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

704.

Christening Cloth or Cloak of murrey-coloured velvet. Italian, 17th century. 8 feet by 5 feet 5 inches.

The pile is soft and rich, and its colour, once such a favourite in the by-gone days of England, of a delicious mellow tone. Like Nos. [702] and [703], it robed the nurse as she went to the baptismal font with the new-born child, and has the string round the neck by which it could be drawn, like a mantle, about her shoulders.