When whole the design of this rich stuff must have been effective, and the fragments we here have prove it to have been sketched in a bold free style. Unfortunately, so bad was the gold that, in places, it has turned green. The warp is of a thick linen thread, but, though it gives a strength to the texture, is not to be perceived upon its face.
1245.
Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, crimson silk; design, a network formed by cords twined into circles enclosing four V's, put so as to form a cross, and the meshes filled in alternately with a flower and a leaf, each surrounded by a line like an eight-petaled floriation, all in gold thick thread. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 inches by 4-3/4 inches.
The way in which the pattern affects the form of a cross in its
design is remarkable.
1246.
Silk Damask; ground, brick-red; design, within broad-*banded squares, ornamented with stars and flowers, a large double-headed eagle with wings displayed. Greek, 13th century. 12-1/2 inches by 8 inches.
Being so very thin in texture, it is not surprising that this stuff is in
such a tattered condition. When new, it must have been meant, not
for personal wear, but rather for church purposes, or household use, as
the hanging of walls. Its design is not happy, and the ornamentation
about the eagle thick and heavy.
1247.
Narrow Web for Orphreys; ground, a broad stripe of crimson silk between two narrow ones of green; design, a succession of oblong six-sided spaces in gold, filled in with a sort of floriated cross having sprouting from both ends of the upright beam, stalks bending inwards and ending in
