This handsome piece of napery was evidently woven for the service of the church, and may have been intended either for frontals to hang in front of the altar, or as curtains to be suspended away from, but yet close to, the altar-table on the north and south sides. The favourite gammadion appears both in the pattern of the loom-work and in the embroideries wrought by hand, sometimes in blue, sometimes in white silk, upon it.
8637.
Piece of Silk and Gold Damask; ground, green; pattern, flower-bearing stems, in gold, amid foliated tracery of a deep green tone, all enclosed by a golden elliptical border. Italian, early 15th century, 11½ inches by 7½ inches.
This rich and pleasing stuff is most likely from the loom of some workshop in Lucca and was manufactured for secular purposes, and deserves attention not only for the goodness of its materials, but for the beauty of its design.
8638.
PIECE of Thread and Silk Damask; ground, purple slightly mixed with crimson; pattern, vine-branches bearing grapes and tendrils all in green, amid which are wyverns in gold, langued green. South Italian, 15th century, 1 foot 1 inch by 9½ inches.
The warp is of thread, and the woof of silk. Such was the poverty of the gold thread in the wyverns, that it has almost entirely dropped off or turned black. This specimen shows how, sometimes, a rich pattern was thrown away upon mean materials. Its uses seem to have been secular.