Cloth of gold is a
fabricA textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands...
woven with a
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
-wrapped or spun
weftIn weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn under and over parallel warp yarns to create a fabric. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn", and in India, it is referred to as "baana", which is derived from another hindi word "bun na" or "bunai"...
- referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core
yarnYarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
is
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
wrapped with a band or strip of high content gold filé. In rarer instances, fine
linenLinen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
and
woolWool is a fibrous protein derived from the specialized skin cells called follicles. The wool is taken from animals in the Caprinae family, principally sheep, but the hair of certain species of other mammals including: goats, llamas, and rabbits may also be called wool...
have been used as the core.
Cloth of gold is not to be confused with various gold
embroideryEmbroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
techniques that date to the early
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, though the type of goldwork thread called "passing" is identical to the weft thread of cloth of gold.
Cloth of gold is a
fabricA textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands...
woven with a
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
-wrapped or spun
weftIn weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn under and over parallel warp yarns to create a fabric. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn", and in India, it is referred to as "baana", which is derived from another hindi word "bun na" or "bunai"...
- referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core
yarnYarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
is
silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
wrapped with a band or strip of high content gold filé. In rarer instances, fine
linenLinen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
and
woolWool is a fibrous protein derived from the specialized skin cells called follicles. The wool is taken from animals in the Caprinae family, principally sheep, but the hair of certain species of other mammals including: goats, llamas, and rabbits may also be called wool...
have been used as the core.
Cloth of gold is not to be confused with various gold
embroideryEmbroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
techniques that date to the early
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, though the type of goldwork thread called "passing" is identical to the weft thread of cloth of gold. It is mentioned on both Roman headstones for women and in the Book of Psalms (psalm 45, verse 14) as a fabric befitting a princess. The
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
reference to the
Golden FleeceIn Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos . It figures in the tale of Jason and his band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly...
is seen by some as a reference to gold cloth. Cloth of gold has been popular for ecclesiastical use for many centuries, and that is the most common use of this material today.
Few extant examples have survived in
RomanAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
provincial tombs. Later producers of cloth of gold include the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
and Medieval
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
weavers. A similar
cloth of silver was also made. It is still made in India and Italy today.
Modern metallic fabrics made in the West are known as
laméLamé is a type of fabric woven or knit with thin ribbons of metallic yarns, as opposed to guimpé, where the ribbons are wrapped around a fiber yarn. It is usually gold or silver in color; sometimes copper lamé is seen. Lamé comes in different varieties, depending on the composition of the other...
.
"Cloth of gold" is a familiar name occasionally applied to the venomous
Conus textileConus textile, common name the Cloth of gold cone is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones.-Distribution:C...
species of cone shell,
http://www.gastropods.com/3/Shell_753.html presumably because of its
ByssusByssus means both "a rare fabric, also called sea silk" and its fiber source "a silky filament by which certain mollusks attach themselves to hard surfaces".-Word:...
or fine hair. Byssus from some species has been made into a very fine cloth.
See also
- Samite
Samite may refer to :* Samite, a heavy silk fabric, of a twill-type weave, worn in the Middle Ages* Samite Mulondo, Ugandan-American musician* SS Samite, a Liberty ship...
Resources:
"The Roman Textile Industry and Its Influence. A Birthday Tribute to John Peter Wild", edited by Penelope Walton Rodgers, et al.