5900.
Silk Damask Orphrey Web; ground, crimson; pattern, the Resurrection. Venetian, 16th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 8-3/4 inches.
One of those numerous examples of woven orphrey-work for vestments
such as copes and chasubles. Our Lord is figured as uprising
from the grave, treading upon clouds, giving, with His right hand, a
blessing to the world, and holding the triumphal banner in the left.
Glory streams from His person, and a wreath of Cherubim surrounds
Him; while, from the top part of this piece, we know that two Roman
soldiers were sitting on the ground by the side of the sepulchre, which
they were charged to guard.
5958.
Box for keeping the linen corporals used at mass, in the vestry. It is covered with fine linen, of a creamy brown tint, embroidered with crimson silk and gold. Inside it is lined, in part green, on the lid crimson, where a very rude print of the Crucifixion, daubed with colour, has been let in. German, 17th century. 8-1/2 inches by 7-1/2 inches, 1-3/4 inches deep.
Such boxes seem to have been much used, at one time, throughout
Germany, for keeping, after service, the blessed pieces of square fine
linen called corporals, and upon which, at mass, the host and chalice
are placed.
Before being employed all the year round as the daily repository for laying up the corporals after the morning's masses, this sacred appliance, overlaid with such rich embroidery, and fitly ornamented with the illumination of the Crucifixion inside its lid, would seem to have been originally made and especially set aside for an use assigned it by those ancient rubrics, which we have noticed in our Introduction, § 5. As such, it is, like No. 8327 further on, a great liturgical rarity, now seldom to be found anywhere, and merits a place among other such curious objects which give a value to this collection.
At the mass on Maundy Thursday, besides the host received by the
