Secrets in the Cope chest

Yesterday I had an appointment at our local church to see the textiles they keep in their 'Cope chest'... My friend Anne gave me a great tour of the vestments & frontal cloths. It's amazing to see this kind of handwork & attention to detail still being done today.




As we were going through the cloths hanging on rods inside their special chest I spied a beautiful old piece of red cloth hiding underneath one that they hardly use. We took it out and nearly fell over, it was incredible, Anne had never seen it before & she's been changing the cloths for maybe 15 years. Here are some pictures of the detailed work in this thing.




There was another one too that they hardly use, slighly less ornate but still amazing on a white background.