FOOTNOTES:

Pl. 36.A rider on horseback, with falcon and a cat(?); a border of rabbits at the bottomSee larger image

Pl. 36.

Norman and Persian Type.

A Silk Wrapping on the body of St. Cuthbert. Durham.

Pl. 37.Ducks and fish in a circular motif bordered with fruitSee larger image

Pl. 37.

Græco-Egyptian Style.

A Silk Wrapping on the body of St. Cuthbert. Durham.

Pl. 38.

Boat with coloured sail, from the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes. (Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” iii. p. 211.) Explanatory of the design on St. Cuthbert’s silk shroud, pl.37.

It is most likely that in the twelfth century, or even a little later, the body of St. Cuthbert was wrapped in these shawls, and so left when at the Reformation, his shrine was destroyed, and the coffer containing his remains buried in the same place, and piously concealed till our own day. I shall describe the beautiful embroideries in which the body had been clothed in the tenth century when I come to the subject of English work.

The third period of silk-weaving art is unmistakably Sicilian. At the end of the thirteenth century and beginning of the fourteenth, Palermo struck out her own line. The Greek cross appears in various forms. The designs are of a wonderful richness and capricious ingenuity. They show alike Asiatic, African, and European animals, and every kind of mythological creature—griffins, dragons, dogs, and harts, with large wings; swans, pheasants, and eagles, single or double-headed, often pecking at the sun’s rays; beautifully drawn foliage and flowers, and heraldic emblems and coats-of-arms. One peculiarity of the third period is the frequent use of green patterns on “murrey”-coloured grounds.

All this splendour of design was commonly lavished on poor material. The silks continued to be mixed with cotton, and the gold, or rather the gilding, was so base that it has almost always become black on the foundation strips of parchment or paper.[263]

The heraldic silks are mostly of the time of the Crusades, when the distinguished pilgrims and warriors, especially the English, made Sicily their half-way house to the Holy Land, and brought from thence fabrics woven to suit their tastes. In Auberville’s book we find, under the dates of many centuries, the most remarkable fragments now known. On portrait-tombs and in some very ancient pictures are figured beautiful silks woven in gold, which are recognizable at once by their Arab-Sicilian style. Of this type, the remarkable fragment of the dress of Richard II., in the Kensington Museum, dates itself, by carrying the cognizances of his grandfather and his mother, and the portrait of his dog Math.[264]

The last period of the Sicilian silks is especially marked by the inscriptions being mostly nonsense, and only woven in as ornament, with the forms of Arab lettering.[265]

Sir G. Birdwood says that whether the Saracens found the manufacture of silk already established in India or not, they certainly influenced the decorative designs. He adds that kincobs are now woven at Ahmedabad and Benares, identical in design with theold Sicilian brocades; while the Saracenic Sicilian silks abound in patterns which prove their origin in Assyrian, Sassanian, or Indian art.

We know that the Saracens introduced colonies of Persian, and probably Indian workmen into Spain, after the beginning of the ninth century, to assist them in their architecture and textile manufactures, and in return the Mogul emperors of Delhi invited many Italian and French designers into India.

The Taj and other buildings in Rajpootana are decorated with exquisite mosaics coeval with those of Austin of Bordeaux. Their styles of art in textiles, and in other materials, have acted and reacted upon each other; and nothing throws more light on the affinities and the development of the modern decorative arts of Europe than the history of the introduction, under Justinian, of the silk manufactures from the East into the West.[266]

From Palermo, all the stages of the manufacture of silk spread themselves over Italy and into Spain. According to Nicolo Tegrini, the flourishing silk-weavers of Lucca having been ejected from the city in the early part of the fourteenth century, carried their art elsewhere, and even to Germany, France, and Britain.[267]

Italian weavers went to Lyons in 1450, and so started the silk industry that it has steadily increased till now. It gives employment to about 31,000 looms and 240,000 workpeople of both sexes.

The Moors, when they overflowed into Iberia, carried with them all their Orientalisms, traditions, manufactures, and designs; thus disobeying their prophet, who forbade the use of silk except to women.

Senhor F. de Riano tells us that from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, Spain was producing fine silk tissues. The Moorish Cordovese writer, Ash-Shakandi, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth century, says, “Malaga is famous for its manufactures of silks of all colours and patterns, some of which are so rich that a suit made of them will cost many thousands. Such are the brocades with beautiful designs and the names of the Caliphs, Ameers, and other wealthy people woven into them.”[268]

The same author, speaking of the manufactures of silk at Almeria, says that thence came the brightest colours; and Al-Makhari adds a list of precious silk tissues, naming the “Tiraz,” the “Iscalaton,” and the robes called each by its own special name.[269]Ash-Shakandi also mentions the looms of Murcia, and its carpets.[270]

When the Moors were driven from Spain, the silk works of Malaga and Almeria were ruined. But those of Valencia became famous, and flourish to this day. Talavera della Reina also produces fine ecclesiastical fabrics, and at Toledo the ancient traditions are preserved, and they still weave sixteenth-century designs.

In Italy, Genoa, Florence, and Milan followed the Sicilian silk manufactures, and each has left specimens of the craft, of which Rock has pointed out the marked individualities.

The rich stuffs with inscriptions inwoven in gold, in the Middle Ages, were called “literatis.”

The designs of Lucca at first imitated the Moorish Sicilian type; and introduced as their speciality, white figures, such as angels in white garments, and exchanged the Oriental intricate patterns for a bolder and simpler style.

Venice, of course, also showed at first the Oriental impress; but she soon struck out a line of her own; and her especial invention was shown in weaving, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, square pieces of silken tissue, representing sacred subjects.

Florentine tissues, especially their velvet and gold brocades, were particularly splendid, and can be recognized by the loops of gold thread drawn to the surface and left there. Of these early Florentine gold brocades we have still beautiful examples in the palls of our City companies and in ancient ecclesiastical vestments. The loops of gold have been the custom since the thirteenth century, and still prevail in certain traditional fabrics, for instance, in the banners woven annually for the prizes at the horse races in Florence. The Corsini family, who have for many generations and for hundreds of years competed in these races, had, in their princely palace at Rome, a room entirely hung with the silk of these gorgeous banners.

In Hungary, Queen Gisela, in the eleventh century, established looms for weaving silk; and many convents throughout Europe and in England wove silken tissues for the service of the Church, till the great manufactures absorbed these partially private enterprises.[271]

Individual exertion produced copies, or motives that are taken from Eastern, Southern, or Northern inspirations; but it is only in large national schools of arts or crafts that an absolutely recognizable style becomesapparent. For example, the early French silks from monastic establishments are not remarkable for either style or texture till the sixteenth century, when they came to the front as a national manufacture, and have held the highest place in silk-weaving ever since.

The Flemish towns of Ypres, Ghent, and Mechlin were known for their silken webs in the thirteenth century, and at that time innumerable small schools of the craft seem to have covered Europe. They are constantly named in the lists of fine furnishings in Germany. In England, France, and Germany, as well as in the Low Countries, each convent had, besides its silk-weaving looms, its workshops for embroideries on silk, woollens, and linens, borrowing from the Byzantine Empire, Sicily, and Spain, their designs and patterns.

About this time (the thirteenth century), Marco Polo resided and travelled in Asia. He visited the principal cities of Syria, Persia, Khotan, and Cathay, and from him we have information of the different Asiatic textiles, generally bearing the name of the city where they were woven. He names, for instance, the mediæval “baudas” and “baudakin” (with endless modifications in the spelling), from Baghdad. This afterwards gave the word baldachino to the awning or canopy over the altar, which it retained even when textiles had given place to marbles and mosaics.[272]

Satin is only found named in catalogues about the fourteenth century. But the dalmatic of Charlemagne, at Rome, is embroidered on a stout blue satin, and has never been transferred; and at Constantinople, Baldwin II., at his coronation in 1204, was shod and clothed in vermilion satin embroidered with jewels; while all theVenetian and French barons present were clad in satin.[273]Semper and Bock believe that it had been a Chinese material long before it reached Europe.

Satin was often called “blattin,” in connection with the colour of the cochineal insect (blatta), whose dye was invariably used for satin. We cannot tell, however, which was certainly named from the other.[274]

In the poem of “The Lady of the Fountain,” translated by Lady Charlotte Guest from the Welsh ballads of the thirteenth century, silk and satin are often named. At the opening of the poem, King Arthur is described seated on a throne of rushes, covered with a flame-coloured satin cloth, and with a red satin cushion under his elbow.

Fiery red was the orthodox colour for satin. In old German poems we find it described as “pfellat,” always as being fiery. One kind of pfellat was called salamander.[275]Bruges satins were the most esteemed in the Middle Ages. Chaucer speaks of “satin riche and newe.”[276]

Satin and velvet are the contrasting silken materials. In satin the threads are laid along so that the shining surface ripples with every ray of sunshine, and the shadows are melted into half-lights by the reflections fromevery fold. It makes a dazzling garment, splendid in its radiant sheen; whereas in velvet, where each thread is placed upright and shorn smoothly, all light is absorbed and there are no reflections, and the whole effects are solemn, rich, and deep.[277]Some of the oldest velvets resemble plush in the length of their pile, and have not the dignity of velvet.

Semper, from the different derivations that have been suggested, selects the connection of the word “velvet” (German,Felbert) with “welf,” the skin or fur of an animal.[278]

Among the gifts to Charlemagne (ninth century) from Haroun el Raschid were velvets; and the earliest existing specimen we know of is named by Bock as being in the Pergament Codex at Le Puy, in Vendôme, where, amongst other curious interleaved specimens of weaving, is a fine piece of shorn silk velvet.[279]

Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, frequently speaks of velvet as an Asiatic fabric. It is first known as a European textile in Lucca, about 1295, and we may therefore say that it was imported from the East.[280]

In the next chapter oncolourI have noticed the curious fact that the word purple was sometimes used to mean colour, and sometimes to express the texture of velvet, thus confounding the two; but I have also pointed out that it had other meanings, and had become a very comprehensive word for everything that expressed richness and warmth.

While examining and judging embroideries, we must be careful not to be deceived by the different dates often occurring in the grounding and the applied materials. Much embroidery was worked on fabrics that were already old and even worn out; and others have been transferred centuries ago, and perhaps more than once, to fresh grounds.[281]

This sometimes causes a good deal of difficulty in dating specimens. One should begin by ascertaining whether the needlework was originally intended to be cut out (opus consutum), and so laid on a ground of another material, and worked down and finished there.

Of course it is always evident and easily ascertained, whether the work has been transferred at all. If so—and from each succeeding transference—small fragments may be found showing on the cut edges. You will often see remains of two or more of these layers, reminding you of the three Trojan cities dug up at different depths under each other at Hissarlik.

In judging each specimen the acumen of the expert is needed to obtain a correct opinion, and he should not only be an archæologist, but a botanist and a herald besides;[282]and, in fact, no kind of knowledge is useless in deciphering the secrets of human art. But even when so armed, he is often checked and puzzled by someaccidental caprice of design or mode of weaving, and after wasting trouble and time, has to cast it aside as defying classification.

It is, however, as well to note these exceptions, as, when compared, they sometimes explain each other.

What I have said regards, of course, the historical and archæological side of the study of textiles, and I have treated of them as being either the origin or the imitations of different styles of embroidery, and so inseparably connected with the art which is the subject and motive of this book; and not only in this does the connection between them exist, but in the fact that as embroideries always need a ground, silken and other textiles are an absolute necessity to their existence.

For these reasons alone I have given this chapter on materials, short and imperfect, but suggesting further research into the writings of the authors I have quoted, and, I hope, exciting the interest of the reader.

FOOTNOTES:[130]Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.[131]It is described by Yates as having the appearance of a flat ribbon, with the edges thickened like a hem.[132]This rough bark is probably the reason that it absorbs colour into its substance (perhaps under the scales); and it may also account for its being capable of felting.[133]It may be laid down as a fundamental rule in technical style, that the product shall preserve the peculiar characteristics of the raw material. Unfortunately, the artist is often ignorant of the qualities of the fabric for which he is designing, and the workman who has to carry it out is a mechanic, in these days, instead of a craftsman.[134]Molochinus, or malva silvestris (wild hemp), Yates, pp. 292-317, is sometimes spoken of as a mallow, sometimes as a nettle. In the Vocabulary of Papias (A.D.1050) it is said that the cloth called molocina is made from thread of mallow, and used for dress in Egypt. Garments of molochinus were brought from India, according to the Periplus (see Pliny, 146, 166, 170, 171). It was seldom used by the ancients, but both Greeks and Romans made it serve for mats and ropes. The Thracians wove of it garments and sheets. It is not named in the Scriptures.[135]See Gibbs’ “British Honduras.”[136]Spartum was a rush. Pliny says it was used for the rigging of ships.[137]The bark of trees such as the Hybiscus Tiliaceus, and that of the Birch (see Yates, p. 305-6). Birch bark was embroidered, till latterly, by the Indian women in North America with porcupines’ quills. Pigafetta says (writing in the sixteenth century) that in the kingdom of Congo many different kinds of stuff were manufactured from the palm-tree fibre. He instances cloths on which patterns were wrought, and likewise a material resembling “velvet on both sides.”[138]“Camoca” or caman in the Middle Ages is supposed to have been of camels’ hair, mixed with silk. Edward the Black Prince left to his confessor his bed of red caman, with his arms embroidered on each corner. Rock (p. xliv) gives us information about the tents and garments of camels’ hair found throughout the East, wherever the camel flourishes and has a fine hairy winter coat, which it sheds in the heat. The coarser parts are used for common purposes, and the finest serve for beautiful fabrics, especially shawls. Marco Polo tells of beautiful camelots manufactured from the hair of camels; and of the Egyptian coarse and very fine fabrics woven of the same materials.[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 onStitches.[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.[149]There are specimens of bead-work pictures at St. Stephen’s at Coire, in the Marien-Kirche at Dantzic, and elsewhere. See Rock, p. cv. This is, in fact, mosaic in textiles, without cement.[150]Witness the stone whorls for the spindles in our prehistoric barrows, and the “heaps” of the lake cities.[151]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 129.[152]An Egyptian Dynasty called themselves the Shepherd Kings.[153]Yates gives endless quotations to show how ancient and how honourable an occupation was that of tending sheep.[154]Semper, i. p. 139. The cover of the bed on which was laid the golden coffin in the tomb of Cyrus was of Babylonian tapestry of wool; the carpet beneath it was woven of the finest wrought purple. Plautus mentions Babylonian hangings and embroidered tapestries. See Birdwood’s “Indian Arts,” i. p. 286.[155]Joshua vii.[156]Ezekiel xxvii. 22.[157]Semper, “Der Stil,” i. p. 138.[158]Yates, pp. 79, 91, 93, 99, 102, 445. Lanæ Albæ.“The first, Apulia’s; next is Parma’s boast;And the third fleece Altinum has engrossed.”Martial, xiv. Ep. 155.Martial also speaks of the matchless Tarentine togæ, a present from Parthenius:—“With thee the lily and the privet paleCompared, and Tibur’s whitest ivory fail;The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deploreTheir hue, and pearls on the Erythrean shore.”Martial, viii. Ep. 28.[159]The sheep of Tarentum, from the days of the Greek colonists, were famed, as they are still, for the warm brown tints on their black wool. Pliny says that this is caused by the weedfumio, on which they browsed. Swinburne says, in his “Travels in the Two Sicilies,” that there the wool is so tinged by the plant now calledfumolo, which grows on the coast.[160]See Blümner’s “Technologie,” p. 92; also “Comptes Rendus de la Commission Impériale Archéologique” of St. Petersburg, 1881; also the Catalogue Raisonnée of Herr Graf’schen’s Egyptian Collection of Textiles at Vienna.[161]See Pliny’s “Natural History,” viii. 74, § 191. Tanaquil is credited with the first invention of the seamless coat or cassock.[162]The Gauls in Britain wove plaids or tartans. See Rock, p. xii; Blümner, pp. 152-54; Birdwood, p. 286.[163]Pliny, “Natural History,” book viii., 73, 74.[164]“Georgics,” iv. 334; Yates, p. 35.[165]“Comptes Rendus de la Commission Impériale Archéologique,” St. Petersburg, 1881. Much of this Gobelin weaving has lately been found in Egypt. See “Katalog der Teodor Graf’schen Fünde in Ægypten,” von Dr. J. Karabacek.[166]Semper considers that the famous Babylonian and Phrygian stuffs were all woollen, and that gold was woven or embroidered on them. See “Der Stil,” i. p. 138.[167]Worcester cloth was forbidden to the Benedictines by a Chapter of that Order at Westminster Abbey in 1422, as being fine enough for soldiers, and therefore too good for monks. See Rock’s Introduction, p. lxxviii.[168]Both these fabrics are represented in Egyptian and Greek fragments, and are equally well preserved.[169]Boyd Dawkins, “Early Man in Britain,” pp. 268, 275.[170]See Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii. p. 116; Yates, p. 23.[171]It appears that the art of printing textiles was known in Egypt in the time of Pliny. See Yates, p. 272, quoting Apuleius, Met. l. xi.; also see Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. ii. p. 196, pl. xii.[172]See Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 268, 335; Herodotus, ii. 86. Herodotus and Strabo speak of Babylonian linen, cited by Yates, p. 281.[173]“Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 267-80. A peculiarity of Egyptian linen is that it was often woven with more threads in the warp than in the woof. A specimen in the Indian Museum, South Kensington, shows in its delicate texture 140 threads in the inch to the warp, and 64 to the woof. Another piece of fine linen has 270 to the warp, and 110 to the woof. Generally there are twice or three times as many threads, but sometimes even four times the number. Wilkinson gives a probable reason for this peculiarity. See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. i. chap. ix. pp. 121-226. See Rock’s Introduction, p. xiv.[174]De Somniis, vol. i. p. 653. Yates, p. 271.[175]Philo, cited by Yates, p. 271.[176]Paulinus ad Cytherium, cited by Yates, p. 273.[177]Herodotus, l. ii. c. 182, l. iii. c. 47. Rawlinson’s Trans.[178]Proverbs vii. 16.[179]Yates, p. 291. Denon describes a tunic found in a sarcophagus, which he examined, and says: “The weaving was extremely loose, of thread as fine as a hair, of two strands of twisted flax fibre.”—Auberville’s “Ornement des Tissus,” p. 4. Some marvellously fine specimens of such cambric may be seen at the South Kensington Museum and the British Museum.[180]Not that we have any remains of flax linen from their tombs.[181]It was carried thence, at a prehistoric date, to Assyria and Egypt.[182]There is no proof that it was grown in Egypt till the fourteenth centuryA.D., when it is mentioned for the first time in a MS. of that date of the “Codex Antwerpianus.” See Yates, Appendix E, p. 470.[183]Birdwood, p. 241.[184]Puggaree. Yates says that cotton has always been supposed to be the best preserver against sunstroke, p. 341.[185]Carpas, the proper Oriental name for cotton, is found in the same sense in the Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian languages. Yates, p. 341.[186]In the Æneid, the garment of Chloreus the Phrygian is thus described:—“His saffron chlamys, and each rustling foldOf muslin (carpas), was confined with glittering gold.”Æneid, xi. 775.[187]Dakka muslins are the most esteemed. Their poetic names, “running water,” “woven air,” “evening dew,” are more descriptive than pages of prose. See Birdwood, ii. p. 259.[188]Chintzes, calicoes, fine cloths, and strong tent-cloths, cotton carpets, &c., &c. Forbes Watson classifies the calicoes as being white, bleached and unbleached, striped, &c., printed chintzes, or pintadoes. See Birdwood, p. 260.[189]For Buckram and Fustian, see Rock, pp. lxxxv, lxxxvi. In Lady Burgeweny’s (Abergavenny) will, 1434, she leaves as part of the furnishings of her bed “of gold of swan,” two pairs of sheets of Raine (Rennes), and a pair of fustian. Anne Boleyn’s list of clothes contains “Bokerams, for lining and taynting,” gowns, sleeves, cloaks, and beds. Rock, lxxxvi. Renouard, in his “Romaunce Dictionary,” quotes the following: “Vestæ de Polpia e de Bisso qui est bacaram.” For the antiquity of this fabric, see Herr Graf’schen’s Catalogue of Textiles from the Fayoum.[190]See Yates, p. 300, citing “Herod’s silver apparel.”[191]“Indian Arts,” ii. p. 237.[192]Rock, p. xxv. Yates (p. 3) says they cut their gold for wearing apparel into thin plates, and did not draw it into wire, as it is translated in the Vulgate (Exodus xxxix.). The ephod made by Bezaleel was of fine linen, gold, violet, purple, and scarlet, twice dyed, with embroidered work. This tradition must have guided the artist who designed the ephod in the National Museum at Munich, in the seventeenth century, for a prince boy-bishop.[193]Quintus Curtius says that many thousands, clothed in these costly materials, crowded out of Damascus to meet Alexander.[194]There is a very ancient local tradition at Shŭsh, thatA.D.640, in the reign of the Kaliph Omar, the body of the prophet Daniel was found, wrapped in cloth of gold, in a stone coffin; and, by order of the victorious general, it was placed in one of glass, and moored to the bridge which spanned the branch of the Euphrates flowing between the two halves of the city, so that the waters flowed over it. See “Chaldea and Susiana,” by Loftus, and Sir G. W. Gore Ouseley’s translation of a Persian version of “The Book of Victories.” Alexander is said to have been buried in a glass coffin. (See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” ii. p. 102, note †.)[195]Yates, pp. 367-70; Rock, p. xxvi.[196]“Aura intexere eadem Asiâ invenit Attalus Rex unde nomen Attalicis.”—Pliny, viii. c. 48, and Yates, p. 371. The reign of Attalus II. wasB.C.159-188.[197]“And they did beat the gold into plates, and cut it into wires, and work it into the blue, and the purple, and the fine linen.”—Exod. xxxix.[198]See Yates, p. 371; and Bock, xxxiii.[199]Pliny, xxxiii. In the Museum at Leyden there is a shred of gold cloth found in a tomb at Tarquinia, in Etruria. This is a compactly woven covering over bright yellow silk.[200]Gold wire is still worked through leather at Guzerat. See Birdwood, p. 284, Ed. 1880. Marco Polo mentions this embroidery 600 years ago. Bk. iii. chap. xxvi. (Yule). The hunting cuirass of Assurbanipal (pl.1) appears to be so worked, and of such materials. Also see Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii. p. 130. This gold for weaving was beaten into shape with hammers.[201]Pope Eutichinus, in the third century, buried many martyrs in golden robes.[202]“Liber Pontificalis,” t. ii. p. 332.[203]See Rock, pp. xxvii, xxxv; and Parker’s “Use of the Levitical Colours,” p. 49.[204]See Yates, p. 376.[205]Rock, p. xxxv. The toga picta, or trabea, part of the official dress of her sons.[206]Hoveden’s “Annal.” p. 481, Ed. Savile; Rock, p. xxx.[207]See “Archæologia,” 1880, pp. 317, 322; also Pl.74, No. 20 (post).[208]Bock, “L. Gewänder,” taf. ix. vol. i.[209]Rock, p. xxxvii.[210]Ciclatoun, according to Rock, p. xxxix, is a common Persian name for such tissues in the East. This, in common with nasick, nak, and many other beautiful tissues, was wrought in gold with figures of birds and beasts.—Yule’s “Marco Polo,” ed. 1875, i. p. 65.Dr. Rock quotes the old ballad,—“In a robe right royall bowne,Of a red ciclatoune,Be her fader’s syde;A coronall on her hede sett,Her clothes with byrdes of gold were betteAll about for pryde.”[211]In St. Paul’s in London there was formerly an amice adorned with the figures of two bishops and a king, hammered out of silver, and gilt. Dugdale, ed. 1818, p. 318. See also Rock, pp. xxix-xxxii.[212]Museum at Berne.[213]A piece of Venetian work to be seen at the South Kensington Museum is an altar frontal, worked in coral, gold beads, seed pearls, and spangles. All jewellers’ work, including enamel, was much admired and introduced into their embroideries. (See Rock’s Introduction to Catalogue of the Kensington Museum, pp. civ-cviii, ed. 1870.)[214]On this gorgeous piece of Italian art there are added a number of buttons (for we can give them no other name), with crosses and hearts under crystal, which seem to have belonged to another period and workmanship, or else are to be attributed to a superstitious feeling on the part of the maker, who placed these Christian signs, perhaps, surreptitiously, and for the good of his own soul.[215]The Museum of National Art at Munich has a fine collection of gold and silver, spangled, and black bead head-dresses, now mostly antiquated, though in peasant dress it yet survives.[216]It is embroidered in gold, with red silk and gems; and I have elsewhere said that it probably issued from the Hotel de Tiraz at Messina.[217]Terry, in his “Voyage to the East Indies,” speaks of the rich carpets (p. 128): “The ground of some of these is silver or gold, about which such arabesques in flowers and figures as I have before named are most excellently disposed.”[218]These of late years have been the most gorgeous objects at exhibitions of old needlework, and the ambition and despair of collectors.[219]Gold thread was also made of gilt paper, equally by the Moors and the Japanese.[220]In Aikin’s “Life of James I.,” p. 205, we have a curious account of the monopoly of gold thread, that had been granted, with others, to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The thread was so scandalously debased with copper as to corrode the hands of the artificers, and even the flesh of those who wore it. This adulterated article they sold at an exorbitant price, and if they detected any one making a cheaper or better article, they were empowered to fine or imprison them, while a clause in their patent protected themselves. The manufacturers of this base metal thread were two Frenchmen, Mompesson and Michel, and Edward Villiers, the Marquis’ brother, was one of the firm. Doubtless they drove for a time a roaring trade, as gold embroideries were then universally worn, both by men and women; but the House of Commons interfered, and the monopoly was abolished.[221]Mitre of white satin, with two figure subjects in flat gold—the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and that of St. Thomas of Canterbury.[222]The School of Gold Embroidery at Munich produces work of a richness and precision which has, perhaps, never been excelled. The raised parts of the design are first cast in soft hollow “carton,” and the gold is worked on it and into the recesses with the help of a fine stiletto, which pioneers the needle for each stitch. This is embroidery “on the stamp,” but without padding.[223]Bock, “L. Gewänder,” vol. i. p. 48. Prizes are offered at Lyons for the best mode of manufacturing gold and silver thread that will not tarnish.[224]Yates says, pp. 160-162: “Whether silk was mentioned in the Old Testament cannot, perhaps, be determined. After fully considering the subject, Braunius decides against silk being known to the Hebrews in ancient times (‘De Vestitu Heb. Sacerdotum,’ i. c. viii.).” The contrary opinion is founded on the passage, “I clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with badger-skins. I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk” (meshi).—Ezekiel xvi. But the translation is disputed.[225]“Code of Manu,” xi. 168; xii. 64. Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 204.[226]Auberville, “Ornement des Tissus,” p. ii.[227]Yates (pp. 173, 174) believes that “Cos” should always be read for Cios, about which there seems to be some confusion. Chios has also been substituted for the name of “Cos,” the island.There is no doubt that the Roman ladies obtained their most splendid garments from Cos—perhaps of wool as well as of silk.[228]Birdwood, “Textile Arts of India,” ii. p. 269.[229]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 204.[230]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” note (*), p. 184. Aristotle (fourth centuryB.C.), however, had already given evidence respecting the use of silk, which was adopted and repeated by Pliny, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Basil. Aristotle tells the story of Pamphile. One thousand years later Procopius (sixth centuryA.D.) says the raw material was then brought from the East, and woven in the Phœnician cities of Tyre and Berytus. See Yates, pp. 163, 164.[231]Ibid., note (*), p. 184.[232]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 181.[233]I have mentioned this already, to prove the antiquity of the art of embroidery. Here I repeat it in reference to the first mention of silk. (See p.38ante.)[234]“Bibliothèque Orientale de M. Herbelot,” ed. 1778, vol. iii. p. 19.[235]Auberville, p. 2; Yates (pp. 172, 173) calls her Si-ling, wife of Hoang-ti, and quotes the “Resumé des Principaux Tractes Chinois,” traduits par Stanislas Julien, 1837, pp. 67, 68.[236]Auberville, “Histoire des Tissus,” pp. 2-4; “Du Halde,” vol. ii. pp. 355, 356 (8vo edition, London, 1736).[237]Related by Klaproth, the Russian Orientalist.[238]Yates, p. 238. “History of Khotan,” translated by M. Abel Rémusat, pp. 55, 56.[239]Khotan or Little Bucharia would, in common parlance, be included in Serica; and therefore silk exported thence to Europe would have been perfectly described as coming from the Seres. Yates, p. 231, 232.[240]Yates, p. 231.[241]While in Europe the arts of daily use and decoration were struggling for life after many interruptions and revolutions, the civilization of Japan, which is nearly contemporary with Christianity, spent itself in perfecting to the most exquisite finish the arts which had been imported from China and Corea. Japan also inherited the power and the tradition of concealment, and so Europe remained unconscious, until the last century, of the miraculous arts which a semi-barbarous people were cultivating—notfor commercial purposes. Auberville, “Tissus,” pp. 2-4.[242]Yates, pp. 175-184.[243]Yates, p. 176. The silken flags attached to the gilt standards of the Parthians inflamed the cupidity of the army of Crassus. The conflict between them took place 54B.C.About thirty years after this date, Roman luxury had reached its zenith—“The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering armO’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.”“Petronius Arbiter,” c. cxix.After these words he says that among the richest productions of distant climes, the Seres sent their “new fleeces.”[244]Yates, p. 183.[245]“Holosericum,” whole silk; “subsericum,” partly cotton, hemp, or flax. The longitudinal threads or warp, cotton; the cross threads, silk. Rock, “Textile Fabrics,” p. xxxvii (ed. 1870).[246]Yates, p. 195.[247]Yates, p. 198. For the value of the denarius, see Waddington, “Edit. de Diocletien,” p. 3.[248]Gruter, tom. iii. p. 645; Yates, p. 205.[249]Yates, p. 246. The words “silk” and “satin” are spoken of by Yates as having two derivations—the one imported to us through Greece and Italy, the other from Eastern Asia, through Slavonia, by the north of Europe.[250]Yates, p. 231; who remarks, p. 203, that the laws of Justinian are not directed against the use of silk as a luxury, but rather as appropriating it as an imperial monopoly and source of revenue.[251]Tom. ii. p. 106 (ed. 1630). See Yates, p. 213.[252]Yates, p. 214.[253]Auberville, Plate 4. Amongst these are what he calls “Consular silks.” These are, or may be, included in the palmated class, as they are evidently woven for triumphal occasions. One of the most remarkable has every mark of Oriental design. It represents a picture in a circle, repeated over and over again, of a warrior in his quadriga. Black or coloured slaves drive the horses, either running beside them or standing upon them; and other slaves carry beasts on their shoulders, and are stooping to give them drink at a trough. The space between the circles is filled in with the tree of life, growing out of its two horns. The colours are purple and gold. He places this between the first and seventh centuries (see pl.34).[254]There are, however, a few that have not had the security of the tomb, and yet have survived, such as the chasuble and maniple at Bayeux, of the seventh century, and Charlemagne’s dalmatic.[255]Roger de Wendover, “Chronica,” t. iv. p. 127, ed. Coxe. Quoted by Rock from Ralph, Dean of St. Paul’s. See Rock, Introduction, p. lv.[256]Roger de Wendover, “Chronica,” t. iv., ed. Coxe; also Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 243, 244.[257]In the twelfth century. Semper, i. p. 38.[258]See illustration from the portrait of Sultan Mahomet II., by Gentil Bellini.Ante, p.146, Plate33.[259]See Semper, p. 157.[260]The Sicilian type of design in silk-weaving was carried into Germany about the end of the second period. We are informed by Auberville that there existed at that time a manufacture of ecclesiastical stuffs at Leipzig, from which he gives us fine examples.[261]See Bock’s “Liturgische Gewänder,” vol. ii. Taf. xxxiii. The pattern is twelfth century “metal work,” embroidered in gold.[262]See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” iii., pl. xvi.; v., pl. xxxiv. In general, a scarf floats from the prow or from the oars.[263]The Crusaders carried away splendid booty from the towns they took and ransacked. As it was the great gathering-place of all Eastern and Western nations, Jerusalem was a mart for rich merchandise from Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Phœnicia, till the times of the Latin kings. Antioch, as well as Jerusalem, yielded the richest plunder. Matthew Paris (a contemporary historian), speaking of what was taken at Antioch, 1098, says, “At the division of costly vessels, crosses, weavings, and silken stuffs, every beggar in the crusading army was enriched.” Alexandria, as early as the middle of the sixth century,A.D., had been the depôt for the silken stuffs of Libya and Morocco. Here is a wide area opened to us for suggestions as to the origin and traditions of patterns in silk textile art. See Bock’s “Liturgische Gewänder,” vol. i. pp. 29, 30.[264]Rock, Introduction, p. ccxlviii, and p. 268, No. 8710.[265]The weaving of inscriptions in textiles is not a Saracenic invention. Pliny says it was a custom among the Parthians. See Rock’s “Textile Fabrics,” p. lxi.“In allusion to lettered garments, Ausonius thus celebrates Sabina, of whom we otherwise know nothing:—“‘They who both webs and verses weave,The first to thee, oh chaste Minerva, leave;The latter to the Muses they devote.To me, Sabina, it appears a sinTo separate two things so near akin;So I have writ these verses on my coat.’”See Lady Wilton on “Needlework,” p. 53.[266]Birdwood, “Indian Arts,” p. 274.[267]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 244; Tegrini, “Vita Castruccii,” in Muratore, “Ital. Script.,” t. xi. p. 1320.[268]Riano, “Cat. of Loan Exhibition of Spanish Art in South Kensington Museum,” 1882, p. 46.[269]In Hoveden’s account of the fleet of Richard I. coasting the shores of Spain, he speaks of the delicate and valuable textures of the silks of Almeria. Rog. Hoveden, Ann., ed. Savile, p. 382. Rock, p. xx.[270]Bock, pp. 39, 40, quotes from Anastasius and the Abbot of Fontenelle, proving that silken rugs were manufactured in Spain by the Moors.[271]Auberville, “Histoire des Tissus,” p. 14.[272]Yule’s “Marco Polo,” p. 224. “Baudakin” from Baghdad, “damask” from Damascus. “Baudakin” was woven with beasts, birds, and flowers in gold.[273]“Récit de Robert Clari.” He was one of the companions of Ville d’Hardouin, and a witness to the coronation of Baldwin II. See Auberville’s “Histoire des Tissus,” p. 21.[274]Satin is called by Marco Polo “zettani,” and he says it came from Syria. The French called it “zatony;” the Spaniards named it “aceytuni,” which is probably derived from “zaituniah,” the product of Zaiton. Yates (p. 246) gives the derivations of the words satin and silk; the one imported to us through Greece and Italy, the other from Eastern Asia, through Slavonia and Northern Europe.[275]Ibid. In the Wigalois, a story is told of a cavern in Asia full of everlasting flames, where costly fellat was made by the Salamanders, which was fireproof and indestructible.[276]“Man of Lawe’s Tale: Canterbury Pilgrims.”[277]“Ohitos terciopelos” (three-piled-velvet eyes) is a pretty Spanish phrase, describing the soft, dark, shadowy eyes of the Spanish girls.[278]The Italian wordvellutomeans “shaggy.”[279]Bock, i. pp. 99-101.[280]Buckram was sometimes a silken plush, but generally was woven with cotton. This was also Asiatic, and named by travellers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. I have already mentioned it as a textile in the chapter oncotton. When woven of silk it belongs to the class of velvets.[281]Elsewhere I have spoken of the embroideries of the early Christian times found in the Fayoum, in Egypt. These afford notable examples of the ancient method in putting in patches on a worn or frayed garment. They invariably embroidered them, and so added a grace to the old and honoured vestment, and justified the classical appellation, “Healer of clothes” for a darner. The comparatively modern additions of the restorer, are in ancient as in later specimens, often a puzzle to the archæologist.[282]The specimens in the South Kensington Museum, where Dr. Rock gives their approximate dates, are most useful to the student of this subject.

[130]Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.

[131]It is described by Yates as having the appearance of a flat ribbon, with the edges thickened like a hem.

[132]This rough bark is probably the reason that it absorbs colour into its substance (perhaps under the scales); and it may also account for its being capable of felting.

[133]It may be laid down as a fundamental rule in technical style, that the product shall preserve the peculiar characteristics of the raw material. Unfortunately, the artist is often ignorant of the qualities of the fabric for which he is designing, and the workman who has to carry it out is a mechanic, in these days, instead of a craftsman.

[134]Molochinus, or malva silvestris (wild hemp), Yates, pp. 292-317, is sometimes spoken of as a mallow, sometimes as a nettle. In the Vocabulary of Papias (A.D.1050) it is said that the cloth called molocina is made from thread of mallow, and used for dress in Egypt. Garments of molochinus were brought from India, according to the Periplus (see Pliny, 146, 166, 170, 171). It was seldom used by the ancients, but both Greeks and Romans made it serve for mats and ropes. The Thracians wove of it garments and sheets. It is not named in the Scriptures.

[135]See Gibbs’ “British Honduras.”

[136]Spartum was a rush. Pliny says it was used for the rigging of ships.

[137]The bark of trees such as the Hybiscus Tiliaceus, and that of the Birch (see Yates, p. 305-6). Birch bark was embroidered, till latterly, by the Indian women in North America with porcupines’ quills. Pigafetta says (writing in the sixteenth century) that in the kingdom of Congo many different kinds of stuff were manufactured from the palm-tree fibre. He instances cloths on which patterns were wrought, and likewise a material resembling “velvet on both sides.”

[138]“Camoca” or caman in the Middle Ages is supposed to have been of camels’ hair, mixed with silk. Edward the Black Prince left to his confessor his bed of red caman, with his arms embroidered on each corner. Rock (p. xliv) gives us information about the tents and garments of camels’ hair found throughout the East, wherever the camel flourishes and has a fine hairy winter coat, which it sheds in the heat. The coarser parts are used for common purposes, and the finest serve for beautiful fabrics, especially shawls. Marco Polo tells of beautiful camelots manufactured from the hair of camels; and of the Egyptian coarse and very fine fabrics woven of the same materials.

[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 onStitches.

[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.

[149]There are specimens of bead-work pictures at St. Stephen’s at Coire, in the Marien-Kirche at Dantzic, and elsewhere. See Rock, p. cv. This is, in fact, mosaic in textiles, without cement.

[150]Witness the stone whorls for the spindles in our prehistoric barrows, and the “heaps” of the lake cities.

[151]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 129.

[152]An Egyptian Dynasty called themselves the Shepherd Kings.

[153]Yates gives endless quotations to show how ancient and how honourable an occupation was that of tending sheep.

[154]Semper, i. p. 139. The cover of the bed on which was laid the golden coffin in the tomb of Cyrus was of Babylonian tapestry of wool; the carpet beneath it was woven of the finest wrought purple. Plautus mentions Babylonian hangings and embroidered tapestries. See Birdwood’s “Indian Arts,” i. p. 286.

[155]Joshua vii.

[156]Ezekiel xxvii. 22.

[157]Semper, “Der Stil,” i. p. 138.

[158]Yates, pp. 79, 91, 93, 99, 102, 445. Lanæ Albæ.“The first, Apulia’s; next is Parma’s boast;And the third fleece Altinum has engrossed.”Martial, xiv. Ep. 155.Martial also speaks of the matchless Tarentine togæ, a present from Parthenius:—“With thee the lily and the privet paleCompared, and Tibur’s whitest ivory fail;The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deploreTheir hue, and pearls on the Erythrean shore.”Martial, viii. Ep. 28.

[158]Yates, pp. 79, 91, 93, 99, 102, 445. Lanæ Albæ.

“The first, Apulia’s; next is Parma’s boast;And the third fleece Altinum has engrossed.”Martial, xiv. Ep. 155.

“The first, Apulia’s; next is Parma’s boast;And the third fleece Altinum has engrossed.”

Martial, xiv. Ep. 155.

Martial also speaks of the matchless Tarentine togæ, a present from Parthenius:—

“With thee the lily and the privet paleCompared, and Tibur’s whitest ivory fail;The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deploreTheir hue, and pearls on the Erythrean shore.”Martial, viii. Ep. 28.

“With thee the lily and the privet paleCompared, and Tibur’s whitest ivory fail;The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deploreTheir hue, and pearls on the Erythrean shore.”

Martial, viii. Ep. 28.

[159]The sheep of Tarentum, from the days of the Greek colonists, were famed, as they are still, for the warm brown tints on their black wool. Pliny says that this is caused by the weedfumio, on which they browsed. Swinburne says, in his “Travels in the Two Sicilies,” that there the wool is so tinged by the plant now calledfumolo, which grows on the coast.

[160]See Blümner’s “Technologie,” p. 92; also “Comptes Rendus de la Commission Impériale Archéologique” of St. Petersburg, 1881; also the Catalogue Raisonnée of Herr Graf’schen’s Egyptian Collection of Textiles at Vienna.

[161]See Pliny’s “Natural History,” viii. 74, § 191. Tanaquil is credited with the first invention of the seamless coat or cassock.

[162]The Gauls in Britain wove plaids or tartans. See Rock, p. xii; Blümner, pp. 152-54; Birdwood, p. 286.

[163]Pliny, “Natural History,” book viii., 73, 74.

[164]“Georgics,” iv. 334; Yates, p. 35.

[165]“Comptes Rendus de la Commission Impériale Archéologique,” St. Petersburg, 1881. Much of this Gobelin weaving has lately been found in Egypt. See “Katalog der Teodor Graf’schen Fünde in Ægypten,” von Dr. J. Karabacek.

[166]Semper considers that the famous Babylonian and Phrygian stuffs were all woollen, and that gold was woven or embroidered on them. See “Der Stil,” i. p. 138.

[167]Worcester cloth was forbidden to the Benedictines by a Chapter of that Order at Westminster Abbey in 1422, as being fine enough for soldiers, and therefore too good for monks. See Rock’s Introduction, p. lxxviii.

[168]Both these fabrics are represented in Egyptian and Greek fragments, and are equally well preserved.

[169]Boyd Dawkins, “Early Man in Britain,” pp. 268, 275.

[170]See Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii. p. 116; Yates, p. 23.

[171]It appears that the art of printing textiles was known in Egypt in the time of Pliny. See Yates, p. 272, quoting Apuleius, Met. l. xi.; also see Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. ii. p. 196, pl. xii.

[172]See Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 268, 335; Herodotus, ii. 86. Herodotus and Strabo speak of Babylonian linen, cited by Yates, p. 281.

[173]“Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 267-80. A peculiarity of Egyptian linen is that it was often woven with more threads in the warp than in the woof. A specimen in the Indian Museum, South Kensington, shows in its delicate texture 140 threads in the inch to the warp, and 64 to the woof. Another piece of fine linen has 270 to the warp, and 110 to the woof. Generally there are twice or three times as many threads, but sometimes even four times the number. Wilkinson gives a probable reason for this peculiarity. See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. i. chap. ix. pp. 121-226. See Rock’s Introduction, p. xiv.

[174]De Somniis, vol. i. p. 653. Yates, p. 271.

[175]Philo, cited by Yates, p. 271.

[176]Paulinus ad Cytherium, cited by Yates, p. 273.

[177]Herodotus, l. ii. c. 182, l. iii. c. 47. Rawlinson’s Trans.

[178]Proverbs vii. 16.

[179]Yates, p. 291. Denon describes a tunic found in a sarcophagus, which he examined, and says: “The weaving was extremely loose, of thread as fine as a hair, of two strands of twisted flax fibre.”—Auberville’s “Ornement des Tissus,” p. 4. Some marvellously fine specimens of such cambric may be seen at the South Kensington Museum and the British Museum.

[180]Not that we have any remains of flax linen from their tombs.

[181]It was carried thence, at a prehistoric date, to Assyria and Egypt.

[182]There is no proof that it was grown in Egypt till the fourteenth centuryA.D., when it is mentioned for the first time in a MS. of that date of the “Codex Antwerpianus.” See Yates, Appendix E, p. 470.

[183]Birdwood, p. 241.

[184]Puggaree. Yates says that cotton has always been supposed to be the best preserver against sunstroke, p. 341.

[185]Carpas, the proper Oriental name for cotton, is found in the same sense in the Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian languages. Yates, p. 341.

[186]In the Æneid, the garment of Chloreus the Phrygian is thus described:—“His saffron chlamys, and each rustling foldOf muslin (carpas), was confined with glittering gold.”Æneid, xi. 775.

[186]In the Æneid, the garment of Chloreus the Phrygian is thus described:—

“His saffron chlamys, and each rustling foldOf muslin (carpas), was confined with glittering gold.”Æneid, xi. 775.

“His saffron chlamys, and each rustling foldOf muslin (carpas), was confined with glittering gold.”

Æneid, xi. 775.

[187]Dakka muslins are the most esteemed. Their poetic names, “running water,” “woven air,” “evening dew,” are more descriptive than pages of prose. See Birdwood, ii. p. 259.

[188]Chintzes, calicoes, fine cloths, and strong tent-cloths, cotton carpets, &c., &c. Forbes Watson classifies the calicoes as being white, bleached and unbleached, striped, &c., printed chintzes, or pintadoes. See Birdwood, p. 260.

[189]For Buckram and Fustian, see Rock, pp. lxxxv, lxxxvi. In Lady Burgeweny’s (Abergavenny) will, 1434, she leaves as part of the furnishings of her bed “of gold of swan,” two pairs of sheets of Raine (Rennes), and a pair of fustian. Anne Boleyn’s list of clothes contains “Bokerams, for lining and taynting,” gowns, sleeves, cloaks, and beds. Rock, lxxxvi. Renouard, in his “Romaunce Dictionary,” quotes the following: “Vestæ de Polpia e de Bisso qui est bacaram.” For the antiquity of this fabric, see Herr Graf’schen’s Catalogue of Textiles from the Fayoum.

[190]See Yates, p. 300, citing “Herod’s silver apparel.”

[191]“Indian Arts,” ii. p. 237.

[192]Rock, p. xxv. Yates (p. 3) says they cut their gold for wearing apparel into thin plates, and did not draw it into wire, as it is translated in the Vulgate (Exodus xxxix.). The ephod made by Bezaleel was of fine linen, gold, violet, purple, and scarlet, twice dyed, with embroidered work. This tradition must have guided the artist who designed the ephod in the National Museum at Munich, in the seventeenth century, for a prince boy-bishop.

[193]Quintus Curtius says that many thousands, clothed in these costly materials, crowded out of Damascus to meet Alexander.

[194]There is a very ancient local tradition at Shŭsh, thatA.D.640, in the reign of the Kaliph Omar, the body of the prophet Daniel was found, wrapped in cloth of gold, in a stone coffin; and, by order of the victorious general, it was placed in one of glass, and moored to the bridge which spanned the branch of the Euphrates flowing between the two halves of the city, so that the waters flowed over it. See “Chaldea and Susiana,” by Loftus, and Sir G. W. Gore Ouseley’s translation of a Persian version of “The Book of Victories.” Alexander is said to have been buried in a glass coffin. (See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” ii. p. 102, note †.)

[195]Yates, pp. 367-70; Rock, p. xxvi.

[196]“Aura intexere eadem Asiâ invenit Attalus Rex unde nomen Attalicis.”—Pliny, viii. c. 48, and Yates, p. 371. The reign of Attalus II. wasB.C.159-188.

[197]“And they did beat the gold into plates, and cut it into wires, and work it into the blue, and the purple, and the fine linen.”—Exod. xxxix.

[198]See Yates, p. 371; and Bock, xxxiii.

[199]Pliny, xxxiii. In the Museum at Leyden there is a shred of gold cloth found in a tomb at Tarquinia, in Etruria. This is a compactly woven covering over bright yellow silk.

[200]Gold wire is still worked through leather at Guzerat. See Birdwood, p. 284, Ed. 1880. Marco Polo mentions this embroidery 600 years ago. Bk. iii. chap. xxvi. (Yule). The hunting cuirass of Assurbanipal (pl.1) appears to be so worked, and of such materials. Also see Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii. p. 130. This gold for weaving was beaten into shape with hammers.

[201]Pope Eutichinus, in the third century, buried many martyrs in golden robes.

[202]“Liber Pontificalis,” t. ii. p. 332.

[203]See Rock, pp. xxvii, xxxv; and Parker’s “Use of the Levitical Colours,” p. 49.

[204]See Yates, p. 376.

[205]Rock, p. xxxv. The toga picta, or trabea, part of the official dress of her sons.

[206]Hoveden’s “Annal.” p. 481, Ed. Savile; Rock, p. xxx.

[207]See “Archæologia,” 1880, pp. 317, 322; also Pl.74, No. 20 (post).

[208]Bock, “L. Gewänder,” taf. ix. vol. i.

[209]Rock, p. xxxvii.

[210]Ciclatoun, according to Rock, p. xxxix, is a common Persian name for such tissues in the East. This, in common with nasick, nak, and many other beautiful tissues, was wrought in gold with figures of birds and beasts.—Yule’s “Marco Polo,” ed. 1875, i. p. 65.Dr. Rock quotes the old ballad,—“In a robe right royall bowne,Of a red ciclatoune,Be her fader’s syde;A coronall on her hede sett,Her clothes with byrdes of gold were betteAll about for pryde.”

Dr. Rock quotes the old ballad,—

“In a robe right royall bowne,Of a red ciclatoune,Be her fader’s syde;A coronall on her hede sett,Her clothes with byrdes of gold were betteAll about for pryde.”

[211]In St. Paul’s in London there was formerly an amice adorned with the figures of two bishops and a king, hammered out of silver, and gilt. Dugdale, ed. 1818, p. 318. See also Rock, pp. xxix-xxxii.

[212]Museum at Berne.

[213]A piece of Venetian work to be seen at the South Kensington Museum is an altar frontal, worked in coral, gold beads, seed pearls, and spangles. All jewellers’ work, including enamel, was much admired and introduced into their embroideries. (See Rock’s Introduction to Catalogue of the Kensington Museum, pp. civ-cviii, ed. 1870.)

[214]On this gorgeous piece of Italian art there are added a number of buttons (for we can give them no other name), with crosses and hearts under crystal, which seem to have belonged to another period and workmanship, or else are to be attributed to a superstitious feeling on the part of the maker, who placed these Christian signs, perhaps, surreptitiously, and for the good of his own soul.

[215]The Museum of National Art at Munich has a fine collection of gold and silver, spangled, and black bead head-dresses, now mostly antiquated, though in peasant dress it yet survives.

[216]It is embroidered in gold, with red silk and gems; and I have elsewhere said that it probably issued from the Hotel de Tiraz at Messina.

[217]Terry, in his “Voyage to the East Indies,” speaks of the rich carpets (p. 128): “The ground of some of these is silver or gold, about which such arabesques in flowers and figures as I have before named are most excellently disposed.”

[218]These of late years have been the most gorgeous objects at exhibitions of old needlework, and the ambition and despair of collectors.

[219]Gold thread was also made of gilt paper, equally by the Moors and the Japanese.

[220]In Aikin’s “Life of James I.,” p. 205, we have a curious account of the monopoly of gold thread, that had been granted, with others, to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The thread was so scandalously debased with copper as to corrode the hands of the artificers, and even the flesh of those who wore it. This adulterated article they sold at an exorbitant price, and if they detected any one making a cheaper or better article, they were empowered to fine or imprison them, while a clause in their patent protected themselves. The manufacturers of this base metal thread were two Frenchmen, Mompesson and Michel, and Edward Villiers, the Marquis’ brother, was one of the firm. Doubtless they drove for a time a roaring trade, as gold embroideries were then universally worn, both by men and women; but the House of Commons interfered, and the monopoly was abolished.

[221]Mitre of white satin, with two figure subjects in flat gold—the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and that of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

[222]The School of Gold Embroidery at Munich produces work of a richness and precision which has, perhaps, never been excelled. The raised parts of the design are first cast in soft hollow “carton,” and the gold is worked on it and into the recesses with the help of a fine stiletto, which pioneers the needle for each stitch. This is embroidery “on the stamp,” but without padding.

[223]Bock, “L. Gewänder,” vol. i. p. 48. Prizes are offered at Lyons for the best mode of manufacturing gold and silver thread that will not tarnish.

[224]Yates says, pp. 160-162: “Whether silk was mentioned in the Old Testament cannot, perhaps, be determined. After fully considering the subject, Braunius decides against silk being known to the Hebrews in ancient times (‘De Vestitu Heb. Sacerdotum,’ i. c. viii.).” The contrary opinion is founded on the passage, “I clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with badger-skins. I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk” (meshi).—Ezekiel xvi. But the translation is disputed.

[225]“Code of Manu,” xi. 168; xii. 64. Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 204.

[226]Auberville, “Ornement des Tissus,” p. ii.

[227]Yates (pp. 173, 174) believes that “Cos” should always be read for Cios, about which there seems to be some confusion. Chios has also been substituted for the name of “Cos,” the island.There is no doubt that the Roman ladies obtained their most splendid garments from Cos—perhaps of wool as well as of silk.

[227]Yates (pp. 173, 174) believes that “Cos” should always be read for Cios, about which there seems to be some confusion. Chios has also been substituted for the name of “Cos,” the island.

There is no doubt that the Roman ladies obtained their most splendid garments from Cos—perhaps of wool as well as of silk.

[228]Birdwood, “Textile Arts of India,” ii. p. 269.

[229]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 204.

[230]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” note (*), p. 184. Aristotle (fourth centuryB.C.), however, had already given evidence respecting the use of silk, which was adopted and repeated by Pliny, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Basil. Aristotle tells the story of Pamphile. One thousand years later Procopius (sixth centuryA.D.) says the raw material was then brought from the East, and woven in the Phœnician cities of Tyre and Berytus. See Yates, pp. 163, 164.

[231]Ibid., note (*), p. 184.

[232]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 181.

[233]I have mentioned this already, to prove the antiquity of the art of embroidery. Here I repeat it in reference to the first mention of silk. (See p.38ante.)

[234]“Bibliothèque Orientale de M. Herbelot,” ed. 1778, vol. iii. p. 19.

[235]Auberville, p. 2; Yates (pp. 172, 173) calls her Si-ling, wife of Hoang-ti, and quotes the “Resumé des Principaux Tractes Chinois,” traduits par Stanislas Julien, 1837, pp. 67, 68.

[236]Auberville, “Histoire des Tissus,” pp. 2-4; “Du Halde,” vol. ii. pp. 355, 356 (8vo edition, London, 1736).

[237]Related by Klaproth, the Russian Orientalist.

[238]Yates, p. 238. “History of Khotan,” translated by M. Abel Rémusat, pp. 55, 56.

[239]Khotan or Little Bucharia would, in common parlance, be included in Serica; and therefore silk exported thence to Europe would have been perfectly described as coming from the Seres. Yates, p. 231, 232.

[240]Yates, p. 231.

[241]While in Europe the arts of daily use and decoration were struggling for life after many interruptions and revolutions, the civilization of Japan, which is nearly contemporary with Christianity, spent itself in perfecting to the most exquisite finish the arts which had been imported from China and Corea. Japan also inherited the power and the tradition of concealment, and so Europe remained unconscious, until the last century, of the miraculous arts which a semi-barbarous people were cultivating—notfor commercial purposes. Auberville, “Tissus,” pp. 2-4.

[242]Yates, pp. 175-184.

[243]Yates, p. 176. The silken flags attached to the gilt standards of the Parthians inflamed the cupidity of the army of Crassus. The conflict between them took place 54B.C.About thirty years after this date, Roman luxury had reached its zenith—“The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering armO’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.”“Petronius Arbiter,” c. cxix.After these words he says that among the richest productions of distant climes, the Seres sent their “new fleeces.”

“The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering armO’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.”“Petronius Arbiter,” c. cxix.

“The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering armO’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.”

“Petronius Arbiter,” c. cxix.

After these words he says that among the richest productions of distant climes, the Seres sent their “new fleeces.”

[244]Yates, p. 183.

[245]“Holosericum,” whole silk; “subsericum,” partly cotton, hemp, or flax. The longitudinal threads or warp, cotton; the cross threads, silk. Rock, “Textile Fabrics,” p. xxxvii (ed. 1870).

[246]Yates, p. 195.

[247]Yates, p. 198. For the value of the denarius, see Waddington, “Edit. de Diocletien,” p. 3.

[248]Gruter, tom. iii. p. 645; Yates, p. 205.

[249]Yates, p. 246. The words “silk” and “satin” are spoken of by Yates as having two derivations—the one imported to us through Greece and Italy, the other from Eastern Asia, through Slavonia, by the north of Europe.

[250]Yates, p. 231; who remarks, p. 203, that the laws of Justinian are not directed against the use of silk as a luxury, but rather as appropriating it as an imperial monopoly and source of revenue.

[251]Tom. ii. p. 106 (ed. 1630). See Yates, p. 213.

[252]Yates, p. 214.

[253]Auberville, Plate 4. Amongst these are what he calls “Consular silks.” These are, or may be, included in the palmated class, as they are evidently woven for triumphal occasions. One of the most remarkable has every mark of Oriental design. It represents a picture in a circle, repeated over and over again, of a warrior in his quadriga. Black or coloured slaves drive the horses, either running beside them or standing upon them; and other slaves carry beasts on their shoulders, and are stooping to give them drink at a trough. The space between the circles is filled in with the tree of life, growing out of its two horns. The colours are purple and gold. He places this between the first and seventh centuries (see pl.34).

[254]There are, however, a few that have not had the security of the tomb, and yet have survived, such as the chasuble and maniple at Bayeux, of the seventh century, and Charlemagne’s dalmatic.

[255]Roger de Wendover, “Chronica,” t. iv. p. 127, ed. Coxe. Quoted by Rock from Ralph, Dean of St. Paul’s. See Rock, Introduction, p. lv.

[256]Roger de Wendover, “Chronica,” t. iv., ed. Coxe; also Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 243, 244.

[257]In the twelfth century. Semper, i. p. 38.

[258]See illustration from the portrait of Sultan Mahomet II., by Gentil Bellini.Ante, p.146, Plate33.

[259]See Semper, p. 157.

[260]The Sicilian type of design in silk-weaving was carried into Germany about the end of the second period. We are informed by Auberville that there existed at that time a manufacture of ecclesiastical stuffs at Leipzig, from which he gives us fine examples.

[261]See Bock’s “Liturgische Gewänder,” vol. ii. Taf. xxxiii. The pattern is twelfth century “metal work,” embroidered in gold.

[262]See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” iii., pl. xvi.; v., pl. xxxiv. In general, a scarf floats from the prow or from the oars.

[263]The Crusaders carried away splendid booty from the towns they took and ransacked. As it was the great gathering-place of all Eastern and Western nations, Jerusalem was a mart for rich merchandise from Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Phœnicia, till the times of the Latin kings. Antioch, as well as Jerusalem, yielded the richest plunder. Matthew Paris (a contemporary historian), speaking of what was taken at Antioch, 1098, says, “At the division of costly vessels, crosses, weavings, and silken stuffs, every beggar in the crusading army was enriched.” Alexandria, as early as the middle of the sixth century,A.D., had been the depôt for the silken stuffs of Libya and Morocco. Here is a wide area opened to us for suggestions as to the origin and traditions of patterns in silk textile art. See Bock’s “Liturgische Gewänder,” vol. i. pp. 29, 30.

[264]Rock, Introduction, p. ccxlviii, and p. 268, No. 8710.

[265]The weaving of inscriptions in textiles is not a Saracenic invention. Pliny says it was a custom among the Parthians. See Rock’s “Textile Fabrics,” p. lxi.“In allusion to lettered garments, Ausonius thus celebrates Sabina, of whom we otherwise know nothing:—“‘They who both webs and verses weave,The first to thee, oh chaste Minerva, leave;The latter to the Muses they devote.To me, Sabina, it appears a sinTo separate two things so near akin;So I have writ these verses on my coat.’”See Lady Wilton on “Needlework,” p. 53.

[265]The weaving of inscriptions in textiles is not a Saracenic invention. Pliny says it was a custom among the Parthians. See Rock’s “Textile Fabrics,” p. lxi.

“In allusion to lettered garments, Ausonius thus celebrates Sabina, of whom we otherwise know nothing:—

“‘They who both webs and verses weave,The first to thee, oh chaste Minerva, leave;The latter to the Muses they devote.To me, Sabina, it appears a sinTo separate two things so near akin;So I have writ these verses on my coat.’”

See Lady Wilton on “Needlework,” p. 53.

[266]Birdwood, “Indian Arts,” p. 274.

[267]Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” p. 244; Tegrini, “Vita Castruccii,” in Muratore, “Ital. Script.,” t. xi. p. 1320.

[268]Riano, “Cat. of Loan Exhibition of Spanish Art in South Kensington Museum,” 1882, p. 46.

[269]In Hoveden’s account of the fleet of Richard I. coasting the shores of Spain, he speaks of the delicate and valuable textures of the silks of Almeria. Rog. Hoveden, Ann., ed. Savile, p. 382. Rock, p. xx.

[270]Bock, pp. 39, 40, quotes from Anastasius and the Abbot of Fontenelle, proving that silken rugs were manufactured in Spain by the Moors.

[271]Auberville, “Histoire des Tissus,” p. 14.

[272]Yule’s “Marco Polo,” p. 224. “Baudakin” from Baghdad, “damask” from Damascus. “Baudakin” was woven with beasts, birds, and flowers in gold.

[273]“Récit de Robert Clari.” He was one of the companions of Ville d’Hardouin, and a witness to the coronation of Baldwin II. See Auberville’s “Histoire des Tissus,” p. 21.

[274]Satin is called by Marco Polo “zettani,” and he says it came from Syria. The French called it “zatony;” the Spaniards named it “aceytuni,” which is probably derived from “zaituniah,” the product of Zaiton. Yates (p. 246) gives the derivations of the words satin and silk; the one imported to us through Greece and Italy, the other from Eastern Asia, through Slavonia and Northern Europe.

[275]Ibid. In the Wigalois, a story is told of a cavern in Asia full of everlasting flames, where costly fellat was made by the Salamanders, which was fireproof and indestructible.

[276]“Man of Lawe’s Tale: Canterbury Pilgrims.”

[277]“Ohitos terciopelos” (three-piled-velvet eyes) is a pretty Spanish phrase, describing the soft, dark, shadowy eyes of the Spanish girls.

[278]The Italian wordvellutomeans “shaggy.”

[279]Bock, i. pp. 99-101.

[280]Buckram was sometimes a silken plush, but generally was woven with cotton. This was also Asiatic, and named by travellers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. I have already mentioned it as a textile in the chapter oncotton. When woven of silk it belongs to the class of velvets.

[281]Elsewhere I have spoken of the embroideries of the early Christian times found in the Fayoum, in Egypt. These afford notable examples of the ancient method in putting in patches on a worn or frayed garment. They invariably embroidered them, and so added a grace to the old and honoured vestment, and justified the classical appellation, “Healer of clothes” for a darner. The comparatively modern additions of the restorer, are in ancient as in later specimens, often a puzzle to the archæologist.

[282]The specimens in the South Kensington Museum, where Dr. Rock gives their approximate dates, are most useful to the student of this subject.

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