Dress fabric

The metal content of silks like this suited them to prestigious social or ceremonial occasions in 18th-century Europe, notably attendance at Court and at the theatre. Indeed, the agent of the Duke of Parma requested just such a silk with a nice green or blue ground from a Lyonnais manufacturer in the 1760s, appropriate for wearing to the theatre in Naples. Such silks probably cost between 36 and 180 livres per ell, at a time when a court dress required about 15 ells, and an unskilled labourer earned about 200 livres per year.

Women's gowns worn over wide hoops provided a large canvas which showed off the pattern, and which sparkled as its wearer moved in candlelight. Vestments in the Catholic Church and for the statues of saints and of the Virgin Mary might also use this kind of silk. Clergymen acquired them new or recycled women's gowns offered to the church as gifts or bequests.