Yellow silk damask, probably English, c.1710 yellow silk damask. 4&1 satin damask weave. When this length of yellow silk damask was given to the Museum in 1937, the donor said that it came from bed hangings in the London house of her ancestor Edward Haistwell, who was a merchant in the East India Company. The company imported large quantities of textiles from Asia into England, including silk damasks used for bed hangings, but the woven structure and the width of this damask suggest that it is European rather than Chinese. The similarity of its design to work by the Spitalfields master weaver and designer James Leman make an English manufacture possible.