Cloth of gold was an extremely expensive fabric produced at different periods and in different parts of the world, but especially known from late medieval Europe, and produced particularly in northern Italy. It is characterised by gold (or sometimes silver) threads (normally passing) woven into a precious, often a silk fabric, creating a stiff and heavy (and very expensive) material.
See also the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the name that came to be applied to the camp set up by the English and French in northwestern France for a meeting in June 1520 between Henry VIII of England and François I of France.
See also baudkin, which was a form of cloth of gold.
V&A online catalogue (retrieved 6 November 2016).
WV