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

8325.

Piece of Silk-Velvet Damask; green, with pattern of large and small pomegranates in gold. Lucca, latter half of the 15th century. 3 feet 10 inches by 11½ inches.

Among the remarkable specimens of velvet in this collection, not the least conspicuous is the present one, being velvet upon velvet, that is, having, in a portion of it, a pattern in a higher pile than the pile of the ground. By looking narrowly at the larger pomegranate in golden thread within its heart-shaped oval, with featherings bounded by trefoiled cusps, the eye will catch an undulating pattern rising slightly above the rest of the pile; such examples, as distinguished from what is called cut or raised velvet, are very rare. The tone, too, of the fine green, as well as the goodness of the gold, in the ornamentation, enhance the value of this piece, which was once the back part of a chasuble.