Page 143 - the-picture-of-dorian-gray

vet upon cloth of silver. Louis XIV. had gold-embroidered
caryatides fifteen feet high in his apartment. The state bed
of Sobieski, King of Poland, was made of Smyrna gold bro-
cade embroidered in turquoises with verses from the Koran.
Its supports were of silver gilt, beautifully chased, and pro-
fusely set with enamelled and jewelled medallions. It had
been taken from the Turkish camp before Vienna, and the
standard of Mohammed had stood under it.
And so, for a whole year, he sought to accumulate the
most exquisite specimens that he could find of textile and
embroidered work, getting the dainty Delhi muslins, fine-
ly wrought, with gold-threat palmates, and stitched over
with iridescent beetles’ wings; the Dacca gauzes, that from
their transparency are known in the East as ‘woven air,’ and
‘running water,’ and ‘evening dew;’ strange figured cloths
from Java; elaborate yellow Chinese hangings; books bound
in tawny satins or fair blue silks and wrought with fleurs
de lys, birds, and images; veils of lacis worked in Hungary
point; Sicilian brocades, and stiff Spanish velvets; Georgian
work with its gilt coins, and Japanese Foukousas with their
green-toned golds and their marvellouslyplumaged birds.
He had a special passion, also, for ecclesiastical vest-
ments, as indeed he had for everything connected with the
service of the Church. In the long cedar chests that lined
the west gallery of his house he had stored away many rare
and beautiful specimens of what is really the raiment of
the Bride of Christ, who must wear purple and jewels and
fine linen that she may hide the pallid macerated body that
is worn by the suffering that she seeks for, and wounded

1 The Picture of Dorian Gray