8601.
Piece of Silk Damask; ground, yellow; pattern, a broad stripe of gold with narrow stripes, two in green, two in blue, and yellow bands charged with birds and flowers in gold. Spanish, late 14th century. 13 inches by 8 inches.
The narrow stripes running down the broad one, and constituting its design, are ornamented with square knots of three interlacings and a saltire of St. Andrew’s cross alternatingly. The bands display birds of the waterfowl genus—a kind of crested wild-duck—very gracefully figured as pecking at flowers, one of which seems of the water-lily tribe.
Here, as at [No. 8590], we have the same substitution for gold thread, of gilt vellum cut into thread-like filaments, and so woven up with the silk and cotton of which the warp and woof are composed. This, like its sister specimen, so showy, is just as poor in material; and, from its thinness, if may have served not so much for an article of dress as for hangings in churches and state apartments.