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88 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. a fine exhibit consisted of colored and figured silks, which were declared by the Judges to be marked improvements over former productions of that country. Among the exhibits from Japan, the most conspicuous for excellence were the silk crapes, white, dyed, and printed ; the dyed cherries and scarlets being notable for the per fection and brilliancy of their hues, while others were most skillfully shaded. Productions of silk from cocoons of worms feeding on the walnut, and others from worms feeding on the oak, were interesting. The most curious of the Japanese fabrics were brocades of great ap parent richness, on account of the gold woven in the tissue; gold flowers and leaves being intermingled with scarlet flowers upon an indigo-blue ground. The threads of gold forming the warp, upon close examination were found to consist of exceedingly narrow or thread-like strips of paper, gilded, but only on one side; the gilded side being invariably brought to the surface in the tissue. It was ob served by experts that this effect could only be produced in hand- looms. TURKEY, EGYPT, TUNIS. The less remote Oriental nations—Turkey, Tunis, and Egypt— showed that they had not lost the arts of silk fabrication which they once enjoyed in supreme perfection. The damasks and brocades, woven in silk alone, or mixed with gold and silver, though Oriental and characteristic in design, in many cases exhibited excellent taste and workmanship. RUSSIA. Russia, combining Oriental sentiment and traditions with the art and technical skill of Western Europe, made exhibits of silk fabrics which worthily attracted universal admiration. We refer particularly to the damasks and brocades of silk, gold, and silver, the latter liter ally “ cloths of gold and silver,” made in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the sacerdotal vestments in gold and silver tissues made in the same cities. These tissues, vying with the best productions of Lyons in execution, have a characteristic interest and beauty, derived from the traditional splendors of the Greek Church. Some of the rich fabrics were especially noticeable from the pure Byzantine character of the design, employing religious symbols, which Ruskin has pointed out, in his Stones of Venice, as characteristic of the earliest Chris tian or Byzantine decoration. The notable exhibitors of these mag nificent stuffs were A. & W. Sapojinkoff, Moscow; John Sytof, St. Petersburg; Mosjookhin & Sons, Moscow; and F. A. Jevargeif, St. Petersburg.