on as to give the vases and their flowers the right form, and sometimes is made to come in as foliage. The flowers, mostly fleurs-de-lis and tulips, are well finished in white silk, shaded either by light blue in the first, or pink in the second instance, where, however, there are only five instead of six petals; and the whole is edged in its design with yellow silk cord.
910.
An Altar Frontal, silk and thread; ground, yellow; design, vases and conventional artichokes, amid floriations, all in crimson silk, and trimmed at the lower side with cut-work, in a flower pattern, of various-coloured silks, edged with yellow cord. Italian, early 17th century. 6 feet by 2 feet 8-1/2 inches.
The silk in this stuff is small in comparison with the thread, which,
however, is so well covered as to be kept quite out of sight in the pattern.
The fringe, six inches in depth, is left quite open.
911.
A Bed-Quilt; ground, green silk; design, in the middle the goddess Flora, around her large flowers and branches, amid which are birds (doves?), and hares climbing up the boughs, all in floss-silk of very showy colours, with a deep border of flowers, worked upon dark net. Italian, 18th century. 8 feet 3 inches by 6 feet.
Such coverlets were, as they still are, used for throwing over beds
in the day-time. The flowers, both on the silk and the netting, are so
embroidered as to show the same, like East Indian needlework, on both
sides. The love for lively colour, not to say garishness, was such as to
lead the hand that wrought this piece to render the branches of some
of the parts parti-coloured in white and crimson. Other specimens of
embroidered net may be seen at Nos. 623, 624, 4462.
