8601.
Piece of Silk Damask; ground, yellow; pattern, a broad stripe of gold with narrow stripes, two in green, two in blue, and yellow bands charged with birds and flowers in gold. Spanish, late 14th century. 13 inches by 8 inches.
The narrow stripes running down the broad one, and constituting
its design, are ornamented with square knots of three interlacings and
a saltire of St. Andrew's cross alternatingly. The bands display birds
of the waterfowl genus—a kind of crested wild-duck—very gracefully
figured as pecking at flowers, one of which seems of the water-lily
tribe.
Here, as at No. 8590, we have the same substitution for gold thread, of gilt vellum cut into thread-like filaments, and so woven up with the silk and cotton of which the warp and woof are composed. This, like its sister specimen, so showy, is just as poor in material; and, from its thinness, if may have served not so much for an article of dress as for hangings in churches and state apartments.
8602, 8602A, B, C, D, E.
Six Fragments of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, a floriated ellipsis enclosing a pair of eagles, with foliage between the elliptical figures. Sicilian, 14th century. Dimensions, all small and various.
In many respects these fragments of the same piece of tissue closely
resemble the fine stuff under No. 8594; the ground, fawn-colour, is
the same; the same too—green, and of the same pleasing tone—is the
colour of its pattern, which, however, gives us the peculiarity of a knot
of two interlacings plentifully strewed amid the foliage. It is slightly
freckled, too, with white.
