8288.
Piece of Silk and Gold Tissue, the ground of which is gold banded with patterns in blue, red, and green, divided by narrowed stripes of black; on one golden band is an Arabic word repeated all through the design. Syrian. 16½ inches by 16 inches.
The value of this fine rich specimen will be instantly appreciated when it is borne in mind that it is one of the few known examples of real Saracenic weaving which we have.
Its ornamentation has about it, in the checkered and circular portions of its design, much of that feeling which shows itself in Saracenic architecture; and those who remember the court of lions, in the Alhambra at Granada, will not be surprised at seeing animals figured upon this piece of stuff so freely.
The broad bands are separated by very narrow black ones, on which are shown, in gold, short lengths of thick foliage like strawberry-leaves, and an animal, which, from the tuft of hair on its ears, seems a lynx, chased by the hunting-leopard, of which our celebrated travelling countryman, Sir John Mandeville, in his “Voiage,” written in the reign of Edward III, speaks thus: “In Cipre men hunten with Papyonns that ben lyche Lepardes, and thei taken wylde bestes righte welle and thei ben somedelle more than Lyonns; and thei taken more scharpely the bestes and more delyverly than don houndes.” Ed. Halliwell, p. 29. This sort of leopard, the claws of which are not, like the rest of its kind, retractile, is, to this day, employed in Asia, more especially in the East Indies, like dogs for hunting, and known by the name of “Cheetah.”
Each of these lengths is studded with those knots, found so often upon eastern wares of all sorts, and formed by narrow ribbons interlacing one another at right angles so as to produce squares or checks; these knots are alternately large—of three rows of checks, and small—of two rows. Upon one of the large bands, gold in its ground, is, all along it, woven a sentence in Arabic letters in dusky white, of which tint is the circular ornament which everywhere stands between this writing; very likely these characters, as well as the dividing flower, were once of a crimson colour, which is now faded. The inscribed sentence itself being figured without the distinctive points, may be understood various ways. That it is some well-known Oriental saying or proverb is very likely, and, to hazard a guess, reads thus: “Injury, hurt, reception,”—meaning, perhaps, that the individual who has done you, behind your back, all the harm he can, may, when next he meets you, utter the greetings and put on all the looks of friendship. Such was its meaning, as read by the late lamented Oriental scholar, Dr. Cureton.
Upon the next broad band, on a ground once crimson, are figured, in gold, the before-mentioned “papyonns,” or hunting-leopards, collared and in a sitting position under foliage, swans swimming, and an animal of the gazelle or antelope genus, heraldically lodged regardant, with a flower-bearing stem in its mouth, and another animal not easily identified. The remaining two broad bands, one blue, the other green, are figured, in gold, with squares filled up by checks of an Oriental character, alternating with quatrefoils sprouting all over into flowers.