Elizabethan Trinkets

hominisaevum: A seventeenth-century pomander and chain A...

Tue, 21 May 2013 02:08:23 +0100

A seventeenth-century pomander and chain

A parcel-gilt silver pomander, made in Italy in the 16th century; features a niello inscription

Pomander, gold filigree, enclosing a ball of ambergris. 1600-1700

Gold and Silver Pomander, 16th Century

***Pomander - a ball made of perfumes, such as ambergris (whence the name),musk, or civet. The pomander was worn or carried in a vase, also known by the same name, as a protection against infection in times of pestilence or merely as a useful article to modify bad smells. The globular cases which contained the pomanders were hung from a neck-chain or belt, or attached to the girdle, and were usually perforated and made of gold or silver. Sometimes they contained several partitions, in each of which was placed a different perfume.

In the Studiolo posts about Renaissance costume, history,...

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:42:14 +0100

In the Studiolo posts about Renaissance costume, history, architecture, decorative arts, portraits, books, and moves that take place in that time.

European Silk, metallic thread, and brass Doublet, ca. 1580 (via The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Doublet)

Interesting tidbit for today: The world’s oldest revolver was...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:41:11 +0100

Interesting tidbit for today:

The world’s oldest revolver was made in 1597 by Hans Stopler in Nüremberg. Flintlock mechanism, 8 shots.

erikkwakkel: The Chained Library of Zutphen I took these...

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:52:08 +0100

erikkwakkel:

The Chained Library of Zutphen

I took these pictures during a visit to the 16th-century chained library of Zutphen, in the east of the Netherlands. It is one of three such libraries still in existence in Europe. Nothing much has changed here for 550 years.

More info: http://www.librije-zutphen.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=14&Itemid=111

Posy Rings, and their history: Okay, okay…so this...

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:26:07 +0100

Posy Rings, and their history:

Okay, okay…so this particular example is about 100 years too late to be Elizabethan…but the history of the posy ring is interesting…

Gold ‘posy’ ring

England, 18th century AD

British Museum

‘Many are the stars I see but in my eye no star like thee’

The term ‘posy’, based on the French ‘poésy’, describes the amatory verse or rhyming motto with which the rings are engraved. Here the inscription reads: ‘Many are thee starrs I see yet in my eye no starr like thee’.

The practice of giving gold hoop rings engraved with mottoes at betrothals or weddings was common in England from the sixteenth century onwards, and continued until the late eighteenth century. ‘Posy’ rings could, however, be given on many other occasions as tokens of friendship or loyalty, and ‘posies’ are also found on religious and memorial rings. The inscription is generally found on the interior of the ring, hidden to everyone except the wearer. Most of the sentimental mottoes were taken from popular literature of the time, such as ‘chapbooks’ (pamphlets), or from collections on the language of courtship. A few customers would supply their own composition for the goldsmith to engrave.

The outside of the hoop was often decorated to enhance the message or to form part of the message itself. Coloured enamels could be used, or chased motifs, like the sixteen stars on this example. The inscriptions were usually enamelled in black, which makes them easier to read, although very few survive with all their enamel. The language and the style of the inscription helps us to date them.

S. Bury, An introduction to sentimental (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985)

C. Oman, British rings 800-1914 (London, Batsford, 1974)

O.M. Dalton, Catalogue of the finger rings, (London, British Museum, 1912)

J. Evans, English posies and posy rings (Oxford University Press, 1931)

tawnyscostumesandcuriosities: Spanish Renaissance Mid 1500s by...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:13:05 +0100

tawnyscostumesandcuriosities:

Spanish Renaissance Mid 1500s by Thomas Ogden at Coroflot.com

tawnyscostumesandcuriosities: Modern reproduction of an...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:11:31 +0100

tawnyscostumesandcuriosities:

Modern reproduction of an Elizabethan REBATO/ SUPPORTASSE/ UNDERPROPER for ruffs.

Today’s Highlight: Hoods of the Medieval, Tudor, and...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:31:05 +0000

c. 1490, Hood

c. 1500, Gabled Hood

1536, Gabled Good, front & rear view

1540, English "French Hood"

1540, English "French Hood", Lawn Cap

1590, Hooded Mantle

Today’s Highlight: Hoods of the Medieval, Tudor, and Elizabethan era!

Images courtesy of R. Turner Wilcox, The Mode of Hats and Headdresses, 1945.

Thank you, Village Hat Shop!

Today’s Highlight: Hats of the Elizabethan and Early...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:31:05 +0000

c. 1510, English "Dutch Coif"

c. 1510, English "Escoffion"

c. 1525, English Beret & Brocade Coif

c. 1580, Felt or Velvet Hat, Cord Caul

1590, English cap with Bongrace

1590, English Ladies Silk Riding Hat

1590, English Ladies Silk Tall Hat

Today’s Highlight: Hats of the Elizabethan and Early Jacobean era!

Images courtesy of R. Turner Wilcox, The Mode of Hats and Headdresses, 1945.

Thank you, Village Hat Shop!

Today’s Highlight: Hairstyles of the Elizabethan and Early...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:37:00 +0000

c. 1580, Coiffure with Pearls & Jewels

c. 1590, Red Wig with Pearl & Jewel Pins

c. 1590, Sheer Lawn Cap, Wired Pearls

1610, Hair dressed over wire frame

1621, Turban Roll & Tight Curls

Today’s Highlight: Hairstyles of the Elizabethan and Early Jacobean era!

Images courtesy of R. Turner Wilcox, The Mode of Hats and Headdresses, 1945.

Thank you, Village Hat Shop!

Elizabeth’s Coronation Procession The British Library

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:22:04 +0000

Elizabeth’s Coronation Procession The British Library

English Court Dress, for High Nobility and Royals. Courtesy of...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:31:06 +0000

1520 Henry VIII

1552 Edward VI Military Regalia

1580 Sir Phillip Sydney

1551 the Princess Elizabeth, Holbein

1554 Mary I

1559 Elizabeth I

1559 a Lady at Court

1570 Mary, Queen of Scots

1585 Elizabeth I

English Court Dress, for High Nobility and Royals.

Courtesy of the New York Public Library.

Merchant and Upper Class dress, not at court. This might be...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:17:00 +0000

1559 English Nobleman

1577 English Gentleman

1588 English Gentleman

1577 English Nobleman

1588 Wealthy Merchant

1577 English Lady

1577 English Noblewoman

1588 English Lady

Merchant and Upper Class dress, not at court. This might be options for Merchant class dress when Royalty visits or a special event takes place, when everyone wants to best present their prosperity and place in society.

Courtesy of the New York Public Library.

ornamentedbeing: c1575-1610 “Woman’s waistcoat and coif,...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:56:03 +0000

ornamentedbeing:

c1575-1610

“Woman’s waistcoat and coif, England. these are said to have been given to the wife of Rodger Woodhouse by Queen Elizabeth 1st on August 22, 1578.”

MFA

Object Type This object formed the handle of a feather fan....

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:27:00 +0000

Object Type
This object formed the handle of a feather fan. Feather fans were introduced into Tudor England through the great Italian city states of Venice, Milan and Genoa. Originally fans had arrived in Italy from the East. By the 16th century the Western secular use of fans was largely confined to women. Costly and elaborate, these fans were dress accessories confirming status and rank.

Materials
The fan handle was made in gilt brass, which was cast, pierced and engraved with Eastern-influenced Moresque ornament (a style of interlaced geometric patterns evolved in Arab civilisations of the Near East and in the Moorish states of Spain). It was a practical and durable item. When the fan’s feathers wore out, they could be changed and new feathers arranged in the metal handle. The gilt-brass handle was a less extravagant item than those made of carved ivory, gold or silver. The feathers used might be those of a native bird rather than more expensive feathers from exotic birds such as peacocks, swans, ostriches or parakees, which enriched the finer gold or ivory handles. Most fans were attached to the belt of the dress by a metal chain or silk cord. Due to their fragile nature, few examples of complete feather fans of the period survive, but they were frequently shown in contemporary portraits.

Folding fans, while available in the Orient, were not introduced to Western Europe until the late 17th century. This one, c. 1690, is from France, but is certainly not Elizabethan:

The Cholmondeley Ladies circa 1600-10 According to the...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:36:00 +0000

The Cholmondeley Ladies circa 1600-10

According to the inscription (bottom left), this painting shows ‘Two Ladies of the Cholmondeley Family, Who were born the same day, Married the same day, And brought to Bed [gave birth] the same day’. To mark this dynastic event, they are formally presented in bed, their babies wrapped in scarlet fabric. Identical at a superficial glance, the lace, jewellery and eye colours of the ladies and infants are in fact carefully differentiated. The format echoes tomb sculpture of the period. The ladies, whose precise identities are unclear, were probably painted by an artist based in Chester, near the Cholmondeley estates.

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=1500

Hever Castle: What if Anne Boleyn is not Anne Boleyn?

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:01:00 +0000

Hever Castle: What if Anne Boleyn is not Anne Boleyn?:

thusitakemyleaveoftheworld:

I’ve just read a post in a Brazilian Anne Boleyn’s fansite, which compares the most famous Anne Boleyn’s portrait and the portrait of Mary Tudor, Princess of England, Queen of England and Duchess of Suffolk, with Charles Brandon, her second husband, Duke of Suffolk.

The right portrait, known to be Anne Boleyn, is a copy made in the 16th century, based on a original image supposedly made between 1533-1536. On the other hand, the left portrait, Mary Tudor, is a portrait by her 20 years old, in 1516.

According to “Boullan”:

The color of the eyes, the format of the faces, the long neck, the nose and mouth are similar in both portraits. Mary was five years older than Anne (if we suppose she was born in 1501), and, in 1533, Mary would be 37 and Anne, 32.

If it is Mary Tudor on both portraits, the B wouldn’t mean Boleyn, but Brandon. We could even risk this is a posthumous portrait of Mary, since she died in 23rd June 1533. Maybe her husband, Charles, would like to see in her neck the “B” of Brandon as a symbol of her love for him.

The appearance of the woman identified as Anne Boleyn in the picture does not match with the descriptions we have by, for an example, the venetian ambassador: he said her eyes were “black and pretty”, and her mouth was “large”. It was also said that her hair was thick, shiny and very dark.

Link to the post: http://boullan.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/o-enigma-de-b/

What do you think?

MetMuseum Pair of gloves, ca. 1600EnglishLeather; satin worked...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:16:00 +0000

MetMuseum

Pair of gloves, ca. 1600
English
Leather; satin worked with silk and metal thread, seed pearls; satin, couching, and darning stitches; metal bobbin lace; paper

Portraits from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are replete with minutely detailed representations of garments and accessories decorated with emblematic motifs. The gauntlets of these gloves are embroidered with motifs which also appear on other objects made in the late Elizabethan era—a disembodied eye raining pale blue and silver tears, a colorful pansy flower, and a bright green parrot with pearls on its wings. The weeping eye is related to a contemporary emblem book, Henry Peacham’s Minerva Britanna, or A Garden of Heroical Devises of 1612, though this motif was known as a symbol of unrequited love well before the publication of Peacham’s book.

The pansy, watered by the tears of the weeping eye, was a popular flower in the Elizabethan era. It was known to be a favorite of the queen herself and the pansy continued to appear in embroidery well into the seventeenth century.

Despite the present fragile and somewhat degraded condition of these gloves, they retain enough of their sumptuous embroidery to convey the luxury of the highest quality needlework of the late Tudor and early Stuart era.

“a disembodied eye raining pale blue and silver tears”

“a disembodied eye raining pale blue and silver tears”

“a disembodied eye raining pale blue and silver tears”

Queen Elizabeth I Fact:

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:18:36 +0000

Queen Elizabeth I Fact::

In 1575 Queen Elizabeth I was offered Sovereignty of the Netherlands, which she refused. Ten years later Queen Elizabeth declined an offer of sovereignty again, this time by the Dutch commission for sovereignty of the Low Countries, but issued a declaration taking the Netherlands under her protection.

Elizabeth feared by taking sovereignty over the Netherlands she would set a precedent that other Monarchs could mess with the affairs of another Monarchs (at the time the low countries were de-facto colonies of Spain.) By doing so, Philip could also have done the same thing with Ireland, therefore, Elizabeth decided against accepting sovereignty.

From the exhibit Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:33:27 +0000

From the exhibit Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave. Borchgrave recreates historical fashion using nothing but paper and paint.

You can see more of de Borchgrave’s work here.