The silk has a dark salmon-pink ground woven as gros de Tours taffeta, brocaded with a highly stylised floral design in silver-gilt threads. The pattern is woven to shape; it is very likely that the silk - decorated at one end only - was intended exclusively for women's dress. This object - consisting of four loom widths joined together - could be a remnant of a skirt (possibly even of a court mantua). In the centre of the pattern (silk) is a tall exotic plant with symmetrically arranged leaves and flowers. This stands slightly above a border of swags. Along the bottom is a narrow border of formal decoration. On the right hand side a series of crescents and stars are embroidered in outline in silver thread and there is a narrow border embroidered in similar thread running the length of the textile. Technical details Brocaded gros de Tours, the pattern bound in 3/1 twill by a proportion of the ground warp threads (1 in 5). Two types of metal thread are used; frisé and filé (2 threads in one shoot). woven-to-shape brocaded taffeta, several widths joined together; Spain or France, 1780s