[329] In the Museum at Munich are two remarkable examples of these imitations. There is an embroidered badge of the Order of the Dragon, worked in gold and woven over with coloured silks, so as to present the appearance of enamel (sixteenth century). The second is a dress for a herald of the Order of St. Hubertus, which is richly embroidered in gold and silver, and the badge and collar are imitated in the most extraordinary manner, and laid on entirely in gold needlework. This is of the seventeenth century.
[330] In Salt’s collection from Saccarah (British Museum); also at Turin, in the Egyptian Museum; and in the collections in the Louvre, figured by Auberville in the “Ornamentation des Tissus.”
[331] Hence the French name, pointes comptées.
[332] See Semper, ii. p. 213, for wood-work at Panticapæum, Kertch, in the Crimea, which evidently has descended in style from panelled needlework hangings. Chaldean wall decoration at Khorsabad and Warka, near Nimroud, recalls the effect of “opus pulvinarium” according to Loftus. See Semper, i. p. 327.
[333] “Der Stil,” i. pp. 196, 248. This is known from the archaic books of imperial commerce.
[334] Peacocks’ feathers, either woven or onlaid, are those most commonly used in China and Japan. “Ka Moolelo Hawaii,” by M. Jules Remy, Paris, 1861. See Ferdinand Denis, “Arte Plumaria,” p. 66.
[335] Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 373, translates from Publius Syrus the word plumata, “feathered.” The word “embroidered” would have here improved the sense, even though it is a peacock that is described.
“Thy food the peacock, which displays his spotted train,
As shines a Babylonian shawl with feather’d gold.”
He also quotes Lucan, who is praising the furnishings of Cleopatra’s palace: “Part shines with feathered gold; part sheds a blaze of scarlet.”—Yates, p. 373.
[336] Sir G. Birdwood, with all his enthusiasm for Indian art and its forms, yet cannot resist a touch of humour when he describes a state umbrella, of which the handle and ribs are pure gold, tipped with rubies and diamonds, the silken covering bordered with thirty-two fringed loops of pearls, and “also appropriately decorated with the feathers of the peacock, heron, parrot, and goose.”—Birdwood, “Indian Arts,” ii. p. 182.