Textile Fabrics / A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church-vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework and Tapestries, forming that Section of the Museum

by Daniel Rock

1275.

Silk Damask (made up of four pieces); ground, brown, once purple; design, in gold thread and coloured silks, griffins, eagles, and flowers. Sicilian, early 13th century. 19½ inches by 19¼ inches.

At top we have a row of griffins looking to the east, mostly wrought in gold, but relieved on coloured silks, and having at the pinion-joints of the wing that singular circle, filled in with a small design; then a row of conventional flowers in red, crimson, green, and white, and, last of all, a row of eagles at rest, done mostly in gold, slightly shaded with green, and looking west. The beasts and birds are admirably drawn, and when the stuff was new it must have been very fine and effective, though now the gold looks shabby.