What is "cloth of gold"

Noisette \Noi*sette"\, n. (Bot.) A hybrid rose produced in 1817, by a French gardener, Noisette, of Charleston, South Carolina, from the China rose and the musk rose. It has given rise to many fine varieties, as the Lamarque, the Marechal (or Marshal) Niel, and the Cloth of gold. Most roses of this class have clustered flowers and are of vigorous growth.
--P. Henderson.

Cloth \Cloth\ (kl[o^]th; 115), n.; pl. Cloths (kl[o^][th]z; 115), except in the sense of garments, when it is Clothes (kl[=o]thz or kl[=o]z). [OE. clath cloth, AS. cl[=a][thorn] cloth, garment; akin to D. kleed, Icel. kl[ae][eth]i, Dan. kl[ae]de, cloth, Sw. kl["a]de, G. kleid garment, dress.]

1. A fabric made of fibrous material (or sometimes of wire, as in wire cloth); commonly, a woven fabric of cotton, woolen, or linen, adapted to be made into garments; specifically, woolen fabrics, as distinguished from all others.

2. The dress; raiment. [Obs.] See Clothes.

   I'll ne'er distust my God for cloth and bread.
   --Quarles.

3. The distinctive dress of any profession, especially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession.

   Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth?
   --Macaulay.

   The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to . . . every axiom.
   --I. Taylor.

   Body cloth. See under Body.

   Cloth of gold, a fabric woven wholly or partially of threads of gold.

   Cloth measure, the measure of length and surface by which cloth is measured and sold. For this object the standard yard is usually divided into quarters and nails.

   Cloth paper, a coarse kind of paper used in pressing and finishing woolen cloth. -- Cloth

   shearer, one who shears cloth and frees it from superfluous nap.

Cloth of gold or gold cloth is a fabric woven with a gold-wrapped or spun weft—referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core yarn is silk wrapped (filé) with a band or strip of high content gold. In rarer instances, fine linen and wool have been used as the core.