[72] Ancient Kalendars, &c., ed. Palgrave, t. iii., 358.
[73] I. p. 43, &c.
[74] Excerpta Historica, p. 90.
A “gowne of cloth-of-gold, furred with pawmpilyon, ayenst Corpus Xpi day,” was brought from London to Richmond, to Elizabeth of York, afterwards Henry VII.’s queen, for her to wear as she walked in the procession on that great festival.[75] The affection shown by Henry VIII., and all our nobility, men and women, of the time, for cloth of gold in their garments, was unmistakingly set forth in so many of their likenesses brought together in that very instructive Exhibition of National Portraits in the year, A.D. 1866, in the South Kensington Museum. This stuff seems to have been costly then, for Princess, afterwards Queen Mary, thirteen years before she came to the throne: “payed to Peycocke, of London, for xix yerds iii. qr̃t of clothe of golde at xxxviij.[~s] the yerde, xxxvijli. xs. vjd.”[76] And for “a yerde and dr qr̃t of clothe of siluer xls.”[77]
[75] Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, p. 33, ed. Nicolas.
[76] Privy Purse Expenses of Princess Mary, ed. Madden, p. 87.
[77] Ib. p. 86.
Cloth of gold called
Tissue.
As between common silk and satin, there runs a broad difference, at least in look, one being dull, the other smooth and glossy, so there is a great distinction to be made among cloths of gold; some are, so to say, dead; others, brilliant and sparkling. When the gold is twisted into its silken filament, it takes the deadened look; when the flattened, filmy strip of metal is rolled about it so evenly as to bring its edges close to one another, it seems to be one unbroken wire of gold, sparkling and lustrous, like what is now known as “passing,” and, during the middle ages, went by the term of Cyprus gold; and rich samits woven with it, were called damasks of Cyprus.