8336.
Piece of Silk Net-Work, formerly crimson. The design is evidently circular, and consists of a lozenge filled in with two other very much smaller lozenges touching each other lengthwise. Milanese, end of the 16th century.
This curious little piece of frame-work seems to be another specimen
of the lace of Milan, concerning which a notice has been given
under No. 8331. Some would take it to be crochet, but it looks as if
it came from a loom. To our thinking, it was either the heel or the
toe part of a silk stocking. Though of a much finer texture, it much
resembles, in pattern, the yellow silk pair of stockings belonging now to
the Marquis of Salisbury, but once presented by Lord Hunsdon to Queen
Elizabeth, and said to be the first ever made in England.
8837.
Piece of Crimson Raised Velvet, with pattern of pomegranates, flowers and scrolls embroidered in gold thread and coloured silks. Genoese, beginning of the 16th century.
This piece affords a very instructive instance of how velvet textiles
were not unfrequently treated. The pattern was first wrought in the
weaving, and made the fabric what is now known as cut or raised
velvet. Then those parts left bare of the silken pile were filled in by
hand-embroidery, done in gold, silver, and silks of various colours, as
the fancy of the individual might like, and produced a mixed work
similar to the one before us. The velvet itself of this specimen is poor
in colour and thin in substance, but the gold thread is of the finest, and
admirably put together; and those little specks of the crimson silk employed
in sewing it on, help, in no small manner, to heighten its brilliancy
and effect.
