[139] “Le Chevalier à Deux Epées” (quoted by Dr. Rock), and Lady Wilton, “Art of Needlework,” p. 128.
[140] See p. [359], post, for Boadicea’s dress.
[141] See Mr. Villiers Stuart’s “Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen.”
[142] The Moors in Spain excelled in leather-work and embroidery upon it; and Marco Polo describes the beautiful productions of the province of Guzerat, of leather inlaid and embroidered with gold and silver wire. Yule’s “Marco Polo,” p. 383.
[143] See chapter on [Stitches].
[144] See Chardin, vol. i. p. 31.
[145] Tin, called “laton,” was used to debase the metal threads in the Middle Ages. It is also named as a legitimate material for metal embroideries.
[146] For all information about asbestos, see Yates, pp. 356, 565.
[147] There is one at the Barberini Palace at Rome. A sheet, woven of asbestos, found in a tomb outside the Porta Maggiore, is described by Sir J. E. Smith in his “Tour on the Continent” (vol. ii. p. 201) as being coarsely spun, but as soft and pliant as silk. “We set fire to it, and the same part being repeatedly burnt, was not at all injured.”
[148] See Yule’s “Marco Polo,” vol. i. pp. 215, 218, and Yates, p. 361.