ABSTRACT
During the later Middle Ages, various types of gold thread were traded internationally, and gold of Cyprus was among the most desirable. “Gold of Cyprus” was a term that was not only applied to thread made in Cyprus, but it was also used generically to describe a particular type of high-quality wrapped gold thread. Cyprus gold thread, also called “fine gold,” was a high-quality silver-gilt file thread with a silk core. In England, Cyprus gold was the thread of choice for the best ecclesiastical and secular embroidery, and it was regularly purchased for the royal wardrobe throughout the fourteenth century and until the 1440s. During the fifteenth century, cloths of gold produced in Italy became increasingly sophisticated, and the use of membrane gold thread was superseded by higher-quality silver-gilt file. While some lampas silks continued to be woven with membrane gold, velvets, or damasks were generally brocaded with “fine gold,” corresponding in quality to “Cyprus gold.”
