Stole, of silk and gold damask; ground, purple silk; design, mostly in gold, pricked out with green silk, a floriated oval, filled in with a pair of young parded leopards, addorsed regardant, and wyverns regardant in couples. Sicilian, late 13th century. 8 feet 4 inches by 3 inches, not including the expanded ends.
This is a magnificent stuff; but the stole itself could have been made out of it only in the middle of the 17th century.
1277.
The Hood of a Cope; silk and gold; ground, fawn-coloured silk; design, bands, in gold thread, alternately broad, figured with harts couchant, and flowers with an oblique pencil of rays darting down; and narrow, marked with rayless flowers. Underlying the latter gold band is a very broad one of silk, figured in green, with collared dogs running at speed towards a small swan, with sprigs of flowers, green and white, between them. Sicilian, late 13th century. 14½ inches by 13½ inches.
The very pointed shape of this hood is somewhat unusual in the form of this part of a cope, as made during mediæval times, in England. The stuff is of a spirited design, and shows a curious element in its pattern, in those golden flowers with their pencils of rays.
1278.
Silk and Cotton Damask; ground, black; design, a lion rampant amid trees, all in light green. Sicilian, 14th century. 15 inches by 7¾ inches.
Very few examples occur with ground coloured black, yet the bright green of the design goes well upon its sombre grounding. The animal and also the leaves and trees around him are all admirably and spiritedly drawn, and one regrets that a pattern of such merit should have been lost upon such poor materials.