Students of "Dark Age" clothing and textiles will surely be familiar with tabletweave - the tightly woven bands used as strong straps and to decorate clothing. Mineralised remains of textiles with tabletweave structure occasionally show up on the back of brooches, buckles and other metallic items from early Anglo-Saxon graves though it is rare for any fragment to be in sufficiently good condition for any pattern or colours to be inferred.
In the late 6th and early 7th centuries CE, a new variant of tabletweave arrived in Britain from the continent; first via Kent and the South coast before spreading north. This lavish new technique - brocading - involved working additional weft threads through a plain-coloured tabletweave as it was woven, to build up an embroidery-like pattern. This paved the way for the intricade brocades popular in the Viking Age, but brocading in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain began with metallic brocades, where strips of fine metal - almost foil - were worked through the weave to produce shimmering patterns. It is thanks to these metal brocades that we can trace the arrival of the technique, for, unlike normal tabletweave, these metal strips (usually gold), with impressions of the threads impressed into their surfaces, survive our harsh soils.
In the late 6th and early 7th centuries CE, a new variant of tabletweave arrived in Britain from the continent; first via Kent and the South coast before spreading north. This lavish new technique - brocading - involved working additional weft threads through a plain-coloured tabletweave as it was woven, to build up an embroidery-like pattern. This paved the way for the intricade brocades popular in the Viking Age, but brocading in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain began with metallic brocades, where strips of fine metal - almost foil - were worked through the weave to produce shimmering patterns. It is thanks to these metal brocades that we can trace the arrival of the technique, for, unlike normal tabletweave, these metal strips (usually gold), with impressions of the threads impressed into their surfaces, survive our harsh soils.
The earliest and most abundant examples are narrow bands with simple patterns, from female graves in Kent and the Isle of Wight. These are almost always found near the head, and may have been used as glistening headbands for securing veils. More spectacular are the remains from the famous Taplow princely burial - the second most lavish burial found from the Anglo-Saxon period, which contained, alongside shields, feasting gear and sword, over 2.5m of exquisite, often very wide, finely woven metallic gold brocade.
Due to the shortcomings of the 19th century excavators of the burial, the position of the fine strands of gold found in the burial cannot be stated with any confidence, and as such, we cannot say for certain if the huge amount of gold brocade formed the decoration of a cloak or other garment, or perhaps a sword harness or belt. The famous gold Taplow buckle had adhesions of both leather and tablet-weave-structure textile on its back, so it may have been associated with the brocade.
Due to the shortcomings of the 19th century excavators of the burial, the position of the fine strands of gold found in the burial cannot be stated with any confidence, and as such, we cannot say for certain if the huge amount of gold brocade formed the decoration of a cloak or other garment, or perhaps a sword harness or belt. The famous gold Taplow buckle had adhesions of both leather and tablet-weave-structure textile on its back, so it may have been associated with the brocade.
Replica of the buckle from the Taplow princely burial (early 7th century CE)
Replica, by Aed, of the "narrow band" gold brocade from the Taplow princely burial, early 7th century CE.
To illustrate what such a belt may have looked like, and as part of ongoing efforts to recreate and "bring to life" princely treasures from the 7th century, in 2016 we embarked on a project to build a gold brocaded belt inspired by the Taplow burial. The project began with team member Aed learning the gold brocade technique, first experimenting with a narrow band based on one from Chessel Down, Isle of Wight (in blue, at the top) before moving on to the more complex band from Taplow. The pattern we chose to reproduce is known as the "narrow band" for it is the narrowest element identified from the burial, although it is still wider and more complex than any gold brocade from any other early Anglo-Saxon burial. The replica band took over 150 hours of high-concentration work.
Upon completion it was sewn, using the same threads, to a piece of prepared, stained and burnished veg-tan leather, and the buckle and retaining loops were installed, such that the belt could be clasped without the buckle being covered, or the delicate brocading needing to pass through the buckle or be strained.
Rather than the Taplow buckle (a replica of which we had used on a previous build) we chose to incorporate an exquisite replica of the contemporaneous and similarly styled buckle from Alton, Hampshire, produced by Ganderwick Creations.
The final result was more subtle than we expected; the gold foil woven through the belt is quite subtle until light hits it at just the right angle and flares, revealing the pattern vividly against the ground weave. It looks particularly good glistening in firelight, and it may have been this that attracted our ancestors to the technique. After all, while coloured tabletweave will appear dull in the dim light of the meadhall, gold brocade glistens and sparkles in light cast by dancing flames. What better assemblage to, along with replicas of finds such as the Staffordshire Hoard, illustrate that the 7th century really was the "Age of Gold"?
Upon completion it was sewn, using the same threads, to a piece of prepared, stained and burnished veg-tan leather, and the buckle and retaining loops were installed, such that the belt could be clasped without the buckle being covered, or the delicate brocading needing to pass through the buckle or be strained.
Rather than the Taplow buckle (a replica of which we had used on a previous build) we chose to incorporate an exquisite replica of the contemporaneous and similarly styled buckle from Alton, Hampshire, produced by Ganderwick Creations.
The final result was more subtle than we expected; the gold foil woven through the belt is quite subtle until light hits it at just the right angle and flares, revealing the pattern vividly against the ground weave. It looks particularly good glistening in firelight, and it may have been this that attracted our ancestors to the technique. After all, while coloured tabletweave will appear dull in the dim light of the meadhall, gold brocade glistens and sparkles in light cast by dancing flames. What better assemblage to, along with replicas of finds such as the Staffordshire Hoard, illustrate that the 7th century really was the "Age of Gold"?
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