Obs. The name (med.L. Lyra) of a town in Brabant, now Lire or Liere, occurring in the designations of certain kinds of cloth, as black of lyre (black-a-lyre, black of lure), green of lyre (grene alyr, grene lyre).
[1390–1. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 89. Pro xxiijbus uirgis panni nigri de Lyra. Ibid., 90. Pro j vlna et di. de blodeo de Lyra.]
1421. in E. E. Wills (1882), 97, note. Blac of lyre. Ibid. (1434), 97. An hode of black of lure, an a hod of blewe. Ibid. (1439), 118. My gowne of grene Alyre cloth of golde. Ibid. (1490), 97, note. Togam viridis coloris anglice grene lyre medley.
attrib. 1479. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 415. [The mayor of Bristol] in … his skarlat cloke, furred, with his blak a lyre hode, or tepet of blak felwet.
