Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 22. (Budapest, 2003)

Márta JÁRÓ: On the History of a 17th Century Noblemans' Dolman and Mantle, based on the Manufacturing Techniques of the Ornamental Metal Threads. Or de Milan, Or de Lyon and Silver of Clay Ornamentations on a ceremonial Costume from the Esterházy Treasury

tion pattern; according to Tompos dates from the mid 17

th-century, and is of Italian origin.

32 Similar silk fabric with flower-pattern ornamentation, and also using silver and gold thread, can be found in other museum collections, for example the fragment of fabric from Brussels mentioned by Tompos 33

, or the fabric piece from Cologne regarded as being similar to it.

34 Errera dates the former piece ("green satin") to the 16

th- 17

th century, without indication of its origin

35

, while Markowsky puts the date of the Cologne piece ("bottle-green atlas") to between 1620-1640, and regards it as being of Italian origin

36

. The Brussels piece is slightly different from the base-fabric of the mantle and dolman, point of view metal threads used. From the analysis of its gold and silver threads, we concluded that the gold thread was of similar technique, being made by winding gilt-silver strip (gilt only on one side) around yellow silk thread; but the silver thread was in that case made by winding silver strip (containing 1% copper) around white silk thread.

37 A closer parallel to our case is a fabric-fragment of very similar pattern and manufacturing technique preserved in Leipzig, which Küster dates to the early 17

th century and regards as being of Italian origin.

38 In this case, as for our garments, the lancé weft is composed of doubled silver wire and the brocading weft of plied gold yarn, whose gold thread in this case also is made from silver strip gilded only on one side. Several other samples of fabric with similar flower-pattern ornamentation (but without metal threads) are known, as Tompos mentions.

39 Their common characteristic is that they are dated to the first half of the 17

th century, and are regarded as being of Italian origin.

40 A dress made of a fabric with a similar pattern is being worn by the sitter in the portrait of a young girl painted by an unknown Florentine artist between 1620 and 1640.

41 Thus on the basis of stylistic criteria, and comparisons with analogous textiles, the base fabric of the mantle and dolman can be dated with certainity to the first half of the 17

th century, and regard it as being of Italian origin. Can the details of the metal threads used for the lancé weft and the brocading weft of the base-fabric be used to lend support and more precision to the above opinions? Does the manufacturing technique of the skofium and of the gold thread allow us to draw such conclusions? For the lancé weft of the base-fabric, as already described, thin silver wire was used. But already in the 15

th century, drawn wire was used in the weaving of Italian textiles.

42 And in the 16

th and 17

th centuries too, skofium was often used in Italian and Turkish embroideries and fabrics.

43 Thus the manufacturing technique of the silver wire does not help us in supporting or making more precise the dating and determination of provenience of the fabric. We therefore turn to the gold thread used for the brocading-weft. Our examination showed that in the course of manufacturing this, a giltsilver strip gilt on one side was wound around a silk core. According to our present knowledge, threads made using this technique (single-sided gilt-silver strip) have been used for the ornamentation of fabrics for about a thousand years.

44 However, the manufacturing technique and the frequency of their use have changed in the course of time. At around the turn of the first millennium, on the basis of examinations performed to date, the single-sided gilt-silver technique was used together with other threads made from gold and gold alloys. From around the 1400s, this metal-strip technique displaced the solid gold threads (although combinations of metal and organic material, such as gilt leather or gilt animal membrane continued to be used). From the second half of the 16

th century on, the use of the single-sided gilt silver thread declined, as a new technique appeared. In the new method, thread was commonly made from gilts il ver wire flattened to form strip (which was, consequently, gilt on both sides), as well as from other metals and combinations of metals. Nevertheless thread prepared by the singlecoated foil technique, wound on a silk core, continued to be used; albeit only in rare cases. In the course of our investigations we examined several dozen different samples of metal threads; these were taken from various textile