Length of fabric

Elaborately patterned fabrics brocaded with silk and gold and silver metallic threads were the height of fashion in the late Baroque period. They were used to make women's dresses and men's waistcoats as well as ecclesiastical garments. The shape of this length of fabric indicates that it may have come from a chasuble, the outer vestment worn by a priest while serving mass. The glittering chasuble would have made an effective statement of the wealth and power of the church at the turn of the seventeenth century, its pure silver yarns, still free of tarnish today, flashing brilliantly at the candlelit altar.