The napkin was purchsed in 1880 from the J C Robinson collection. Historical significance: A significant number of coverpanes found in inventories from the middle part of the 16th century are described as of 'red silk needlework' or red 'Spanish stitch'. Spanish stitch may be interpreted as embroidery in double running stitch, which makes a reversible pattern, suitable for table linen, but it also seems possible that some of those referred to in the inventories were cloths with inserted woven bands, like this one; when the cloths also included embroidered detail the inventory clerks may well have used a single term to list them. For example, Henry VIII's 1547 inventory included "A towell and napkins there unto wrought with redde Spanisshe stiche mailed betwixt two borders". The woven bands are usually attributed to either Italy or Spain, and the patterns of some of them closely reflect the designs in pattern books and ornament engravings from the second quarter of the 16th century. However, the design of castle and lion on this cloth is not one found in Italian pattern books so far identified, and this may suggest it is more likely to be Spanish, with reference to the devices of Leon and Castile. On the other hand, the motifs of castle and lion do appear in other woven table linen from Italy, the type usually called Perugia towels.