P3 has note
| - This silk was probably intended for use as a furnishing textile, as the vertical disposition and scale of the pattern are suited to wall hangings or curtains. This type of silk product was one of the richest because the making of velvet required skilled weavers and took a long time. Under the best circumstances, a weaver could progress at the rate of no more than 60 metres in a year.
Not surprisingly, velvet weavers earned more than those who specialised in other silk textiles, and their earnings increased in direct proportion to the difficulty of the work involved; in the velvet hierarchy, at the bottom sat the weavers of solid velvets, at the top the weavers of pile-on-pile velvets with brocading and bouclé gold wefts. The former earned about one third of the wages of the latter.
In western Europe, expertise in velvet-weaving was restricted at this period to various Italian cities (Lucca, Florence, Genoa, Venice) and to certain centres in Spain (e.g. Valencia), some of which had gained their knowledge through the import of Italian craftsmen. (en)
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