8603.
Piece of Silk Damask; ground, fawn-colour; pattern, birds in pairs amid foliage (all green) and flowers, some blue, some gold, now faded black. Italian, 14th century. 18 inches by 12-3/4 inches.
Not a satisfactory design, as the birds are in green and hard to be
distinguished from the heavy foliage in which they are placed. The
materials, too, are poor and thin, the warp being cotton.
8604.
Fragment of Silk Damask; ground, deep fawn-colour; pattern, birds pecking at a flower-stem amid foliage, all yellow, occasionally shaded deep green. Sicilian, 14th century. 6-1/2 inches by 4-1/2 inches.
As far as it goes, the design is neat and flowing, with the peculiarity
of the deep green, now almost blue, shadings both in the birds and
foliage. The warp is fine cotton, and the whole speaks of a Sicilian
origin.
8605.
Piece of Damask; ground, light purple; pattern, in yellow, a net-like broad ribbon, within the meshes of which are eight-petaled conventional flowers. Italian, 14th century.
The texture of the specimen is somewhat thin, but the tones of its
two harmonious colours are good, and its pattern, in all its parts, extremely
agreeable; upon those broad ribbon lines of the net, the
branches, sprouting out into trefoils, are gracefully made to twine;
and an inclination to figure a crowned M on every petal of the flower
inside the meshes is very discernible. Possibly Reggio, south of Naples,
is the town where this showy stuff was wrought, serviceable alike for
sacred and secular employment.
