8704.

Chasuble, cloth of gold, diapered with a deep-piled blue velvet, so as to show the favourite artichoke pattern after two forms, with embroidered orphreys and armorial shields. Flemish, very late 15th century. 4 feet 4½ inches by 3 feet 10½ inches.

8704.

PART OF THE ORPHREY OF A CHASUBLE.

Flemish, 15^th century.

Vincent Brooks Day & Son, Lith.

This chasuble, rare, because not cut-down, has been lately but properly repaired. The back orphrey, in the form of a cross, is figured with the Crucifixion, the B. V. Mary fainting and upheld by St. John; a shield gules, with chalice or, and host argent, at top; another shield at bottom, gules, a column argent, twined with cords or; the front orphrey is figured with the B. V. Mary crowned, and carrying our infant Lord in her arms; beneath her, the words inscribed in blue, “Salve Regina;” lower down, St. John the Evangelist blessing a golden chalice, out of which is coming a dragon, and having the inscription at his feet, “Sanctus Iohannes.” Lower still, St. Catherine with a book in her right hand, and in the left a sword resting on a wheel.

The front orphrey is done in applied work; the back orphrey consists of a web with a ground of gold, figured with green flower-bearing boughs, and having spaces left for the heads and hands to be filled in with needlework. The shield of arms or, with a chief azure, charged with three square buckles argent, we may presume to be the blazon of the giver of this gorgeous vestment.