Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece

How was this made?

The construction of the Miter is multifaceted in its creation. First, it must be acknowledged that this silk was created near Middleastern territory. Silk is typically created from the silkworm, an insect that weaves the silk and creates the material. Taking this production of silk into consideration, it was traded to Germany for the final production of the Miter, which was constructed both through tablet weaving, and partially hands weaved. Detailing around the head of the miter can be attributed to tablet weaving along with the lappets. Tablet weaving has origins in Austria and Germany, where many of the miters in the Abbey Church were created. The tablet weaving process uses warp, and weft threads, where warp threads are straight and the weft threads go in between the warp pieces. Tablet weaving uses a card to combine the warp and weft threads to speed up combining the two threads to create a finished textile. This tablet weaving was most likely used around the lappets and edges of the Miter. Looking at the detailing and specification of the Miter head, it is continuously mentioned that the head had heraldic eagles detailed in the silk. This detail is not seen today and would have been difficult even when the Miter was still in its prime of decoration. However, this detailing indicates that much of the design on the head was hand woven. The use of jewels and eight-pointed stars indicates that due to the technology from this time, most of the head of this textile would have been decorated by hand and woven with other silk and assorted colors to assist with the visual detail.e.
 

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