Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T10:29:24.527Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘POWDERED WITH ARMES YMAGES AND ANGELS’: AN EARLY TUDOR CONTRACT FOR EMBROIDERED VESTMENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Cynthia Jackson
Cynthia Jackson*
Affiliation:
Cynthia Jackson, 6 Kittansett Court, Stittsville, Ontario K2S 1B9, Canada. Email: ctjackson.research@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There are many extant examples of late medieval vestments in private and public collections in Europe and North America. Little is known, however, about the people who created them and the production methods used. A copy of a formal agreement between Sir Robert Clere and William Morton, included in the Townshend family papers, offers a rare insight into the making of a set of late fifteenth-century vestments. The document specifies the materials and the motifs to be used in making the vestments and the delivery deadline. This paper investigates the individuals mentioned in the agreement, the significance of the symbols and images chosen, and the possible motives behind the contract phraseology. Although these particular vestments no longer exist, parallels for the designs and techniques among extant examples have been used to re-create their possible appearance. Also considered is the relationship between embroiderer and mercer and the ways in which they collaborated to produce garments for royalty, the nobility and an increasing number of wealthy citizens.

Type
Papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 96 , September 2016 , pp. 143 - 167
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Unpublished sources

BL, Add ms 41139, fol 3vGoogle Scholar
BL, Add ms 41305, fols 35v, 36Google Scholar
LH, DP Box 1, fol 21Google Scholar
LMA, ms 31369Google Scholar
MC, Ordinance 94, 18 and 20 Dec 1497Google Scholar
ROM, 971.397Google Scholar
TNA, E315/502, fol 85Google Scholar
TNA, E315/505, fol 25Google Scholar
TNA, PRO C1/63/178Google Scholar
TNA, PRO C1/64/244Google Scholar
TNA, PRO C1/429/24Google Scholar
TNA, PRO C47/37/10/17Google Scholar
TNA, PRO LR 2/111, fol 27vGoogle Scholar
TNA, PRO PROB 11/7/135Google Scholar
TNA, PRO PROB 11/10/6Google Scholar
TNA, PRO PROB 11/11/372Google Scholar
TNA, PRO PROB 11/20/20Google Scholar
TNA, PRO PROB 11/20/149Google Scholar

Published sources

Arnold, J 1988. Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d, Maney Publishing, Leeds Google Scholar
Binney, J 1891. ‘A warden’s account book in the parish of Morebath’, The Western Antiquary; or, Devon and Cornwall Note-Book, 11, 29–187 Google Scholar
Blomefield, F 1807. ‘Gallow and Brothercross Hundreds: Raineham’, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, 7, 121–151, <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/> (accessed 21 Apr 2014)Google Scholar
Blomefield, F 1810. ‘East Flegg Hundred: Ormesby’, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, 11, 231–240, <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/> (accessed 8 Feb 2014)Google Scholar
Campbell, W 1873. Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII. Volume I, Longman & Co., London Google Scholar
Campbell, W 1877. Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII. Volume II, Longman & Co., London Google Scholar
Carter, M 2010. ‘Remembrance, liturgy and status in a late medieval English Cistercian abbey: the mourning vestment of Abbot Robert Thornton of Jervaulx (1510–33)’, Textile History, 41 (2), 145–160 Google Scholar
Christie, G 1938. A Brief Survey of English Embroidery Dating from the Beginning of the Tenth Century until the End of the Fourteenth, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Cornwell, H and Cornwell, J 2009. Saints, Signs and Symbols: the symbolic language of Christian art, 3rd edn, Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg and New York Google Scholar
Duffy, E 2001. The Voices of Morebath: reformation and rebellion in an English village, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Duffy, E 2005. The Stripping of the Altars: traditional religion in England 1400–1580, 2nd edn, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Google Scholar
Fitch, M 1976. ‘The London makers of opus Anglicanum ’, Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc, 27, 288–296 Google Scholar
French, K 2001. The People of the Parish, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Given-Wilson, C 2005. ‘The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England 1275–1504, Scholarly Digital Editions and The National Archives, vi 437’, <http://sd-editions.com> (accessed 4 Oct 2014)+(accessed+4+Oct+2014)>Google Scholar
Hairsine, P B and Hairsine, R C 1988. ‘The Exchequer warrants for issues: another source for Yorkist history’, The Ricardian, 8 (100), 2–8 Google Scholar
Hanham, A 1985. The Celys and their World: an English merchant family of the fifteenth century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Harper-Bill, C 1996. The Pre-Reformation Church in England 1400–1530, Addison Wesley Longman, Harlow Google Scholar
Hayward, M 2007. Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII, Maney Publishing, Leeds Google Scholar
Hayward, M 2009. Rich Apparel: clothing and the law in Henry VIII’s England, Ashgate Publishing, Farnham Google Scholar
Hayward, M 2012. The Great Wardrobe Accounts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, London Record Society 47, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Heard, K forthcoming. ‘Still “verais, popres e beaus”? English ecclesiastical embroidery from the Wars of the Roses to the early Reformation’, in M Michael and G Davies (eds), Opus Anglicanum, Brepols, Turnhout Google Scholar
Heath, P 1984. ‘Urban piety in the later Middle Ages: the evidence of Hull wills’, in B Dobson (ed), Church, Politics and Patronage in the Fifteenth Century, 209–229, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester Google Scholar
Holford, C 1910. A Chat about the Broderers’ Company, George Allen & Sons, London Google Scholar
Johnstone, P 2002. High Fashion in the Church, Maney Publishing, Leeds Google Scholar
King, D 1963. Opus Anglicanum: English medieval embroidery, Arts Council, London Google Scholar
Levey, S 2012. ‘The art of the broderers’, in M Hayward and P Ward (eds), The Inventory of Henry VIII. Volume II: Textiles and Dress, 145–185, Harvey Miller Publishers, Turnhout Google Scholar
Mayo, J 1984. The History of Ecclesiastical Dress, Holmes & Meier Publishers Inc., New York Google Scholar
Monnas, L 1989. ‘New documents for the vestments of Henry VII at Stonyhurst College’, Burlington Mag, 131 (1034), 345–349 Google Scholar
Monnas, L 1995. ‘ Opus Anglicanum and Renaissance velvet: the Whalley Abbey vestments’, Textile History, 25 (1), 3–27 Google Scholar
Moreton, C 1992. The Townshends and Their World: gentry, law and land in Norfolk c 1450–1551, Oxford University Press, New York Google Scholar
Nevinson, J 1950. Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Google Scholar
Nicolas, N 1826. Testamenta Vetusta, Nicolas & Son, London Google Scholar
Parker, J 1980. ‘The Ordinance Book of the Mercers’ Company of London’, unpublished MPhil thesis, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Richmond, C 1981. John Hopton, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar
Sharpe, R 1907. Calendar of Letter-books of the City of London: H: 1375–99, <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=33459> (accessed 27 Nov 2013)+(accessed+27+Nov+2013)>Google Scholar
Sharpe, R 1912. Calendar of Letter-books of the City of London: L: Edward IV–Henry VII, <www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=33667#n7> (accessed 31 Dec 2013)+(accessed+31+Dec+2013)>Google Scholar
Staniland, K 1991. Medieval Craftsmen: embroiderers, British Museum Press, London Google Scholar
Stratford, J 1993. The Bedford Inventories: the worldly goods of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, Society of Antiquaries of London, London Google Scholar
Sutton, A 2001. ‘The shop floor of the London mercery trade, c 1200–c 1500: the marginalisation of the artisan, the itinerant mercer and the shopholder’, Nottingham Medieval Stud, 65, 12–50 Google Scholar
Sutton, A 2005. The Mercery of London 1130–1578, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot Google Scholar
Tonkin, L 2012. ‘Insights into the production of opus Anglicanum: an object analysis of two panels from the pillar orphreys on the Whalley Abbey frontal’, Textile History, 43 (1), 83–89 Google Scholar
Walters, H 1939. London Churches at the Reformation, Macmillan, London Google Scholar
Watcott, M 1871. ‘The inventories of Westminster Abbey at the Dissolution’, Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc, 4, 313–376 Google Scholar
Watney, F D 1936. Acts of Court of the Mercers Company 1453 –1527, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar