Byzantine Gold Wire Drawers

Today I'm opting for cool rather than strange :-)
This is an abstract I found ages ago, and have been meaning to look more into forever.

"Johnathan Harris
Transferable Skills? Byzantine Craftsmen in London 1440-1483
It is generally thought, largely on the basis of a letter of Cardinal Bessarion, that, by the 1440's, the Byzantine Empire had been completely overtaken by the West in all spheres of technical expertise. This idea is challenged the evidence [sic] of some documents the Public Record Office in London which show that, between at least 1442 and 1483, two gold wire drawers from Constantinopple, named Andronicus and Alexius Effomatos, lived and worked in the English capital. It is argued that these craftsmen were welcomed because they specialised in making gold thread of a type which had long been manufactured in Byzantium but was superior in strength and economy to that produced in England. Indeed, since the earliest evidence for native English production of this type of gold thread dates from the period of their residence in London, there is at least the possibility that they actually introduced their craft into England, reversing the relative balance of technology as it is usually portrayed. "

Source: "Byzantium: Identity, Image, Influence. Abstracts. XIX International Congress of Byzantine Studies, University of Copenhagen." 8-24th August, 1996.