The Lost Dress of Elizabeth I


Fascinating exhibition at Hampton Court Palace focusing on an altar cloth which may have been a dress worn by Elizabeth I.

This was just a small show but was packed with information about the altar cloth and the convincing reasons why it may well have been reworked from a dress worn by Elizabeth I. The cloth belonged to a church in Becton and was probably donated in memory of Elizabeth’s lady in waiting, Blanche Parry.  The pattern cutting in the reworking of the piece indicated it would have been a dress.

Most interesting was the evidence around the materials used such as real silver thread which would only have been used at court. I was amazed to see the books from which the embroidery patterns were taken including the design for the sweet frogs in the design in “Four legged animals” by Nicolaes de Bryn.

The textile was shown with the Rainbow portrait of Elizabeth by Gheerarts the Younger in which she is wearing a remarkably similar undergown. When you looked at the dimensions of the pattern on the cloth and dress the plants were larger on the cloth but possibly this was just artistic licence and this was the same piece of material. I certainly would love to think so.

Closed 23 February 2020

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