Chapter IV: Materials (2)

In the second century A.D., a prince of Khotan,[238] Kiu-sa-tan-na, was desirous of obtaining from China the eggs of the silkworm, but his request was refused; and it was prohibited that either eggs of the silkworm or seed of mulberry-trees should cross the border.

Then the King of Khotan asked for a Chinese princess in marriage, and this favour being granted, he found means to inform the lady privately that in her future kingdom she would find no silk to weave or work. The dread of such an aimless life roused all her womanly instincts. Defiance of the law, love of smuggling, and the wish to please her husband and benefit her future people, gave her courage to conceal the eggs and seeds in the folds of her dress and the meshes of her beautiful hair, and so she carried a most precious dower into her adopted country.[239] Thus was broken the spell which for more than 3000 years had confined the secret of China within the fence of its wonderful wall; and later on, A.D. 530, the eggs were brought to Byzantium.[240]

From China, therefore, comes our silk.[241] We may say it is traced to the beginning; but how far back had the archæologist to grope before he could find it!

I transcribe a few more quotations from Yates' translations and authorities.[242]

In the Hippolytus of Euripides, 383, Phædra _loquitur_:--

"Remove, ye maids, the vests whose tissue glares
With purple and with gold; far be the red
Of Syrian murex; this the shining thread
Which furthest Seres gathers from the boughs."

Lucan describes the transparent material which veiled Cleopatra's form:--

"Her snowy breast shines through Sidonian threads,
First by the comb of distant Seres struck;
Divided then by Egypt's skilful hand,
And with embroidery transparent made."

Pliny's account of silk and its manufacture is mostly fanciful, though founded on half-known facts.

The Latin poets of the Augustan age speak of silk attire with other luxurious customs from the East.[243] The Roman senate, in the reign of Tiberius, decreed that only women should wear silk, on account of its effeminacy.

Silk was accumulated for the wardrobes of the empresses till A.D. 176, when Marcus Aurelius, "the Philosopher," sold all the imperial ornaments and the silken robes of his empress by auction in the Forum of Trajan.[244]

We learn that silk was precious and fabulously esteemed to the end of the second century A.D.; but it is seldom mentioned in the third century.

Ælius Lampridius speaks of a silken cord with which to hang himself, as an imperial extravagance on the part of Heliogabalus (and of this only one strand was silk); and he mentions that Alexander Severus rarely allowed himself a dress of silk (holosericum), and only gave away robes of partly silken substance.

Flavius Vopiscus says that Aurelian had no dress wholly of silk (holosericum).[245] His wife begged him to allow her a shawl of purple silk, and he replied, "Far be it from me to permit thread to be reckoned worth its weight in gold!"--for a pound of gold was then worth a pound of silk.

Flavius Vopiscus further states that the Emperor Carinus, however, gave away silken garments, as well as dresses of gold and silver, to Greek artificers, players, wrestlers, and musicians.[246]

Yates gives us a translation of an edict of Diocletian, giving a maximum of prices for articles in common use in the Roman empire. It reads like a tailor's or a dress-maker's bill of to-day:--

DENARII.
To the tailor, for lining a fine vest 6
To the same, for an opening of an edging of silk 50
To the same, for an opening and an edging of a mixed
tissue of silk and flax 30
For an edging of a coarser vest 4[247]

A monument at Tivoli is erected to the memory of his estimable wife, Valeria Chrysis, by "M. N. Poculus, silk manufacturer." This was probably an imperial office in the fourth century.[248]

From the first to the sixth centuries, poets and historians continually speak of silk,[249] praising its beauty or blaming it as extravagance or luxury; but according to Yates, all the information we collect from these sources requires to be tested as to accuracy, and is often erroneous.

I have spoken of the first silk-weaving in Cos, 300 B.C. The first arrival of the silkworm in Europe was in the sixth century, 900 years later. Cosmas Indicopleustes and another monk brought eggs from China in the hollow staves they carried in their hands. This was a great event in European commerce. The eggs were solemnly presented to the Emperor Justinian, and the monopoly of their cultivation is to be found in his law-ordaining codex.[250]

The monopoly of the silk manufactures was confined to the area of the imperial palace of Constantinople, but the cultivation of the worm gradually spread over Greece, Asia Minor, and India.

The first allusion to the use of silk in the Christian Church is by Gregory Nazianzen (A.D. 370), "Ad Hellenium pro Monarchis Carmen:" "Silver and gold some bring to God, or the fine thread by Seres spun."[251] Basil illustrates the idea of the resurrection by the birth of the butterfly from the cocoon.[252]

Paul the Silentiary (A.D. 562) alludes to the frequent use of silk in the priests' vestments at the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople.

Bede relates that the first Abbot of Wearmouth went to Rome for the fifth time in A.D. 685, and brought back with him two scarves or palls of incomparable workmanship, and entirely of silk, with which he purchased land of three families at the mouth of the Wear. Bede's own remains were wrapped in silk.

Auberville gives us, in his "Tissus," specimens of Roman silks between the first and seventh centuries, but he cannot fix their exact date.[253]

The finest webs of Holosericum from the imperial looms were generally bestowed upon the Church, and thus consecrated, the earliest ascertained specimens that have survived have been preserved; and of these, most have been found in the tombs of saints, bishops, and kings who were buried in priestly as well as in royal garments.[254]

Among the silk and satin fabrics, the tissue called "Imperial" is mentioned by several early English authors. Roger de Wendover and Matthew Paris describe the apparition of King John as clad in "royal robes of Imperial."[255] William de Magna Villa brought from Greece, in 1170, a stuff called Imperial, "marbled" or variegated, and covered with lions woven in gold.

In the Eastern Empire, this industry after a time fell into the hands of the Jews; and in 1161, Benjamin of Tudela says the city of Thebes contained about 2000 Jewish silk-weavers.

The breeding of the worm in Europe seems to have been confined to Greece from the time of Justinian to the twelfth century; but in 1148, Roger, King of Sicily, brought as prisoners of war, from Corinth, Thebes, and Athens, many silk-weavers, and settled them at Palermo. "Then might be seen Corinthians and Thebans of both sexes, employed in weaving velvet stoles interwoven with gold, and serving like the Eretrians of old among the Persians."[256]

Hugh Falcandus[257] has left a description of the Royal manufactory at Palermo, and the Hotel de Tiraz which absorbed all the smaller Saracenic factories already started. The Hotel de Tiraz had four great workshops, in which were separately carried on the weaving of plain tissues, velvets, examits and satins, and flowered stuffs (damasks), and lastly, gold brocades and embroideries. It was from the last that proceeded the real works of art, and the embroideries with pearls and precious stones.[258] The highest efforts of the loom were apparently finished with the needle,[259] as in the figured textiles of Egypt.

The continuity of Sicilian textile designs from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries (a thousand years) is very remarkable. Owing to its originally strongly stamped Oriental character, great knowledge of the arts of weaving, spinning, and dyeing silk is required to enable any one to assign an exact date to materials which only remodelled their style three times.

Dr. Rock's rules for deciphering these three dates may, however, be easily learned, as they are broad and simple. In his comprehensive "Introduction to the Textiles in the Kensington Museum" (p. lxvii) he says that the three defined periods of silk-weaving in Sicily are: First, from the time of Justinian to the Hohenstaufen (from the sixth to the twelfth century); secondly, from the accession of Frederick I. (Barbarossa), 1152, to Charles IV., 1347 (twelfth to fourteenth centuries); the third period is of one century only, from 1347 to 1456.

The first period especially shows African animals, such as the giraffe and the different kinds of antelopes, mixed with Arabian mottoes; and the patterns are generally woven with gold. This is merely gilt parchment, the silk being mingled with cotton.

The second period, beginning in the twelfth century, shows the arrival of Count Roger's Persian and Greek workmen, captives from Thebes, Corinth, and Athens. The fresh designs show fragments of Greek taste, such as masks and foliage, and give one a slight foretaste of the Renaissance.[260]

These semi-classical echoes are contemporary in the Sicilian looms with such Norman motives as a crowned sovereign riding with a hawk upon his wrist.

This description singularly applies to the relics removed from the tomb of St. Cuthbert, at Durham, in 1827; among which are fragments of three wrappings, or garments of silk, so suggestive of the artistic traditions of many nationalities, and the long descent of patterns, recognizable after the lapse of centuries, that a description of them, accompanied by illustrations, can hardly fail to be interesting. They are all now reduced by time to a rich golden brown, though there are indications that blue, green, and red have been woven into their fabric, and there are also on one of them traces of gilding. The first (plate 35) shows Oriental conventional peacocks, double-headed and collared, framed within circles which slightly intersect each other, thus giving the opportunity for varying the original motive by breaking up the rolling arabesqued pattern, and uniting the stems and flowers contained in the border. The spaces between the circles are filled in with gryphons in pairs, of the Babylonian stamp, thick limbed with strongly-marked muscles. There is a border or guimp, Persian in character, in which are small crosses surmounting repetitions of the crenelated pattern found in Assyrian ornament.

The second piece of silk contains a large rosace. Scattered about it are repetitions of the Persian leaf or tree of life, and the border consists of kneeling hares or fawns between a Persian arabesque and a corded line. The mixture of Egyptian and Assyrian styles is remarkable throughout, till we come to the centre of the rosace, where we find a most incongruous man in armour on horseback with a hawk on his wrist, giving the Norman stamp of the reigning house and influence in Sicily. The central subject is exactly repeated on an embroidered twelfth century chasuble in the treasury of the Cathedral of Bamberg, only that a royal crown and robes are worn by the horseman (pl. 36).[261]

The third specimen is the most noteworthy (plate 37). There is nothing of Assyrian here, but it reminds one of Egyptian and Greek art, and at once suggests Count Roger's Greek slaves at the Sicilian looms, but the design is probably of a much earlier date, and the subject is puzzling. A piece of drapery resembling an Egyptian sail with its fringes[262] (pl. 38) is looped up on each side to the head of a thyrsus, and above it hangs a large cluster of fruits. The lower part of the drapery rests upon water, and is somewhat like a boat, with ducks swimming towards it, and fish disporting themselves in the rippling waves. Between the circles the ducks are repeated, facing a shield enriched with rows of the crenelated pattern surmounted by a vine.

These fragments have belonged each to a very large and freely woven silk shawl or mantle. The circles are about two feet across. There is a different arrangement of the threads in each web, giving different fine diapers, and the last described has a raised pattern which might have been intended to represent water.

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 the old 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 becomes apparent. 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 the Venetian 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 from every 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 on colour I 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 some accidental 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 on Stitches.

[144] See Chardin, vol. i. p. 31.

[145] Tin, called "laton," was used to debase the metal
threads in the Middle Ages. It is also named as a
legitimate material for metal embroideries.

[146] For all information about asbestos, see Yates, pp.
356, 565.

[147] There is one at the Barberini Palace at Rome. A
sheet, woven of asbestos, found in a tomb outside the
Porta Maggiore, is described by Sir J. E. Smith in his
"Tour on the Continent" (vol. ii. p. 201) as being
coarsely spun, but as soft and pliant as silk. "We set
fire to it, and the same part being repeatedly burnt,
was not at all injured."

[148] See Yule's "Marco Polo," vol. i. pp. 215, 218, and
Yates, p. 361.

[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 pale
Compared, and Tibur's whitest ivory fail;
The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deplore
Their 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 weed _fumio_, on which they browsed.
Swinburne says, in his "Travels in the Two Sicilies,"
that there the wool is so tinged by the plant now called
_fumolo_, 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 century A.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 fold
Of 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,
that A.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. was B.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 bette
All 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 century B.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 century A.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. 38
_ante_.)

[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--_not_ for
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 54 B.C. About thirty years after this date, Roman
luxury had reached its zenith--

"The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering arm
O'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, Plate
33.

[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 sin
To 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 word _velluto_ means "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 on cotton. 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.