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See also:GOLD AND See also:SILVER See also:THREAD . Under this heading some See also:general See also:account may be given of gold and silver strips, threads and See also:gimp used in connexion with varieties of See also:weaving, See also:embroidery and twisting and plaiting or See also:lace See also:work. To this See also:day, in many See also:oriental centres where it seems that See also:early traditions of the knowledge and the use of fabrics wholly or partly See also:woven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver have been maintained, the See also:passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still strong and prevalent. One of the earliest mentions of the use of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the See also:ephod made for See also:Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3), " And he made the ephod o#; gold, See also:blue, and See also:purple, and See also:scarlet, and See also:fine twined See also:linen. And they did See also:beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." This is suggestive of early Syrian or Arabic in-darning or weaving with gold strips or tinsel. In both the Iliad and the Odyssey allusion is frequently made to inwoven and embroidered See also:golden textiles. See also:Assyrian See also:sculpture gives an elaborately designed See also:ornament upon the robe of See also: More than two See also:hundred years later than Alexander the Great was the king of Pergamos (the third bearing the name Attains) who gave much See also:attention to working in metals and is mentioned by See also:Pliny as having invented weaving with gold, hence the historic Attalic cloths. There are several references in See also:Roman writings to costumes and stuffs woven and embroidered with gold threads and the Graeco-Roman chryso-phrygium and the Roman auri-phrygium are evidences not only of Roman work with gold threads but also of its indebtedness to Phrygian See also:sources. The famous tunics of See also:Agrippina and those of See also:Heliogabalus are said to have been of tissues made entirely with gold threads, whereas the robes which See also:Marcus Aurelius found in the See also:treasury of See also:Hadrian, as well as the costumes sold at the dispersal of the See also:wardrobe of See also:Commodus, were different in See also:character, being of fine linen and possibly even of silken stuffs inwoven or embroidered with gold threads. The same description is perhaps correct of the reputedly splendid hangings with which King Dagobert decorated the early See also:medieval See also:oratory of St See also:Denis. Reference to these and many such stuffs is made by the respectively contemporary or almost contemporary writers; and a very full and interesting work by See also:Monsieur Francisque See also:Michel (See also:Paris, 1852) is still a See also:standard See also:book for consultation in respect of the See also:history of See also:silk, gold and silver stuffs. From indications such as these, as well as those of later date, one See also:sees broadly that the See also:art of weaving and embroidering with gold and silver threads passed from one great See also:city to another, travelling as a See also:rule westward. See also:Babylon, See also:Tarsus, See also:Bagdad, See also:Damascus, the islands of See also:Cyprus and See also:Sicily, See also:Constantinople, See also:Venice and See also:southern See also:Spain appear successively in the See also:process of time as famous centres of these much-prized manufactures. During the See also:middle ages See also:European royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used See also:cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their See also:state and ceremonial robes, as well as for costly hangings and decoration; and various names—ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekin or baldachin (Bagdad) and See also:tissue—were applied to textiles in the making of which gold threads were almost always introduced in See also:combination with others. The thin flimsy See also:paper known as tissue paper is so called because it originally was placed between the folds of gold " tissue " (or weaving) to prevent the contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. Under the articles dealing with carpets, embroidery, lace and See also:tapestry will be found notices of the occasional use in such productions of gold and silver threads. Of early date in the history of European weaving are See also:rich stuffs produced in Southern Spain by See also:Moors, as well as by Saracenic and See also:Byzantine weavers at See also:Palermo and Constantinople in the 12th See also:century, in which metallic threads were freely used. Equally esteemed at about the same See also:period were corresponding stuffs made in Cyprus, whilst for centuries later the merchants in such fabrics eagerly sought for and traded in Cyprus gold and silver threads. Later the actual manufacture of them was not confined to Cyprus, but was also carried on by See also:Italian thread and trimming makers from the 14th century onwards. For the most See also:part the gold threads referred to were of silver gilt. In rare instances of middle-See also:age Moorish or Arabian fabrics the gold threads are made with strips of See also:parchment or paper gilt and still rarer are instances of the use of real gold See also:wire.
In See also:India the preparation of varieties of gold and silver threads is an See also:ancient and important art. The " gold wire " of the-manufacturer has been and is as a rule silver wire gilt, the silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. The wire is See also:drawn by means of See also:simple draw-plates, with See also:rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the See also:case may be. The wire is flattened into See also:strip, tinsel or ribbon-like See also:form, by passing fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, See also:round-topped See also:anvil and
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beating each as it passes with a heavy See also:hammer having a slightly See also:convex See also:surface. Such strips or tinsel of wire so flattened are woven into See also:Indian soniri, tissue or cloth of gold, the See also:web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, similar tissue of silver. Other gold and silver threads suitable for use in embroidery, See also:pillow and needlepoint lace making, &c., consist of fine strips of flattened wire See also:wound round cores of See also:orange (in the case of silver, See also: Amongst Western communities the demand for gold and silver embroideries and See also:braid lace now exists chiefly in connexion with See also:naval, military and other See also:uniforms, masonic insignia, See also:court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, &c. The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the woven braid lace or ribbon See also:trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An See also:ordinary gold braid wire is drawn, from a See also:bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of See also:copper, and plated with 3 of gold. On an See also:average each See also:ounce See also:troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yds. of wire; and there-fore about 16 grains of gold cover r m. of wire. (A. S. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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