English 14th c. Dyers

English 14th c. Dyers. From a manuscript bible at Holkham House, Norfolk. Found in Ciba I: Medieval Dyeing.

Here, as in the previous picture, goods are being dyed in barrels. It is worth noting that this image depicts individual items or small lengths of cloth being dyed, rather than the larger lengths of cloth that appear in later depictions of the dyer's art.

Staved barrels are again used for holding the dyebaths. They are quite large; note the ladder that one dyer climbs to color the fabric. Material (dyed or undyed, more can't be determined from this image) is draped over a rod to the left of the picture.

The context of this image is unfortunately unavailable, which makes it harder to determine how much of the image is based in religious allegory rather than reality.

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