Page:Textile fabrics; a descriptive catalogue of the collection of church-vestments, dresses, silk stuffs, needle-work and tapestries, forming that section of the Museum (IA textilefabricsde00soutrich).pdf/466

 8614.

Piece of Silk Damask; ground, light brown; pattern, the same colour, palmettes and rosettes, with Arabic sentences repeated. Attached is a piece of green silk wrought with gold. Sicilian, 14th century. 16-1/4 inches by 15-1/2 inches.

A quiet but rich stuff, and especially noticeable for its Arabic or imitated Arabic inscriptions, one within the rosettes, the other all round the inner border of the palmettes or elliptical ornamentations. The cloth of gold is plain.

8615.

Piece of Linen, block-printed in a pattern composed of birds and foliage. Flemish, late 14th century. 1 foot 9 inches by 3 inches.

Of this kind of block-printed linen, with its graceful design in black upon a white ground, there are other good examples (Nos. 7027 and 8303) in this collection. From the marks of use upon its canvas lining, this long narrow strip would seem to have once served as an apparel to an amice in some poor church.

8616.

Portions of Crimson Silk, brocaded in gold; the pattern, angels holding crescents beneath crowns, from which come rays of glory, and hunting leopards seizing on gazelles. Italian, end of 14th century. 2 feet 8-3/4 inches by 2 feet.

This rich stuff betrays in its design an odd mixture of Asiatic and European feeling; we have the eastern hunting lion spotted and collared blue, pouncing on the gazelle or antelope, which is collared too; so far we have the imitation, but without lettering, of a Persian or Asiatic pattern. With this we find European, or at least Christian, angels,