Fragment

Small trapezoid strip of cream silk satin embroidered with silver and silver-gilt purl, purl wrapped in polychrome silks and a little silk in padded, laid and couched work and twisted silk pile. Symmetrical pattern of scrolling stems bearing strawberries, foxgloves, a pansy and an unidentified blue flower, with a snail and a butterfly below and two caterpillars above. The strip has been called a glove gauntlet but the straight lower edge makes this unlikely. The pattern is the wrong way up for it to have been the sloping side of a casket lid but it may have been the side of a decorative tray.