Textile Fabrics / A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church-vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework and Tapestries, forming that Section of the Museum

For its sort and time there is nothing superior to this fine piece of needlework. About the evangelic emblems, as well as the Lamb in the centre, there is a freedom and boldness of design only equalled by the beauty and nicety of execution, making the piece altogether quite an art-work. The little dogs chasing the young harts, as well as the rampant unicorns, but especially the bird of the stork-kind preening its feathers, and the stag looking back at the hound behind, all so admirably placed amid the branches so gracefully twining over the whole field, show a master’s spirited hand in their design. Unfortunately, however, none of its beauty can be seen unless, like a piece of stained glass, it be hung up to the light. Its use was most likely liturgic, and occasions for it not unfrequently occur in the year’s ritual round; and on Candlemas-day and Palm Sunday it might becomingly have been spread over the temporary table on the south side of the altar, upon which were put, for the especial occasion, the tapers for the one service, and the palm-branches for the other, during the ceremony of blessing them before their distribution.

The design consists of a stag at rest couchant, and an imaginary figure, half a winged human form, half a two-legged serpent, separated by a flower of the centaurea kind. This is repeated on the other side of the square, up the middle of which runs an ornamentation made out of a love-knot, surmounted by a heart, sprouting out of which is a stalk bearing a four-petaled flower, and then a stem with the usual corn-flower at the end of it. To all appearance, this linen napkin was for household use.

This piece of needlework is figured with the Crucifixion in the middle, and shows us, on one side, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Christopher; on the other, St. John and the Blessed Virgin Mary holding our Lord in her arms, and, at her feet, a youthful virgin-saint, most likely St. Catherine of Sienna. From the cross itself flowers are in some places sprouting out, and three angels are catching, in chalices, the sacred blood that is gushing from the wounds on the body of our Lord. At each corner is an evangelist’s symbol, and the whole is framed in a broad border in crimson and white silk, edged by crochet-work, and at the corners are the letters A. H. A. R. Though the figures are in mere outline they are well designed, but poorly, feebly executed by the needle. Another specimen of a cradle-quilt, much like this, is No. 1344, and under No. 4644 notice is taken of feeling for the employment of the four Evangelists’ symbols at the corners of this nursery furniture.

Probably meant to hang in the sacristy for the priest to wipe his fingers on after washing the tips of them, before vesting for mass.

Free in design and easy of execution.

A very pleasing and exceedingly well-wrought specimen of its style. Like in manner, but much better done than the examples at Nos. 623, 624. No doubt it was meant for female adornment.

This frontal is said to have been brought from Orvieto; but in it there is nothing about the celebrated relic kept in the very beautiful and splendid shrine in that fine cathedral. So very worn is this piece of embroidery, that several panels of it are quite indistinct. It may be, however, distinguished into three parts—the centre and the two sides. In the first we have, in nine compartments, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the coming of the Wise Men, the Blessed Virgin Mary, with St. Joseph, going to the temple and carrying in a basket her pair of turtle-doves, which she is giving to Simeon; the Last Supper; our Lord being taken in the garden; the Crucifixion; the burial; the Resurrection of our Saviour; on the right side, the legend of St. Christopher, mixed up with that of St. Julian Hospitaler; on the left are passages from the life of St. Ubaldo, bishop of Gubbio in the middle of the 12th century. In the first square is the saint mildly forgiving the master-mason who carried the new walls of the city across a vineyard belonging to St. Ubaldo, and, when reproved about the wrong thus done to private property, knocked down the saint; in the second we behold the saint at the bedside of a converted sinner, whose soul, just breathed forth, an angel is about to waft to heaven; in the third we have before us the saint himself, upon his dying bed, surrounded by friends, one of whom—a lady—is throwing up both her arms in great affright at the sudden appearance of a possessed man who has cast himself upon his knees at the bedfoot, and, with one hand outstretched upon the bed, is freed from the evil spirit, which is flying off over head in shape of a devil-imp; in the last the saint is being drawn in an open bier, by two oxen, to church for burial, followed by a crowd, among whom is his deacon.

From the subjects on this much-decayed frontal, figured, as it is, with the life of St. Ubaldo, known for his love of the poor, his kindness to wayfarers and pilgrims, and his healing of the sick, as well as with the legends of St. Julian and St. Christopher, remarkable for the same virtues, we may infer that this ecclesiastical appliance hung at the altar of some poor house or hospital, in by-gone days, at Orvieto.

Evidently for ladies’ use, but how employed is not so clear; from a little steel ring sewed to it, perhaps it may have been worn hanging from the hair behind the neck.

Within a narrow wreath of leaves and flowers there are two shields, of which the first bears gules a wheel or, surmounted by a closed helmet, having its mantlings of or and gules, and on a wreath gules a wheel or as a crest; the second, azure, a cross couped argent between a faced crescent and a ducal coronet, both or, and all placed in pile, surmounted by a closed helmet having its mantlings of or and azure, and on a wreath or, a demy bear proper with a cross argent on its breast, crowned with a ducal coronet or, and holding in its paws a faced crescent or. At each of the four corners is the emblem of an evangelist with his name, and shown as a human personage nimbed and coming out of a flower, with his appropriate emblem upholding an open volume which he has in his hands, thus calling to mind those nursery rhymes:—

which seem to be as well known in Germany as they were, and yet are, in England. See “Church of Our Fathers,” t. iii. p. 230.

The cradle-cloths, or quilts, are of common occurrence, and afford occasions for much elegance of design.

Of the two shields the first is party per fess azure and sable, a griffin rampant or holding three ears of wheat; the shield itself surmounted by a helmet closed, having green mantlings and crested with a ducal coronet out of which issues a demi-griffin rampant holding three ears of wheat or. The second shield is party per fess sable and or, a lion rampant or noued, and langued gules, counterchanged or and sable, surmounted by a closed helmet with green mantlings, and crested with a demy-lion rampant or, langued gules issuing from a wreath sable and or (now faded). By means of a long slit with hooks and eyes to it a blanket might be introduced to make this coverlet warmer.

Such scarves are used for throwing on the lectern, and to be worn by the sub-deacon at high mass; and, from its appearance, this one must have seen much service. All its flowers, as well as its two edgings, are worked in braid, nicely sewed on and admirably done.

The colours are faded somewhat, and though showy, this stuff is not so glaring in its design as were the silks that came, at a later period, from the same looms.

If used in the liturgy, it must have been for covering the moveable lectern for holding the Book of the Gospels, out of which the deacon at high mass chants the gospel of the day. It might, too, have served as a veil for the sub-deacon for muffling his hands while he held the paten after the offertory.

The hands are of a light olive tone, and embroidered on the under seams in gold; the cuffs are deep, and embroidered in gold and silver after a rich design upon crimson silk, and are united by the novelty of a gusset formed of three pieces of broad crimson ribbon.

Some of the flowers are springing up from silver baskets; others are tied up with silver ribbons, and the whole pleasingly done.

The design of this is pretty, and consists of small gold and silver disks wrought in thread, and linked together by a strong green silk netting.

The whole of this curious piece is designed with great boldness and spirit, and most accurately wrought.

A fine specimen of the Genoese loom, showing a well-managed design composed of a modification of the artichoke, mixed with pomegranates, ears of corn (rather an unusual ornament), roses, and large liliacious flowers. Not unlikely this stuff was ordered by some Spanish nobleman for hangings in the state halls of his palace. Such stuffs are sometimes to be seen on the canopy in the throne-room of some Roman princely house, whose owners have the old feudal right to the cloth of estate.

The foliated scroll pattern of this truly rich stuff is executed in a bold and telling manner; and the amber satin ground is marked with a small but pleasing kind of diaper, which is done in gold thread. To give a greater effect to the velvet, which is deep in its pile, a cord of green and gold stands stitched to it as an edging.

Each piece consists of two lengths of the same embroidery sewed together all along the middle; and served for some household decoration.

The design of the embroidery, done in various-coloured worsteds, is admirable, and quite in accordance with the best types of that period; nor ought we to overlook the artistic manner in which the colours are everywhere about it so well contrasted. The animals are several, not forgetting the unicorn and monkey; though, from the frequency of the Alpine deer kind, it looks as if this fine piece of work had been sketched and executed by those familiar with the Alps. The shields are, first, barry of six argent and azure, with mantlings about a helmet closed and crested with a demi-bloodhound collared and langued, and, from the neck downward, barry like the shield; second, quarterly 1 and 4 or charged with a pair of pincers sable; 2 and 3 sable, a lion rampant or, and mantlings about a helmet closed and crested with a demi-lion rampant or, upon a wreath sable and argent. The silver has now become quite black.

This piece, though much resembling the foregoing, No. 5665, is far below it as an art-work, and, by its style, betrays itself as the production of another period. Within a wreath, the Annunciation is figured, after the usual manner, but without gracefulness, in the middle of the cloth; at one corner Winter is shown, by men in a yard chopping up and stacking wood; then, by the inside of a room where a woman is warming herself before one of those large blind stoves still found in Germany, and a bearded man, seated in a large chair, doing the same at a brazier near his feet, while outside the house a couple are riding on a sledge drawn by a gaily caparisoned horse. At the corner opposite we have Spring—a farm-house, with its beehives, and a dame coming out with a jug of milk to a woman who is churning, near whom is a hedger at his work, and other men pruning, grafting, and sowing. For Summer, two gentlemen are snaring birds with a net; a woman and a man, each with a sickle in hand, are in a cornfield; two people are bathing in a duck-pond before a farm-house, on the roof of which is a nest with two storks sitting, one of which has caught a snake; and in a meadow hard by a man is mowing and a woman making hay. For Autumn, we see a vineyard where one man is gathering grapes and another carrying them in a long basket on his shoulders; and near, a man with a nimb, or glory, about his head, and lying on the ground with one leg outstretched, which a dog is licking above the thigh—perhaps the shepherd St. Rock, and, while a gentleman is walking past behind him, a girl, with a basket of fruit upon her head, is coming towards the spot. Between the seasons, and within circular garlands, are subjects akin to these parts of the year; in a boat, upon the water, a young couple are beginning the voyage of life together; a lady on a grey horse is, with hawk on hand, disporting herself in the flowery fields; a young lady is caressing a lamb with one hand and carries a basket of young birds in the other; last of all, another lady is kneeling at her prayers, with a book open before her on a table over-spread with a nicely worked cloth. A deep gold fringe runs all round the four sides of this table-cover.

The satin is rich, and all the embroideries done in a bold effective manner; in some of these pieces the beak of each green parrot holds a strawberry or arbutus-fruit; and the lily and fleur-de-lis here and there betray a French feeling. It should be noticed, too, that much botanical knowledge is shown in the figuration of the flowers, which are more pleasing and effective from being thus done correctly.

A rich stuff, and made up for household decoration, perhaps for the throne-room of some palace.

A specimen of a rich and telling, though not artistic, stuff.

The pattern, rich in its texture and pleasing in its colours, consists of large stalks of flowers springing out of royal open crowns, all in a fine pile of green velvet, and, no doubt, was meant for palatial furniture.

One of those cushions once so generally used for supporting the Missal at the altar. It is figured only on the upper side, and underneath is lined with a silk diapered in a pleasing pattern, in amber-colour. Its tassels are rather large and made of several coloured silk threads and gold.

Beneath a circular-headed niche, with all its accessories in the style of the revival of classic architecture, sits St. Mark, known as such by the lions at his side. Within his right arm the Evangelist holds a large cross; and on his lap lies an open book, both pages of which are written with the words:—“Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in tēa.” Much of the architecture, as well as of the drapery of this personage, is loom-wrought, assisted in places by needle-embroidery. The head, the hands, the feet, are all done by the needle; but the head, neck, and beard are worked upon very fine linen by themselves, and afterwards applied, and in such a manner that the long white beard overlaps the tunic. His chair, instead of legs, is upheld upon the backs of two lions lying on the ground. The head is done with all the fineness and delicacy of a miniature on ivory, and the way in which the massive folds of his full wide garments are thrown over his knees is noteworthy and majestic.

One of those numerous examples of woven orphrey-work for vestments such as copes and chasubles. Our Lord is figured as uprising from the grave, treading upon clouds, giving, with His right hand, a blessing to the world, and holding the triumphal banner in the left. Glory streams from His person, and a wreath of Cherubim surrounds Him; while, from the top part of this piece, we know that two Roman soldiers were sitting on the ground by the side of the sepulchre, which they were charged to guard.

Such boxes seem to have been much used, at one time, throughout Germany, for keeping, after service, the blessed pieces of square fine linen called corporals, and upon which, at mass, the host and chalice are placed.

Before being employed all the year round as the daily repository for laying up the corporals after the morning’s masses, this sacred appliance, overlaid with such rich embroidery, and fitly ornamented with the illumination of the Crucifixion inside its lid, would seem to have been originally made and especially set aside for an use assigned it by those ancient rubrics, which we have noticed in our Introduction, § 5. As such, it is, like No. 8327 further on, a great liturgical rarity, now seldom to be found anywhere, and merits a place among other such curious objects which give a value to this collection.

At the mass on Maundy Thursday, besides the host received by the officiating priest, another host is and always has been consecrated by him for the morrow’s (Good Friday’s) celebration; and because no consecration of the Holy Eucharist, either in the Latin or in the Greek part of the Church, ever did nor does take place on Good Friday, the service on that day is by the West called the “Mass of the Pre-sanctified,” by the East, “Λειτουργία τῶν προηγιασμενῶν.”

Folded up in a corporal (a square piece of fine linen), the additional host consecrated on Maunday Thursday was put into this receptacle or “capsula corporalium” of the old rubrics, and afterwards carried in solemn procession to its temporary resting-place, known in England as the sepulchre, and there, amid many lights, flowers, and costly hangings of silk and palls of gold and silver tissue, was watched by the people the rest of that afternoon, and all the following night, till the morning of the next day, when, with another solemn procession, it was borne back to the high altar for the Good Friday’s celebration.

This piece may have been part of a frieze, round the head of a bed; and have had a good effect at that height, though, in a manner, an artistic cheat, pretending to be either wrought in the loom or done by the needle. The design, in its imitative classicism, is bold and free, and the touches of the pencil effective. To this day stencil ornamentation upon house-walls is very much employed in Italy, where papering for rooms is seldom used even as yet, and not long ago was in many places almost unknown.

A pleasing design, but the gold is very scant.

The warp is white linen thread, rather fine; and the weft of thick blue wool; and, altogether, it is a pleasing production, and the design nicely managed.

The flowers upon this rich and showy stuff are the lily, the pomegranate, and the artichoke in sprigs, each after a conventional form; and the gold in the thread is of the best, as it shows as bright now as almost on the first day of its being woven in the satin, which so seldom happens.

Though the warp is woollen, the silk in the weft is rich and the pattern after a pretty design, where the pomegranate comes in often.

Pleasing in its quiet tone, and good design.

Very like several other specimens in this collection from the looms of Sicily, Palermo especially, in the pattern of its diapering, usually in green upon a tawny ground.

The colour has much faded; but the design of the pattern, which is a crowded one, is very pretty; and the stuff seems to have been for personal wear.

Though small, this is a pretty design; and, perhaps, the great family of Della Rovere belonging to the Genoese republic may have suggested the acorn, “rovere” being the Italian word for one of the kinds of oak.

A texture for personal attire which must have looked well.

The design in the pattern is rather singular; and may have been meant for some noble, if not royal French family, connected with a house of the same pretensions in Spain.

The flowers are mostly after a conventional form, though traces of the pomegranate may be seen; the gold thread is thin and scantily employed, and always along with broad yellow silk. With somewhat poor materials, a stuff rather effective in design is brought out.

Intended as orphreys of a narrow form; but made of poor materials, for the gold is so scant that it has almost entirely disappeared.

As this piece is put the wrong side out in the frame, the figure of the saint cannot be identified, nor the word on the scroll read.

Poor in every respect, and the small band of gold is almost black.

The same stuff occurs at other numbers in this collection.

The whole of this pretty piece is done with the needle, upon coarse canvas, and, no doubt, ornamented either a chasuble, dalmatic, or some liturgical vestment.

Exactly like another piece in this collection; a winged gaping serpent, with a royal crown just above but not upon its head, occupies the lowest part of the design; over it is the heraldic nebulée or clouds darting forth rays all about them, and above all, a hart, collared, and with head regardant lies lodged within a palisade or paled park.