13th Century: Halberstadt Antependium

 Altar frontal of the high altar of Halberstadt Cathedral Lower Saxony, second half of the 13th century, Halberstadt, Cathedral Museum, No. 203 Throne: about 58 cm high (Some pictures from Bevin Butler’s blog post) Detail. Red satin faded to old rose. Bead embroidery on parchment and linen. Coral and glass beads of cylindrical and spherical […]

13th Century: Halberstadt Mitre

12th Century Halberstadt Catherdral Mitre Info from : http://www.lda-lsa.de A mitra with animal symbolism from the Halberstadt cathedral treasure The bishop’s headdress from the Halberstadt cathedral treasure embroidered on the most sumptuous of pearls impressively demonstrates the magnificence of the medieval church service as well as the great craftsmanship of contemporary textile art. The Mitra is almost completely […]

14th Century*: altar border with seed beads and brakteats

  Lüneburg, 15. Jh. ?:* Border * Silk, glass beads, linen and metal. Width: 281.5 cm Depth: 25cm (without fringe: 13 cm) Large medallions measure between 7.9 and 8.2 cm Lüneburg Art collection in the Lüne Monastery (near Lüneburg) Inv. No. LUEKO Hb 031 *Jen’s note: I think it’s 14th C at the latest by […]

13th Century: German Panels

Origin: Halberstadt, Germany, 13th Century On parchment with beads and seed pearls: Blue glass, red coral, gold and seed pearls (most salvaged/looted) on parchment with linen thread. The two detached pieces are in the V&A collection (below) Link to V&A page Link to V&A page The other (still attached to the edging) is in the […]

Recreation of 13-14th century woven fringe from altar frontals

Recreation of fringe trim, seen on two different beaded or brakteat’d altar frontals in the Halberstadt Dom Museum (Piece 1 | Piece 2) and at Lüne Abbey. I came up with two different methods, each resulting in identical results, matching exactly what is seen on the photos, desite poor image quality. For proof of concept […]

13th Century: Ciborium/Ziborium (Host Box)

Beaded container for the Holy Host Second half of the 13th Century, Schnutgen Museum, Köln (Cologne) Germany In german: Ziborium mit perlstickerei, Niedersachen, 2, Halfte 13 JH Translated: Wooden core, embroidery with glass beads, freshwater pearls, and metal bead appliqué on parchment. H. 29.5 cm, Dia. 10 cm (Inv. N 42)This precious and extremely rare vessel […]

REUNION: THE BEA’D GEES

The V&A owns these three pieces. Not much has been known other than they were German and late 13th Century. All three are solid glass seed beadwork on parchment with ink underdrawings, but that is there the simlairity ends. The pointed piece on the right which is presumed to be part of an Orphrey, featuring […]