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BROCADE

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 622 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BROCADE , the name usually given to a class of richly decorative See also:

shuttle-See also:woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and with or without See also:gold and See also:silver threads. Ornamental features in brocade are emphasized and wrought as additions to the See also:main fabric, sometimes stiffening it, though more frequently producing on its See also:face the effect of See also:low See also:relief. These additions See also:present a distinctive See also:appearance on the back of the stuff, where kincobs, with See also:Lyons silks that are broches with threads of gold, See also:silk or other material. Notwithstanding this, many See also:Indian kincobs And dainty gold and coloured silk-weavings of See also:Persian workmanship, both without floating threads, are often called brocades, although in neither is the ornamentation really broche or brocaded. See also:Con-temporary in use with the See also:Spanish brocats is the word brocado. In addition to brocarts the See also:French now use the word See also:brother in connexion with certain silk stuffs which however are not brocades in the same sense as the brocarts. A See also:wardrobe See also:account of See also:King See also:Edward IV. (148o) has an entry of " satyn broched with gold "—a description that fairly applies to such an enriched Satin as that for instance shown in fig. 4. But some three centuries earlier than the date of that specimen, decorative stuffs were partly broads with gold threads by See also:oriental weavers, especially those of See also:Persia, See also:Syria and parts of FIG. Piece of stuff woven See also:thread on a cream-coloured ground. Along the See also:top is the Kufic or brocaded with red silk and inscription " Arrahman " (The Merciful) several times repeated in See also:Africa under the domination gold thread, with an -ogival framolive See also:green on a gold-thread ground.

Pairs of seated animals, of the See also:

Saracens, to whom the See also:ing enclosing alternately, pairs of addorsed regardant, and geese vis-a-vis are worked within the See also:lozenge- earlier germs, so to speak, of parrots, add resed regardant, and a shaped compartments of the trellis framework which regulates the brocading may be traced. wallshaped suit de See also:device, SProbably See also:pattern. Both animals and birds are separated by conventional g y See also:leaf-shaped See also:fruit device: Probably trees, and the latter are enclosed in See also:inscriptions of Kufic characters. Of such is the r Ith or of Rhenish-See also:Byzantine manufacture Siculo-Saracenic; rith or 12th See also:century. 51 in. sq. 12th century Siculo-Saracenic in thel2thor13thcentury. 9m.See also:long. specimen in fig. 1, in which the heads only of the pairs brocato, the Spanish brocar and the French brocarts and brother, of animals and birds are broched with gold thread. Another and implies a See also:form of stitching or broaching, so that textile ' sort of brocaded material is indicated in fig. a, taken from a fabrics woven with an appearance of stitching or broaching have See also:part of a sumptuous Siculo-Saracenic See also:weaving' produced in consequently come to be termed " brocades." A Spanish docu- coloured silks and gold threads at the famous Hotel See also:des Tiraz in See also:Palermo for an See also:official robe of See also:Henry IV. (1165-1197) as See also:emperor of the See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:Empire, and still preserved in the See also:cathedral of See also:Regensburg. Fig. 3 is a further variety of textile that would be classed as brocat.

This is of the 12th or 13th century manufacture, possibly by See also:

German or Rhenish-Byzan- tine weavers, or even by Spanish weavers, I many of whom at See also:Almeria, See also:Malaga, See also:Grenada and See also:Seville rivalled those at Palermo. In the 14th century the making of satins heavily brocaded with gold threads was associated conspicuously with such See also:Italian towns as See also:Lucca, See also:Genoa, See also:Venice and See also:Florence. Fig. 4 is from a piece of 14th-century dark-See also:blue satin broached in relief with gold thread in a See also:design the like of which appears in the background of See also:Orcagna's "See also:Coronation of the Virgin," now in the See also:National See also:Gallery, See also:London. During the 17th century Genoa, Florence and Lyons vied with each other in making brocades in which the enrichments were as frequently of coloured silks as of gold inter- mixed with silken threads. Fig. 5 is from a piece of See also:crimson silk See also:damask flatly brocaded with See also:flowers, See also:scroll forms, fruit and birds in gold. This is probably of Florentine workmanship. Rather more closely allied to See also:modern brocades is the Lyons specimen given in fig. 6, in which the brocading is century. 161 in. wide. silks. See also:Early in the 18th century See also:Spitalfields was ment dated 1375 distinguishes. between losdrapsd'or a d'argent o I busy as a competitor with Lyons in manufacturing many de seda, and brocats d'or a d'ar gent, a difference which is readily sorts of brocades, specified in a collection of designs pre-perceived, upon comparing for instance cloths of gold, Indian served in the national See also:art library of the See also:Victoria and the weft or floating threads of the brocaded or, broached parts hang in loose See also:groups or are clipped away.

The Latin word broccus is related equally to the Italian See also:

Albert Museum, under such See also:trade titles as " brocade lutstring, brocade tabby, brocade See also:tissue, brocade damask, brocade satin, Venetian brocade, and See also:India figured brocade." Brocading in See also:China seems to be of considerable antiquity, and Dr Bushell in his valuable handbook on See also:Chinese art cites a See also:notice of five rolls of brocade with dragons woven upon a crimson ground, presented by the emperor Ming Ti of the Wei See also:dynasty, in the See also:year A.U. 238, to the reigning empress of See also:Japan; and varieties of brocade patterns are recorded as being in use during the Sung dynasty (96o-1279). The first edition of an illustrated See also:work upon tillage and weaving was published in China in 1210, and contains an See also:engraving of a See also:loom constructed to weave flowered-silk brocades such as are woven at the present See also:time at Suchow and Hangchow and elsewhere. On the other See also:hand, although they are described usually as brocades, certain specimens of imperial Chinese See also:robes sumptuous in See also:ornament, sheen of coloured silks and the glisten of See also:golden threads, are woven in the See also:tapestry-weaving manner and without any floating threads. It seems reasonable to infer that Persians and Syrians derived the art of weaving brocades from the Chinese, and as has been indicated, passed it on to Saracens as well as Europeans. (A. S.

End of Article: BROCADE

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