A rare and beautiful antique fragment of 'cloth of gold'. The fragment is of Spanish origin.
The cloth of gold uses mixed techniques of gold and silver threads, and is worked on a linen ground with the design being appliqued to the fabric and edged with gimp threads. The appliques are of a different fabric and are woven with golden coloured threads as well as with gold threads. The background fabric is very worn and is woven with silver threads.
The fragment would have been spectacular in it's day, highly reflective and sparkling.
The cloth shows a lot of wear and various attempts at preserving the background fabric can be seen. There are some rust marks to the cloth, and some glue marks to the reverse and edges from the cloth previously being mounted.
The fragment measures 53 x 136 cm x / 21 x 53.5 inches.
