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

8641.

Part of an Orphrey; ground, once crimson, but now faded to a light brown colour; pattern, quatrefoils, with angles between the leaves, embroidered with male saints in various colours upon a golden ground. Each quatrefoil is separated by a knot of three interlacings, and the sides filled in with a pair of popinjays, gold and green, and two boughs of the oak bearing acorns, alternately. On both sides runs a border formed of a scroll of vine-leaves, done alternately in gold and silver, upon a green silk ground. North Italian, 15th century. 2 feet 7 inches by 5½ inches.

The whole of this elaborate piece of needlework has been done with much care, and in rich materials; but as the saints have no peculiar emblems given them, their identification is beyond hope. Whether for cope or chasuble—for it might have served for either vestment—this embroidery must have been very effective, from the bold raised nature of much of its ornamentation.