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Early Modern Knitting at the Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and...
On Friday I visited, The Clothworkers' Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, with a group from the Knitting History Forum. The Clothworkers’ Centre is the Victoria and Albert...
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Book Review: Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age.
Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age. M Hell et al. Amsterdam: Museumshop Hermitage, 2014. ISBN 978 90 78653523. (English language version) €19.95I suppose everyone has heard of the Nightwatch, but...
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Seventeenth and Eighteenth century whalers’ knitted caps
Figure 1In the Nova Zemlya gallery at the Rijksmuseum is a case of seventeenth and eighteenth century whalers’ knitted caps which come not from Nova Zemlya but from Spitsbergen. Between 1979 and 1981...
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A Visit to South Devon
I recently visited south Devon and some museums and costume collections in the area. Totnes Fashions and Textiles MuseumPart of the Corsets and Crinolines Exhibition at TotnesThe museum is housed...
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Hats: felts, demi-castors, castors and beavers.
Who wore hatsLivrustkammaren1647. Survival number 11 in the list While the questions of when and where hats were worn are not addressed here, almost everyone, male and female, wore a hat or a cap in...
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Historic Clothing Day at the Weald & Downland Museum
The gridshell building at Weald & DownlandOn Sunday I attended the Weald and Downland Museum’s Historic Clothing Day held in the site’s incredible Gridshell building, see right. For those who do...
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A 1623 tailor and seven other Marlborough tailors 1592-1691
Quirijn van Brekelenkam - Tailor's workshop c.1661This post looks particularly at the 1623 probate inventory of the tailor Ambrose Pontin of Marlborough, in the county of Wiltshire, and at the seven...
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The Gunnister Man Project
From the Shetland Museums leaflet (3)Last month I attended the Knitting History Forum conference, and one of the speakers was Dr. Carol Christiansen, Textile Curator at the Shetland Museum and...
View ArticleThe decline and fall of frieze and russet?
Frieze and russet appear to be two of the main fabrics for the outer clothing of the generality of lower classes in the sixteenth century. Peachey’s (2014) table of wool fabrics covering the period...
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Women’s Hoods 1600-1690
Fig 1 From Hollar's OrnatusIn the first half of the seventeenth century the main linen headwear for women was the coif. The coif came in several forms but most were close fitting. Hoods were around...
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A waistcoat, a nightcap and a pair of slippers from the 1640s.
Provenance The collector Sir William Burrell (1861-1958) purchased these three items in 1937. They, with his collection, were gifted by Sir William and his wife to the City of Glasgow. The Burrell...
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Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution - Book review
Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution, edited by Margarette Lincoln. London: Thames and Hudson, 2015. ISBN 978-0500518144, 288 pages. £29.95This book was published to coincide with an exhibition of...
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A History of Fashion in 100 Objects– New exhibition
This recently opened exhibitionat the Fashion Museum Bath is on until the 1st January 2018, and includes considerably more than one hundred objects. This is because the cases of accessories are not...
View ArticleFraming the Face: collars and ruffs – at the National Portrait Gallery
Having an hour to spare before a meeting in London this week, I popped into the National Portrait Gallery. Unfortunately they do not allow photography, however I have put links below to many of the...
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Seventeenth century clothing at Platt Hall Gallery of Costume, Manchester
Figure 1 - Collar from the 1630s At the weekend I visited Platt Hall for the first time, I had never been to Manchester before but always wanted to visit the Gallery of Costume. At the moment the 20th...
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Two 1620s tombs at Salisbury Cathedral
The Mompesson Tomb This magnificent tomb is of Sir Richard Mompesson (d1627) and his third wife Katherine (d.1622). The colours are tremendous, but not original as the tomb was overpainted in the...
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Rachel, Countess of Bath: Accessories for a “super-rich” lady of the 1640s.
1870s photo of the Van Dyck portraitEveryone is aware of the modern idea of the super-rich woman being someone who thinks nothing of spending on a handbag, what for most people is a year’s income. As...
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Exhibition – French portrait drawings: Clouet to Courbet
Currently there is a temporary exhibition at the British Museum in Room 90, on the 4th floor, of some beautiful drawings dating from the sixteenth century through to the nineteenth century, some have...
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Musée du Costume – Chateau Chinon
For those travelling to the east of France this year, I recommend a visit to the Musée du Costume at Chateau Chinon, in the Nièvre departement of France. It is usually closed from Christmas to sometime...
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Women of 1640s Western Europe – Theatrum Mulierum and Aula Veneris.
Dutch Sailor's WifeThose who study English clothing of the mid 17thcentury are very aware of Hollar’s Ornatus Muliebris the Habits [clothing] of Englishwomen, published in 1640. Perhaps less well known...
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