1253.
Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; design, in light green, a sprinkling of fleur-de-lis amid griffins, in pairs, rampant, regardant. Sicilian, 14th century. 10 inches by 8 inches.
The pattern is not of that spirited character found on many of the
earlier specimens of the Sicilian loom; the griffins, especially, are weakly
drawn. The fleur-de-lis would signify that it was wrought for some
French family or follower of the house of Anjou.
1254.
Silk Damask; ground, crimson; design, a diapering of birds pecking at a cone-like ornament ending in a fleur-de-lis, all in yellow. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 inches by 4 inches.
A very thin stuff with a pattern of a small but pretty design. What
the birds are with their long square tails is hard to guess; so, too, with
respect to the ornament between them, like a fir-cone purfled at its sides
with crockets, and made to end in a flower, which may have some reference
to the French family of Anjou, once reigning in Sicily. The
stuff itself is poor and may have been woven for linings to richer
silks.
1255.
Shred of Silk Damask; ground crimson; design, seemingly horsemen separated by a large circular ornament in one row, and the gable of a building in the other, in yellow and blue. Greek, 12th century. 8 inches by 6-1/4 inches.
Though this stuff be thin and poor, the design, could it be well seen,
would be curious. The circle seems a leafless but branchy tree, with a
low wall round it; and the gable is full of low pillared arches with voids
for windows in them.
