We have recently acquired this beautiful panel of fabric. Measuring almost two metres in length and about 60cm wide, it is of heavy yellow silk, woven through with gold thread and further embellished with silver embroidery. This sumptuous item was created in about 1520, probably in Spain. It may have been part of a set of hangings or intended for courtly dress, certainly its richness made it incredibly high status material.
The gold and silver used in the threads would have come from the recently discovered New World. It is said that Ann Boleyn introduced a fashion for yellow, so who knows, perhaps this five hundred year old textile was once at Whitehall Palace? Whatever it's history, this rare survivor from the early Sixteenth Century will have been in the presence of powerful and important figures from History.
