8299.
Piece of Silk Tissue; the pattern, a large raised diaper, which consists of a centre, in red silk, representing the web of the geometric spider, with the insect resting in the middle, enclosed within the branches of a conventional tree, in silver thread. Italian, early 15th century. 12 inches by 6 inches.
Though the silk ground of this elegant stuff must have been once of a bright crimson tinge, almost the whole of the colour has flown; and the silver thread, of which the beautifully arranged tree is formed, has become so tarnished as to look as if it had been from first a dull olive-green. Such events give a warning to manufacturers about the quality of their dyes, and the purity as well as sort of the metals they may choose to employ. The manner in which the tree and its graceful branches are made to stand well out and above the red grounding is remarkably good; and, altogether, the pattern, composed as it is of a spider in its web, hanging so nicely between the outspread limbs of the tree, is as singular as it is pleasing. Of old, a Lombard family bore, as its blazon, a spider in its web.