Embroideries and tapestries were not commonly used in Egypt till about the end of the Persian period, or the beginning of the period of Greek rule.

Alexandria became partly peopled by Phoenician, Syrian, and Jewish colonists, who brought with them the methods of manufacture peculiar to their own countries, and founded workshops which soon developed into flourishing establishments.

It is to the Alexandrians that Pliny ascribes the invention of weaving with several warps, thus producing the stuff called brocades (_polymita_); and in the time of the first Caesars, it was a recognised fact that "the needle of Babylon was henceforth surpassed by the comb of the Nile." The Alexandrian tapestries were not made after exclusively geometrical designs, like the products of the old Egyptian looms; but, according to the testimony of the ancients, were enriched with figures of animals, and even of men.

Of the masterpieces which adorned the palaces of the Ptolemies no specimens remain.

Many fragments which may be attributed to the later Roman time have, however, been found in Egypt, such as the piece with the boy and goose described by Wilkinson, and a piece representing marine divinities bought by myself at Coptos.[76] The numerous embroidered winding sheets with woven borders which have recently been discovered near Ekhmim, and in the Fayum, are nearly all from Coptic tombs, and are more nearly akin to Byzantine art than to the art of Egypt.
[68] We have a considerable number of specimens of these borderings, cartouches, and painted tiles representing foreign prisoners, in the British Museum; but the finest examples of the latter are in the Ambras Collection, Vienna.