Manuel Torralbo contracted to embroider a velvet altar-front and its corresponding _fronteleras_ for the parish church of Luque, at a price of three hundred _reales_; and Cristóbal de Valenzuela (on September 25th, 1604) to embroider two frontals for the altar of the church of Obejo. One of them was to be of purple velvet worked in gold, and the other of "black velvet, with borders and _caidas_ embroidered in yellow satin and white satin, with skulls and bones embroidered in gold."[38] [38] The skull and crossbones were a favourite design upon these objects. The Church of the Escorial possesses four paraments so decorated, which were shown, in 1878, at the Parisian Exhibition of Retrospective Art. Turning our attention to the embroidery which was executed, principally as a recreation, by highborn Spanish ladies of some centuries ago, the romance of _El Compte Arnau_, quoted by Miquel y Badía and written in Catalan and Provençal, contains the following lines:-- "¿ Ahout teniu las vostras fillas--muller leal? ¿ Ahout teniu las vostras fillas--viudeta igual? A la cambra son que _brodan_--Compte l'Arnau A la cambra son que _brodan_--seda y estam." Isabella the Catholic presented to the Chapel Royal of the cathedral of Granada an ecclesiastical robe embroidered by her own hands for the festival of Corpus Christi. The material was black satin brocade, with a fringe of white silk, and the letters IHS in white damask.[39] [39] Gómez Moreno; _Apuntes que pueden servir de historia del bordado de imagineria en Granada_ (_El Liceo de Granada_; 6th year, No. 18). [Illustration: XVIII WIFE OF WELL-TO-DO MERCHANT (_Palma, Balearic Islands. About A.D. 1810_)]