
Cloth of gold or gold cloth (
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
: ''Tela aurea'') is a
fabric
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is no ...
woven with a
gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
-wrapped or
spun
''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon drug subculture. I ...
weft
In the manufacture of cloth, warp and weft are the two basic components in weaving to transform thread (yarn), thread and yarn into textile fabrics. The vertical ''warp'' yarns are held stationary in tension on a loom (frame) while the horizo ...
—referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. '' Thread'' is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern ...
is
silk
Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
, wrapped (''filé'') with a band or strip of high content gold. In rarer instances, fine
linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...
and
wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...
have been used as the core.
History
While cloth of gold has been popular for ecclesiastical use for many centuries, the earliest mentions of the use of cloth of gold are found in Vedic texts of South Asia. Earlier uses can be traced back to Central and South Asia where ancient Irani peoples have mentioned use of a fabric woven with gold. In eastern Asia, Chinese weavers had also used the technique of weaving gold into silk fabrics to create designs. Under
Henry VII of England
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henr ...
, its use was reserved to royalty and higher levels of nobility. Cloth of gold continued to be the fabric of choice for royalty, nobility and the elite across the globe for centuries as a show of wealth and power. It is also used today by companies such as
Charvet for neckwear.
Few extant examples have survived in
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
provincial tombs. Later producers of cloth of gold include the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
and
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
weavers, particularly in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
,
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
and
Lucca
Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...
. Dating from the 1460s the Waterford cloth-of-gold vestments are made from Italian silk woven in Florence. The panels were embroidered in Bruges which was the centre of the medieval embroidery industry. A similar ''cloth of silver'' was also made. It is still made in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and Europe today.
Use at Coronation of King Charles III
King Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
re-used the
Supertunica
A Supertunica is a robe worn by British monarchs at their coronation. It is donned shortly after the Anointing ceremony for the vesting of the Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom#Spurs, Spurs, Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom#Swords, Sword of ...
made from cloth of gold at his
coronation
A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...
on 6 May 2023. The full-length, sleeved coat is an important historic textile from the royal collection, weighing around two kilograms. It has been worn at several previous coronations in the United Kingdom.
Other
* Cloth of gold is not to be confused with various
goldwork embroidery techniques that date back to antiquity, though the type of goldwork thread called "passing" is identical to the weft thread of cloth of gold.
* Most modern metallic fabrics made in the West are known as
lamé.
* ''Cloth of gold'' is a familiar name occasionally applied to the venomous ''
Conus textile
''Conus textile'', the textile cone or the cloth of gold cone is a venomous species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones. Textile cone snails live mostly in the Indian Ocean, along ...
'' species of
cone shell
''Conus'' is a genus of venomous and predatory cone snails.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2015). Conus Linnaeus, 1758. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&i ...
.
* ''Tilsent'' is a luxurious silken cloth interwoven with flattened threads of gold or silver.
Images
File:Goudlaken satijnbinding voorzijde.jpg, satin
A satin weave is a type of Textile, fabric weave that produces a characteristically glossy, smooth or lustrous material, typically with a glossy top surface and a dull back; it is not durable, as it tends to snag. It is one of three fundamen ...
-weave cloth of gold, front
File:Goudlaken satijnbinding achterzijde.jpg, satin-weave cloth-of-gold, back
File:Goudlaken keperbinding voorzijde.jpg, twill
Twill is a type of textile
Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and d ...
-weave cloth-of-gold, front
File:Goudlaken keperbinding achterzijde.jpg, twill-weave cloth-of-gold, back
See also
*
Field of the Cloth of Gold
The Field of the Cloth of Gold (, ) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English Pale of Calais, it was a ...
*
Samite
Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk textile, fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weaving, weave, often including gold or silver thread. The name "samite" derives from Old French , from medieval Latin deriving from the Byzantium, ...
References
* ''The Roman Textile Industry and Its Influence. A Birthday Tribute to John Peter Wild''. Edited by Penelope Walton Rodgers, et al.
Bibliography
* Joycelyne Gledhill Russell: ''The Field of Cloth of Gold: Men and Manners in 1520''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1969
External links
*
{{Fabric
Woven fabrics