -century, from which a few lines are well worth quotation. He is -describing how a large hall was arrayed for a great feast:</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">All herbes and flowers, fragraunt, fayre and swete<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Were strawed in halles, and layd under theyr fete.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Clothes of gold and arras were hanged in the hall<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Depaynted with pyctures and hystoryes manyfolde,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Well wroughte and craftely.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>The story of Adam, Noe, and his shyppe; the twelve sones of -Jacob; the ten plagues of Egypt, <span class="locked">and—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span></p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Duke Josue was joyned after them in pycture,<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Theyr noble actes and tryumphes marcyall<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Freshly were browdred in these clothes royall<br /></span> -</div> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">But over the hye desse in pryncypall place<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Where the sayd thre kynges sat crowned all<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The best hallynge hanged as reason was,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Whereon were wrought the ix orders angelicall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Dyvyded in thre ierarchyses, not cessing to call,<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus</i>, blessed be the Trynite,<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Dominus Deus Sabaoth</i>, thre persons in one deyte.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>Specimens of tapestry of the later mediæval period may not -uncommonly be found: but not so pieces of room hangings, -“hallings,” such as those at South Kensington, nos. 1370, 1297, -and 1465. Similar examples are, we believe, unknown.</p> - -<p>We will add a few words only on one other, and that not -a trivial, part of ancient dress; namely, gloves. Formerly -these were much more ornamented than now; and, when -meant for ladies’ wear, sometimes perfume was bestowed upon -them. Among the new year’s day presents to queen Mary, -before she came to the throne, was “a payr of gloves embrawret -with gold.” A year afterwards “x payr of Spanyneshe gloves -from a duches in Spayne” came to her; and but a month before, -Mrs. Whellers had sent to her highness “a pair of swete gloves.” -Shakespeare, true to the manners of his day, after making Autolycus -chant the praises of his</p> - -<div class="poem-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lawn as white as driven snow;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Cyprus, black as e’er was crow;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Gloves, as sweet as damask roses;<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">puts this into the mouth of the shepherdess: “Come, you promised -me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves.” We may -find a pair of such gloves in the South Kensington collection, no. -4665.</p> - -<p>It may be proper to add, in conclusion, that the greater part<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span> -of the very valuable and extensive collection of mediæval textile -fabrics at South Kensington was collected by Dr. Bock, a canon -of Aix la Chapelle; and purchased from him about the year -1864.</p> - -<div id="ip_112" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 26em;"> - <img src="images/i_112.jpg" width="413" height="365" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">State gloves formerly belonging to Louis XIII.</div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span></p> -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 id="INDEX">INDEX.</h2> -</div> - -<table id="index" summary="Index"> - <tr class="small"> - <td class="wide"> </td> - <td class="tdr narrow">PAGE</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Acca, silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Amasis, his linen corslet,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Anne of Cleves, her pall of cloth of gold,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Areste, cloth of,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> not Arras,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Aristotle first mentions silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Arras, a name for tapestry,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Aurelian, refuses his wife a silk robe,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Babylon, embroideries,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Baldachino, from baudekin,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Banner of Strasburg,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> at Lyons,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Bath, famous for weaving,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Baudekin, a costly stuff,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> origin of name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Batuz,” its meaning,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Block-printed linens,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Blodbendes,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Blodius, blue colour,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Boadicea, her cloak,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Bordalisaunder, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">British bards, distinction of dress,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Bruges, her looms famous,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Buckram, why so called,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Byzantine textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> not good examples at South Kensington,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Cadas, or carduus, a silken stuff,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Camoca, or camak, how used,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Canvas, origin of name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Care-cloth, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Carpets,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cecily, Saint, her robe,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cendal explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Chasubles of stauracin,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> not to be made of fustian,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Childeric, his burial garment,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Chinese textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> patterned silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Chrysoclavus explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Ciclatoun,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cingula, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cloaks for christenings,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cloth of gold, two kinds,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> “stayned”,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cloths of estate,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> - <tr id="copper"> - <td class="tdl">Copper used to imitate gold thread,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cotton, native home,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Colayn” ribbon,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cologne orphrey webs,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Colours of silks, mediæval,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Corporal, said to be used by Mary of Scotland,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Crochet, or “nun’s lace”,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Cyclas, a splendid garment,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Dalmatic of Charlemagne at Rome,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> Byzantine,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Darius, his dress described,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Damasks, French,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> why so named,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“De fundato,” a pattern on silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Diaper, a silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> possible origin of name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> the meaning extended,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Dorneck, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Durham cathedral, vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Eastern princes, insignia on their robes,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Eagle and other birds, woven on standards,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Edward the first, his gift of “cyclases”,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Episcopal shoes,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Egyptian work of the loom,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> silver and gold wire,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> loom,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Embroidery,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> covering ancient dresses,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> raised on book covers,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> involved great labour,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">English textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Exeter cathedral, vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Eylesham, famous for linen,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">“Filatorium,” its meaning,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Filfot, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Flax, grows wild in Britain,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> earliest history,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Flemish textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Florence, her silks and velvets,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> specimens at South Kensington,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> cut-work,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">French silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Frontal, at Westminster,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Fustian, known in 13th century,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> originally from Egypt,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> woven at Naples,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Fygury, silks so called,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Gammadion, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Garland, an Englishman,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Gems, etc., sewn on textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Genoa, her silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> specimens at South Kensington,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Gilding, used for textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Gloves, embroidered,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Gold, used in weaving,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> cloths made of gold alone,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> see “<a href="#copper">copper</a>”</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Greek monks, first bring silkworms,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Haconbie church vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Hebrew word used improperly for silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> embroidery,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Heliogabalus, first wore whole-silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Hemp, native home,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Heraldic charges on Sicilian silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Herod, his dress of woven silver,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Holosericum, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Honorius, his wife’s robe,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Hullings, <i>i.e.</i> hangings,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Imperial, a rich silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> meaning of the name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Indian, ancient splendour of dress,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Italy, northern, mediæval silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Irish cloth, in King John’s time,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">King Henry the third orders cloth of Areste,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> Edward the second orders English embroidery,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> Richard the second, gifts to Haverford castle,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Lama d’oro of Italy,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Letters woven on textiles, an ancient practice,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Liber pontificalis, a valuable book,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Lincoln cathedral, vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Looms, upright and horizontal,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Lucca, her silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> cloths of gold,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> specimens at South Kensington,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">“Marble” silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Milan, her textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Moresco-Spanish textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Mortuary palls,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Mummy cloths,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> unmixed linen,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Muslin, long used in the east,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Muslin, origin of name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Neckham, first describes the silkworm,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Network” on linen,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Nuns, anciently, exhorted not to weave coloured robes,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> English, employed in weaving,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">“Opus” plumarium,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> pectineum,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> Anglicum,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> consutum,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> <span class="in2">„</span> good example at South Kensington,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Organzine, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Palls, of rich stuffs,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> cloth of,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Paul’s (St.) cathedral, vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Paper, employed by Japanese for clothing,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Passing” for embroidery,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Persian textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">“Phrygian” work,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Plaited woollen stuff among the Britons,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_2">2</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Polystauron, why so called,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Pyx cloths, at South Kensington,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> curious example,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Queen Matilda takes the Abingdon vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Quilts for children,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Rayns (Rennes) cloths,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Rhenish cut-work,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Samit,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Sandal, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> of bishops,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Saracenic textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Sarcenet, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Satin, not unknown in middle ages,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> early names,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Sicilian textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> three styles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Silk,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> unknown in ancient Egypt,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> in South Italy, 11th century,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Silk, its use at first condemned for garments at Rome,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Silver, woven into webs,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Skins, employed for clothing,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Snood, of the Anglo-saxons,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Spangles, how anciently used,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Spindle tree,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_2">2</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Spinning, ancient daily work of women,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_2">2</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Stauracin, origin of name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Stragulatæ, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Street hangings,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Subsericum, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Syndon, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Syon Cope, peculiar work,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> its historical value,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Syrian textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Taffeta, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tapestry,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> Egyptian and Jewish,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> English at Coventry and in Cornwall,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> two kinds of frame,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> of the Spanish armada,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> imitated,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tars, cloth of, probably cashmere,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> <span class="in2">„</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Textile, meaning of the term,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> the value of collections,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a>, &c.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tiraz, of an Arab palace,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tissue,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Translucent silk, used in MSS.,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Thread, gold, varieties of quality,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Tram, explained,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">U, the letter, used in Italian silks,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Velvet, its history obscure,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> vestments, first mentioned in England,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> origin of the name,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> varieties of weaving,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> a peculiar ornament,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> of Flanders,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Venetian textiles,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> characteristics,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> linens,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> - <tr class="firstlet"> - <td class="tdl">Warwick, earl, his banners of satin,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> and dresses,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Westminster copes, preserved at Stonyhurst,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Wire, gold and silver, for weaving,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> machine for drawing first used,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Worcester, famous for cloths,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Worms, (silkworms) first brought to Europe,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Worsted, in Norfolk, a new method of carding wool there,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">York cathedral vestments,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> Princess Elizabeth of, her velvet gown,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl">Yprès, not origin of name of diaper,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="in2">„</span> linens,</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter narrow"> -<h2 id="SOUTH_KENSINGTON_MUSEUM">SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM -ART HANDBOOKS.</h2> - -<p class="b2 center wspace"><span class="smcap">Edited by William Maskell.</span></p> - -<blockquote class="hang"> - -<p>1. TEXTILE FABRICS. By the Very Rev. <span class="smcap">Daniel -Rock</span>, D.D. With numerous Woodcuts.</p> - -<p>2. IVORIES, ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. By -<span class="smcap">William Maskell</span>. With numerous Woodcuts.</p> - -<p>3. ANCIENT AND MODERN FURNITURE AND -WOODWORK. By <span class="smcap">John Hungerford Pollen</span>. -With numerous Woodcuts.</p> - -<p>4. MAIOLICA. By <span class="smcap">C. Drury E. Fortnum</span>, F.S.A. -With numerous Woodcuts.</p> - -<p>5. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. By <span class="smcap">Carl Engel</span>. -With numerous Woodcuts.</p></blockquote> -</div> - -<hr /> -<p class="newpage p4 center small vspace wspace bold"> -PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,<br /> -LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.</p> - -<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote"> -<h2 id="Transcribers_Notes" class="nobreak p1">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made -consistent when a predominant preference was found -in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p> - -<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced -quotation marks were remedied when the change was -obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.</p> - -<p>The index was not fully checked for proper alphabetization -or correct page references.</p> - -<p>In the <a href="#loi">List of Woodcuts</a>, the reference to the illustration on page <a href="#ip_94">94</a> -was added by the Transcriber.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_19">19</a>: “ř” represents an “r” with a tilde “~”; -“š” represents an “s” with a tilde “~”.</p> - -<p>Pages <a href="#Page_19">19</a> and <a href="#Page_96">96</a>: Letters preceded by “^” are -superscripts.</p> - -<p>Pages <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>: the illustrations on these pages are multi-part -symbols. In the original book, they were printed in-line with the -surrounding text, but in this eBook, they are shown on lines of -their own.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_110">110</a>: “Isotta da Ramini, in her portrait -by Pietro della Francesca” was printed that way, -as was “Cappaccio”.</p> -</div></div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Textile Fabrics, by Daniel Rock - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEXTILE FABRICS *** - -***** This file should be named 60015-h.htm or 60015-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/0/1/60015/ - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c4ea7c4..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_000.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_000.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 85d3bbf..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_000.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_013.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_013.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 07399b7..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_013.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_034.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_034.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9aff0f6..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_034.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_036.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_036.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index b3efeb1..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_036.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_037.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_037.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 34b4d78..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_037.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_037b.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_037b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index cdde267..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_037b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_038.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_038.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 103583e..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_038.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_044.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_044.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 78357c6..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_044.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_046.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_046.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index ae4364c..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_046.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_048.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_048.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 8821ff2..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_048.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_051.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_051.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c19c3f3..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_051.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_057.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_057.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e9252c3..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_057.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_062.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_062.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 99adf54..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_062.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_084.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_084.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index c3089ce..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_084.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_087.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_087.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 25a4031..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_087.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_091.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_091.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3bc8ed3..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_091.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_094.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_094.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 37e9f9e..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_094.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_097.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_097.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 421cb65..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_097.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_098.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_098.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 599c495..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_098.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_100.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_100.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6f605d7..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_100.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_102.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_102.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 572c7b8..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_102.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60015-h/images/i_112.jpg b/old/60015-h/images/i_112.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 402d71a..0000000 --- a/old/60015-h/images/i_112.jpg +++ /dev/null |
