Woven silk with gold thread and pattern of Nasrid heraldic shields; Spain; 1400s.

Woven in silk and gold thread, with pattern of repeated leafy sprigs in gold and colours on a crimson satin ground. Heraldic shields with the arms of the Nasrid dynasty of Granada superposed on the sprigs of one horizontal row. The adjacent rows of sprigs are reversed from left to right and appear to have a lion instead of the shield; however, only part of the leg is visible.

Purchased. Registered File no. 1929/10117. Register: "Mr Vandeput said he knew of no other case where a coronet is found above these arms."

Part of a portfolio of Spanish, Portuguese, Moroccan and Italian textiles, purchased for £65.

9.12.29 Mr. Wace wrote:

‘This portfolio I found in the Warren collection at Lewes when I went to see the things before the sale. I found that Mr. Arditti was intending to buy it for himself and, therefore, made arrangements with him to give us the first opportunity of acquiring it. He secured it at the sale and has offered it to us… The textiles in the portfolio come mostly from the collection of San Giorgio in Rome, for some of the sheets bear his mark. There are some splendid specimens of Italian silks velvets and two pieces of early Italian silks which would be extremely valuable for Circulation purposes. For this department the important sheets are two superb pieces of 15th century Italian velvet, two pieces of Spanish silks of the 14th and 15th centuries, which will be an excellent addition to our rather small group of this class, and several other fine pieces.

…Mr Arditti offers another piece of Spanish silk which was exhibited at the Munich exhibition in 1909 and represents a well known type of which we have no examples. He asks for this the very moderate figure of £8’.

Samples of coloured threads from this object have been taken and are being analysed as part of a collaboration between the V&A and the Spanish Research project "Caracterización de als producciones textiles de la Antigüedad Tardía y Edad Media temprana: tejidos coptos, sasánidas, bizantinos e hispanomusulmanes en las colecciones públicas españolas" ("Characterization of Late Antique and Early Medieval textile production: Coptic, Sasanian, Byzantine and Spanish Muslim textiles in Spanish national collections") (HAR2008-04161) directed by Dr Laura Rodríguez Peinado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Dpt. de Historia del Arte I (Medieval).

T.175-1929