"Silk lampas cover.
Italy, late 16th or early 17th century.
Acquired in northern Italy.

The pattern, in two shades of gold on a red ground, consists of a curvilinear lattice of foliage, enclosing a stylized flowering plant in a scrolled frame. The pattern unit measures 52.5 x 14 cm. A number of pieces of the silk have been carefully assembled to form a rectangular cover, edged with gold and silver lace.

The weave is lampas, with a red satin ground and a pattern in flat gold strip, bound in 1\3 twill. This gold strip is accompanied, in some parts of the pattern, by white silk weft threads and, in other parts, by pale yellow silk weft threads, producing an effect of two tones of gold, one more silvery than the other."

European Textiles in the Keir Collection 400BC to 1800AD, Monique King and Donald King, Faber and Faber, London, 1990

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