Gilt leather cushion, with a thin filling, with gilt leather tassels on the four corners. The front is made of a fragment of a gilt leather panel, showing some fruit, flowers and scrolling leaves. Painted in dark (black?) lines on a red-glaze ground. The back is made of damask leather with a pattern of small triangles, Spain, ca. 1600-1700.

Gilt leather cushion, with a thin filling, with gilt leather tassels on the four corners. The front is made of gilt leather, a fragment of a panel showing some fruit, flowers and scrolling leaves. Painted in dark (black?) lines on a red-glaze ground. The leather has been punched with four different stamps. The back is made of damasked leather with a pattern of small triangles.

Identical to another cushion at V&A, museum number 1495-1903. There are nine similar, but not identical gilt leather cushions (inventory number unknown) in Museo Bardini, Florence.

Bought together with museum number 1492-1903 for £2 10s 0d. from A. Johnson and Sons, 85, Wigmore Street, W., RP T22785/ 1903.

"Cushion of leather covered with silver foil lacquered to represent gilding, stamped and painted, the back is of plain leather, partly stained. The front represents an incomplete design (probably portion of a hanging) consisting of an arrangement of fruit, flowers and scrolling leaves. On the back is a diaper of triangles. Each corner is finished off with a leather tassel. Spanish; 17th century (?). Much worn, torn and repaired."

The use of such cushions in church is discussed in Jean-Pierre Fournet, Cuirs Dorées, "Cuirs de Courdoue", un art Européen (Château de Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau: Editions Monelle Hayot, 2019), pp. 294-295. They were used to support the missal (Mass book) on the altar during the celebration of the Mass.

Such cushions were made for the use of clergy and servers on the altar during Mass and other ceremonies in church.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries such leather cushions were made in large quantitities for use in churches, where they could serve for seating or as kneelers. They were made in Italy and Spain in particular - areas where the Roman Catholic religion was the dominant form of belief. Cushions were also sometimes made to act as book stands on the altar, for the missal, the book containing the readings for the Mass. Those cushions, however, were usually made in the liturgical colours that were used at different parts of the year.

1493-1903