The panel contains the figures of two saints standing within a barbed quatrefoil. The saints are St Margaret of Antioch (killing a dragon) and St Catherine of Alexandria (holding a wheel and a sword). The embroidery is worked in split stitch and underside couching, with some raised work.
According to the curatorial information for this piece, embroideries on velvet are documented from the late thirteenth century onwards, and were made with three layers. The first was a linen backing material; the second the silk velvet, and the third a thin linen fabric. The designs were drawn on the thin fabric. When the embroidery was finished, this material was cut away at the places it was not embroidered, exposing the velvet underneath.
The panel belongs to the same burse as another fragment in the V&A collection (T.1-1940).
See also a mid-eighteenth century embroidered burse from The Netherlands.
Sources:
- Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition of English Embroidery catalogue (1905), p. 81, p. 29
- CHRISTIE, A.G.I. (1938). English Mediaeval Embroidery, p. 175, pls. 135, 136.
- OWEN-CROCKER, Gale, Elizabeth COATSWORTH and Maria HAYWARD (eds.; 2012). Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, 450-1450. Leiden: Brill 2012, pp. 126-127.
- SYMONDS, Pierce (1928). Needlework through the Ages, pl. 31.
V&A online catalogue (retrieved 27 June 2016).
WV