Note 48 — Chapter XIII · “DESIGN” IN ILLUMINATION “Design” — Elementary Patterns in Decoration — Scale & Scope of Decoration — Of “Designing” Manuscripts, Generally.

Chequers in colours and gold were largely used in the fourteenth-century MSS. for backgrounds in miniatures. There is an example of very beautiful heraldic diapering (in enamel) on the shield of William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, in Westminster Abbey (A.D. 1296). On p. 336 of this book there is a diagram of a very fine shield bearing a diapered chequer.