brisel

1) Used of a kind of material, described as 'fine' but of uncertain meaning:

c.1537 Item a fine pece bresell clothe, Ell and di quarter brode, Halifax

1542 Two gret fether bedds and two bolsters with fyne brisel tikes, Bretton Hall. I find no link with ‘bristle’ so perhaps this was for 'Brussels' where cloth-making was a luxury trade in the Middle Ages. Alternatively it may have been a cloth dyed with 'brazil', a reddish dye-stuff from the wood of that name.

spellings bresell cloth
dates 1537 1542

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