This band and its joined fragment must originally
have been parts of costly embroideries,
but their attachment is presumably of much
later date. The band, which is probably an
apparel from a liturgical vestment, is made up
of two parts; it has cut and torn edges, most of
them hemmed. The fragment has a cut across
the middle, later crudely sewn up. On the band,
plant ornaments alternate with a stag and its kid,
an eagle and two other birds. Such forms are
also found on a second band in the V&A collection
(mus. no. 8240a-1863), embroidered with
griffins, an eagle and a lion, and in goldsmiths’
work and bindings from the late 12th century.
The metal threads have two different shades of
silk core – light beige and ochre – which may
suggest that they were originally silver and
silver-gilt, though the metal strips have corroded
to unvarying dark grey.
The band’s surface-couched embroidery
differs in technique and style from the fragment,
which depicts a slender standing figure,
underside-couched in metal thread. The small
figure offers little information about its original context.
Embroidered lines, partly covered
by a lozenge-patterned fabric, flank the figure,
indicating original borders, now trimmed.
Narrow bands such as this are likely to have
served as mitre lappets. Figures embellish the
lappets of the mitres from Westminster Cathedral
(10), Namur (6) and Braga (Tesouro-
Museu da Sé de Braga, mus. no. tmsb 1756 tex).
Because it has been worked on a light purple
ground fabric, the figure’s face is embroidered
in white silk, whereas on the Westminster
lappet the white ground fabric provides the
skin colour for the face. As well as being related
in technique, the two figures are stylistically
close in their formalized appearance.