weight; a pounde and a half of gold of Venys was employed "aboutes the making of a lace and botons for the king's mantell of the garter."[1] "Frenge of Venys gold," appears twice, pp. 136, 163, in the wardrobe accounts of Edward IV.
Laces in worsted or in linen thread wrought by the bobbin at Venice; but more especially her point laces, or such as were done with the needle, always had, as indeed they still have, a great reputation: sewed to table-*covers, two specimens are found in this collection, described at p. 141.
Venetian linens, for fine towelling and napery in general, at one time were in favourite use in France during a part of the fifteenth century. In the "Ducs de Bourgogne," by Le Comte de Laborde,[2] more than once we meet with such an entry, as "une pièce de nappes, ouvraige de Venise," &c.
Florence, always so industrious and art-loving, got for its loom, about the middle of the fourteenth century, a place in the foremost rank amid the weavers of northern Italy. Specimens of her earliest handicraft are yet few—only two—here; but one sample of the able way in which she knew how to diaper, well shows her ability: No. 8563, p. 215, woven in the fifteenth century, will prove this with reference to her secular silks. The pieces described at pp. 202, 264, witness the boldness of her design during the sixteenth century. In her webs, expressly woven for church-use, is it that she displays her great taste in design, and wonderful power—at least for that time, the fourteenth century—in gearing the loom: the violet silk damask, No. 1265, p. 36, and another like piece, No. 7072, p. 133, figured with angels swinging thuribles, or bearing crowns of thorns in the hands, or holding a cross, will warrant our remarks. The style of doing the face and hands in white of those otherwise yellow angels, is a peculiarity of the Tuscan loom.
The orphrey-webs of Florence are equally conspicuous for drawing and skill in weaving as her vestment textiles, and in beauty come up to those done at Venice, and far surpass anything of the kind ever wrought at Cologne; specimens of this sort of Florentine work may be seen at Nos. 4059, p. 89; 7080, p. 136; 7674, p. 142; 7791, p. 143; 197, p. 291. Along with these may be classed the hood of a cope, described at No. 8692, p. 260, as well as the apparels to the dalmatic and tunicle, p. 143, where the cherubic heads have white faces.
But it was of her velvets that Florence might be so warrantably proud. Our Henry VII. in his will, "Testamenta Vetusta,"[3] bequeathed "to
