1287.
Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, light yellow silk; design, a reticulation of vine-branches bearing grapes and leaves, and enclosing butterflies, an armorial shield having a royal crown over it, all in light purple cotton. Sicilian, early 14th century. 17½ inches by 15½ inches.
The design in all its elements is so like many other specimens wrought by the looms of Palermo at the period, that we are warranted to presume it came from that great mart of silken stuffs during the middle ages. So thin in its texture, it must have been meant for the lining of a heavier material. Père Martin has figured, in his very valuable “Mélanges d’Archéologie,” t. iv. plate xxii, a piece of silk, now in the Museum of the Louvre, almost the same in pattern, but differing much in colour, from the specimen before us. In the specimen at Paris little dogs and dragons, both in pairs, come in, but here they are wanting; so that we may learn that, to give variety to the pattern, parts were changed. Upon the shield there is a charge not unlike a star, rather oblong, of six points.