The inventory of Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, taken in 1397, also contains some interesting items: a white halling (or set of hangings for a hall) consisting of a dosser and four costers worked with the arms of King Edward (his father) and his sons with borders paly of red and black powdered with Bohun swans and the arms of Hereford; a great bed of gold, that is to say, a coverlet, tester, and selour of fine blue satin worked with gold Garters, and three curtains of tartryn beaten with Garters to match; and a large bed of white satin embroidered in the midst with the arms of the duke of Gloucester, with his helm, in Cyprus gold.
A number of other items in the list are also more or less heraldic: a bed of black baudekyn powdered with white roses; a large old bed of green tartryn embroidered with gold griffins; twelve pieces of tapestry carpet, blue with white roses in the corners and divers arms; a large bed of blue baudekyn embroidered with silver owls and gold fleurs-de-lis; fifteen pieces of tapestry for two rooms of red worsted embroidered with blue Garters of worsted with helms and arms of divers sorts; three curtains of white tartryn with green popinjays; a green bed of double samite with a blue pale (stripe) of chamlet embroidered with a pot of gold filled with divers flowers of silver; an old bed of blue worsted embroidered with a stag of yellow worsted; a red bed of worsted embroidered with a crowned lion and two griffins and chaplets and roses; a bed of blue worsted embroidered with a white eagle; a coverlet and tester of red worsted embroidered with a white lion couching under a tree; a single gown of blue cloth of gold of Cyprus powdered with gold stags; and a single gown of red cloth of gold of Cyprus with mermaids.
In 1381 William lord Latimer leaves 'an entire vestment or suit of red velvet embroidered with a cross of mine arms,' and in 1397 Sir Ralph Hastings bequeathed 'a vestment of red cloth of gold with orphreys before and behind ensigned with maunches and with colours of mine arms,' which were a red maunch or sleeve on a gold ground.
Among the chapel stuff of Henry Bowet archbishop of York, in 1423, were a sudary or veil of white cloth with the arms of the duke of Lancaster on the ends, and two costers or curtains of red embroidered with great white roses and the arms of St. Peter (the crossed keys).
In 1437 Helen Welles of York bequeathed a blue tester with a couched stag and the reason Auxilium meum a Domino.
In 1448 Thomas Morton, a canon of York, left a halling with two costers of green and red say paled with the arms of archbishop Bowet; and in 1449 the inventory of Dan John Clerk, a York chaplain, mentions two covers of red say having the arms of Dan Richard Scrope and the keys of St. Peter worked upon them.
To the examples worked with letters may be added a bed with a carpet of red and green with crowned M's, left about 1440 by a Beverley mason, who also had another bed with a carpet of blue and green with Katharine wheels; a vestment left in 1467, by Robert Est, a chantry priest in York minster, of green worsted having on the back two crowned letters, namely, R and E; and a bequest in 1520 by Thomas duke of Norfolk of 'our great hangede bedde palyd with cloth of golde whyte damask and black velvet, and browdered with these two letters T. A.,' being the initials of himself and his wife.
There is of course nothing to hinder at the present day the principles embodied in the foregoing examples, which could easily be extended ad infinitum, from being carried out in the same delightful way; and a small exercise of ingenuity would soon devise a like treatment of one's own arms, or the use of a favourite device or flower, or the setting out of the family word, reason, or motto.
The medieval passion for striped, paned, or checkered hangings might also be revived with advantage, and the mention in 1391 of 'a bed of white and murrey unded' shows that waved lines were as tolerable as straight.