Piece of woven band. Köln, Germany. Gilded linen ground; red, blue and white silk woven pattern of shield with red foliage surround. Fragment of an orphrey or stole.

Square piece of linen (gilded), in a compound weave (broken twill), with blue, white and red shield design executed in silk, surrounded by red frame with foliage in silk. Sewn to a larger square of late 20th-century beige cotton for display purposes.

From the Forrer Collection. According to notes made in accession register, this is one of 203 early textiles acquired for £700 in 1899.

Dr. Robert Forrer of Strasburg corresponded frequently with the V&A between 1893 and 1920, offering for sale a wide variety of medieval and Renaissance artefacts, mostly European, including textiles, jewellery, medallions, books, tiles, clocks, furniture, ironwork and miscellaneous items. Many of these items, although not all, were subsequently purchased by the Museum.

Historical significance: Example of 15th century German weaving made for a specific purpose (religious vestment).

This shield is believed to have been part of an orphrey band. These were decorative bands, either embroidered or woven, that were applied to decorate vestments, sometimes concealing seams (Johnstone, p. 13). They often include gold thread and are thought to take their name from auriphrygia or Phrygian gold (Mayo, p. 161).Wider bands (which would have gone down the centre back and front) often included religious scenes, (e.g. T.31-1936), while narrower ones, such as the ones from which this object probably came, tended to feature smaller decorative motifs, including, as here, heraldic shields. The shield motif on the object would have alternated with another device on the rest of the band, possibly another shield or a different design, as illustrated by two other fragments from a German band in the Museum's collection. 7021-1860 has alternating shields, while 8281-1863 has fleur-de-lys alternating with shields.

The colour scheme of this object is very like that in 853-1899, also a German orphrey fragment showing a woven roundel in red, blue, and white upon a golden-yellow background. The wider measurement of 853-1899 indicates it is not from the same band as the object, but the strikingly similar colour scheme suggests a close geographic relationship, and indeed, they did come from the same collector, and are both attributed to Köln manufacture.

The family associated with the shield is not currently known. Shields could signify that an object was linked to a specific family, indicating who had commissioned the vestments. However, they could also serve a purely decorative purpose, as indicated by T.40-1950. This is an English ecclesiastical stole, dating to about 1300, embroidered with 46 different shields. According to the label shown with the stole during its display in room 95, “heraldic shields were often used purely as decoration for narrow bands or edging”. This label was probably written by Linda Woolley in around 2002, when she curated the re-display of gallery 95.

Pauline Johnstone. High Fashion in the Church. Leeds: Maney, 2002.
Janet Mayo. A History of Ecclesiastical Dress. London: Batsford, 1984.

Attribution to Köln/Cologne in original accession register. A former display label for the textile, probably from the mid-late 20th century, re-asserts this.

This shield is believed to have been part of an orphrey band. These were decorative bands, either embroidered or woven, that were applied to decorate vestments, sometimes concealing seams. They often include gold thread and are thought to take their name from auriphrygia or Phrygian gold. Wider bands (which would have gone down the centre back and front) often included religious scenes, while narrower ones, such as the ones from which this object came, tended to feature smaller decorative motifs, including heraldic shields. The shield motif on the object would have alternated with another device on the rest of the band, possibly another shield or a different design.

Shields could signify that an object was linked to a specific family. The family associated with this shield is not currently known. In the context of vestments, the shield might indicate who had commissioned the garments for the church. However, they could also serve a purely decorative purpose.

847-1899