in silver thread. Italian, early 15th century. 12 inches by 6 inches.
Though the silk ground of this elegant stuff must have been once of
a bright crimson tinge, almost the whole of the colour has flown; and
the silver thread, of which the beautifully arranged tree is formed, has
become so tarnished as to look as if it had been from first a dull olive-green.
Such events give a warning to manufacturers about the quality
of their dyes, and the purity as well as sort of the metals they may
choose to employ. The manner in which the tree and its graceful
branches are made to stand well out and above the red grounding is
remarkably good; and, altogether, the pattern, composed as it is of a
spider in its web, hanging so nicely between the outspread limbs of the
tree, is as singular as it is pleasing. Of old, a Lombard family bore, as
its blazon, a spider in its web.
8300.
Piece of very rich Crimson Silk and gold Tissue; the large pattern represents a palm-tree rising from a close palisade, within which is a lion seated; from one side shoots a slender branch, to which clings a bird. Italian, late 14th century. 31 inches by 14 inches.
A fine bold pattern, but the gold so tarnished that it looks as if the
threads had always been brown. The down-bent eagles, and the
shaggy-maned lion couchant regardant at the foot of a palm-tree in a
park palisaded, make this heraldic design very pleasing.
8301.
Portion of Linen; border, probably of an altar-cloth, stamped in red and yellow with a geometric pattern composed of circles and leaves. Flemish, 15th century.
The design and colouring of this old piece of printed cloth are so
very like those employed upon the glazed paving tiles of the mediæval
period, that the idea of the potter's work immediately suggests itself;
though of such poor material, it is a valuable link in the history of textiles.
