A short article on the early use of flat metallic (gold and silver foil) strips in Central and East Asian textiles, prompted by a Sung Dynasty embroidery of boys and flowering vines that came out of Tibet. It surveys earlier examples from Japan, Turfan, Khocho and Liaoning, in which the strips are tapestry-woven or couched. Lucy Maitland provides a stitch-by-stitch technical analysis of the embroidery on a silk gauze foundation, illustrated with five diagrams. Plates reproduce comparison textiles.