It has often been observed that embroidered vestments from late-fifteenth-century England tend to be monotonous in design and mechanical in execution. The orphreys discussed here, which it will be argued date to ca. 1490, nevertheless merit attention for the singularity of their iconography, which points to a Lucchese connection that is further borne out by the heraldry and inscription on one of them. The significance of a family of wealthy Italian merchants, namely the Buonvisi family, commissioning orphreys for a vestment from an embroidery workshop in London will also be considered, especially as the finest embroidery at this period was produced in Flanders, where workshops attracted commissions from clients throughout Europe.

The two orphreys in forms known as a pillar and a cross were customarily placed on the front and back of a chasuble. They now embellish a chasuble belonging to Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, which is run by the Society of Jesus. Nothing is known of their history until 1827, when the detached orphreys were rescued “in a terrible state of disrepair” by Father R. Norris from an old Jesuit mission house in England. Their restoration was undertaken in a workshop run by Brother Houghton, the sacristan at Stonyhurst from the 1820s to 1870s, who had initially trained as a military tailor. Much of the embroidery was reworked and the orphreys were remounted on a new chasuble (figs. 5.1 and 5.2). The orphreys were trimmed with two widths of gold braid similar to that used on the Henry VII chasuble, which was undergoing restoration in the workshop at the same period together with other vestments in the same set. The chasuble with the newly mounted orphreys was subsequently displayed along with eleven other vestments from Stonyhurst College in a large exhibition held at South Kensington Museum in June 1862. On this occasion the embroidery was identified as Flemish and dated to the early sixteenth century.

The iconographic programme of the orphreys will be considered first, followed by a discussion of the embroidery technique and style, placing the work within the context of late-fifteenth-century English embroidery, rather than attributing it to Flanders. Lastly, reference will be made to the business interests in London of the Buonvisi family, who apparently commissioned the embroideries, as a result of which the probable date of the commission can be more precisely determined.