1251.
Printed Silk Taffeta; ground, very light purple; design, a scroll, block-printed in deeper purple, and edged black. Sicilian, 13th century. 8¾ inches by 6 inches.
The boughs, sprouting into a sort of trefoil, are gracefully twined with a bold free hand; and the scroll reminds us of much of the like sort of ornament found, in this country, on various art-works of its time. As an early specimen of block-printing upon silk, it is valuable and rare.