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

1329.

Part of an Orphrey Web; ground, crimson silk; design, straight branches bearing flowers and boughs, in gold thread; and amid them St. Dorothy and St. Stephen. German, 15th century. 23 inches by 2¾ inches.

St. Dorothy is figured holding in her right hand a golden chalice-like cup filled with flowers, and in her left, a tall green branch blooming with white roses; St. Stephen carries a palm-branch, emblem of his martyrdom. Both saints are standing upon green turf sprinkled with crimson daisies, and beneath each is the saint’s name, written in gold. Though the persons of the saints are woven, the heads, hands, and emblems are wrought with the needle. The dalmatic of the proto-martyr is nicely shown, in light green, with its orphreys in gold. This piece is a favourable specimen of its kind, and very likely was produced at Cologne.