1256.
Fragments of Narrow Orphrey Web; ground, crimson; design, in gold ramified scrolls, with beasts and birds. English or French, 13th century, 10-1/2 inches by 3 inches.
This very handsome piece is another specimen of the small loom
worked by young women, as before noticed; and may have served either
for sacred or secular use. The band is parted into spaces by a thin
chevron, and each division so made is filled in with tiny but gracefully-twined
boughs, among which some times we have a pair of birds, at
others a pair of collared dogs; at top another arrangement took place,
but no more of it remains than the body of a lion.
1257.
Silk and Thread Tissue; ground, stripes of red, green, and yellow; design, rows of circles, large and small, with a conventional flower between, the large circles red, the small ones merely outlined in white. Greek, 13th century. 8-1/4 inches by 6 inches.
Even when new it must have been flimsy, and could have served but
for a lining. Of exactly the same design, but done in other and fewer
colours, a specimen now at Paris is figured in the "Mélanges d'Archéologie,"
tome iii. plate 15.
1258.
Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, yellow; design, a net-work with six-sided meshes, each filled in with flowers and foliage in deep dull purple. Italian, late 13th century. 14 inches by 10 inches.
The well-turned and graceful foliation to be seen in architectural
scroll-work, on monuments raised at the period, enters largely into the
design; and for its pattern, though poor for the quantity of its silk, this
specimen is very good.
