7057.
Silk Damask; ground, purple; pattern, a quatrefoil, within another, charged with a cross-like floriation, with a square white centre, surmounted by two eagles with wings displayed, upholding in their beaks a royal crown, all in green. Italian, early 15th century. 14 inches by 11-1/2 inches.
Though the silk be poor the design is in good character, and the
stuff would seem to have been wrought either at Florence or Lucca, for
some princely German house.
7058.
Piece of Silk Damask; ground, red and gold; pattern, a pair of ostrich feathers, springing from a conventional flower, and drooping over an artichoke-like floriation, of a tint once light green, and shaded dull white. Spanish, 15th century. 14-3/4 inches by 7-1/2 inches.
A curious mixture of silk, wool, linen thread and gold very sparingly
employed. The ostrich feather is so unusual an element of ornamental
design, especially in woven stuffs, that we may deem it a kind of remembrance
of the Black Prince who fought for a Spanish king, Don
Pedro the Cruel, at the battle of Navaretta, or Najarra, if not having a
significance of the marriage of Catherine of Arragon, first with our
Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII, and after his death, with
his younger brother, Henry VIII, each of whom was in his time Prince
of Wales, whose badge became one or more ostrich feathers. In old
English church inventories drawn up towards the middle and the end
of the 15th century, mention is often found of vestments made of a
Flemish stuff, called Dorneck, from the name in Flanders for the city
of Tournay, where it was made, but spelt in English various ways, as
Darnec, Darnak, Darnick, and even Darnep. Such an inferior kind of
tissue woven of thin silk mixed with wool and linen thread, was in great
demand, for every-day wear in poor churches in this country. Though
not wrought at Tournay, the present specimen affords a good example
of that sort of stuff called Dorneck, which, very probably, was intro-
