8571.
Portion of Gold Tissue, figured with birds and beasts in gold upon a crimson ground. French or English, late 12th century. 9 inches by 2⅛ inches.
When new this textile must have been very pretty; but so fugitive was its original crimson, that now it looks a lightish brown. Within circles, divided by a tree made to look like a floriated cross, stands a lion regardant, and upon the transverse limbs of the cross, as upon the boughs of a tree, are perched two doves; while the spandrils or spaces between the circles are filled in with fleurs-de-lis growing out of leafed stalks. Though, in after times, it may have been applied to church use, it seems, like the specimen under [No. 8569], to have been at first intended for female dress, either as a girdle or head attire.