The warp is of linen thread, the woof of silk, and as the two materials have not taken the dye in the same degree, the ground is of quite another tone from the pattern, which is, in a manner, fortunate, as thus a better effect is produced.
Not for a moment can we look upon this piece as a specimen of real imperial purple wrought at Byzantium for royal use, and so highly spoken of by Anastasius Bibliothecarius, and called by him “blatthin,” with the distinguishing adjunct of “holosericus,” or made entirely of silk, and sometimes noticing it as “porphyreticum,” while enumerating the gifts of rich silks bestowed upon the churches at Rome by pontifical and imperial benefactors.
8235.
Piece of Yellow Silk, with pattern of circles enclosing griffins, the interspaces filled in with hawks. Byzantine, 11th century. 12 inches by 10½ inches.
This well woven and thickly bodied stuff shows its Byzantine origin in that style of ornamentation seen in the circles so characteristic of a Greek hand, as may be found in the Byzantine MSS. of the period. What makes this specimen somewhat remarkable, is the rare occurrence of finding the birds and animals figured in lines of silver thread. Dr. Bock tells us that the chasuble of Bishop Bernward, who died in the 11th century, is decorated with a similar design.
8236.
Piece of Silk, Tyrian purple, diapered with palmette pattern. Oriental, 11th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 8½ inches.
The hundreds of years that have passed over this remnant of the Eastern looms have stolen from it that brightness of tone which once, no doubt, shone about its surface.