“If that cup either break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Eden Hall.”
This cup is of Saracenic origin, and is of glass, painted in enamels, similar in character to the mosque lamps in the British Museum.
Tapestries of Sicilian manufacture were also introduced through the medium of the Crusades, and led to the employment of painted wall decoration, evidently in imitation, even in some instances to indicating the folds of the material.
No. 52. Sicilian Textile.
A precept exists in the twentieth year of the reign of Henry III directing “that the King’s great chamber at Westminster be painted a good green colour like a curtain,” and “that the King’s little wardrobe should also be painted of a green colour to imitate a curtain.”
This was undoubtedly suggested by the custom abroad of draping the walls with tapestries, though carpets were unknown. Probably the first time these were seen in England was in the apartments in the Temple occupied by the suite of the infant Don Sancho, archbishop elect of Toledo, who with Don Garcias Madinez, officiated as avant-courriers to Eleanor of Castile in the autumn of 1255.