Selected References - Paintings and Extant Garments

This is the first of 5 appendices from the documentation for my gold silk doublet, which competed at Kingdom A&S February 2015. After some consideration, I decided to simply pull all the pictures off. The links to where I got them are in the text.

Appendix A

Selected references  

Paintings

Scipione Pulzone (Italian, before 1550-1598) ca. 1580-1589, oil on canvas. Painted surface H: 46 7/8 x W: 35 7/8 in. (119 x 91.2 cm)

http://art.thewalters.org/detail/6807/portrait-of-a-lady/

The detail picture shows narrow trim on the front sleeve seam, and a decorative thread-wrapped button on the short sleeve of the overdress.

Follower of Francesco Salviati del Rossi (1510–1563), called Il Salviati . Oil on panel 42 x 32¼ in. (106.7 x 82 cm.)

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/ follower-of-francesco-salviati-del-rossi-called-5610326-details.aspx

Note the closures using both buttonholes and thread loops, and the buttons that may  be either metallic thread-wrapped, or metal in the shape of thread-wrapped buttons. My collar is made in the same style as hers.

Note the elaborate pinking on the sleeve, and the narrow trim stitched to the front sleeve seam.

Extant Garments

Men’s garments were made in the same workshops, by the same workers, and their patterns were given in the same surviving tailor’s pattern books. The general appearance given by them in the portraits is also similar - a smoothly-fitted front-opening garment for the torso, with long sleeves and a collar. Men’s garments have survived more frequently than women’s garments, and so I have used some men’s garments for reference. None of the men’s garments that I have used for reference were intended as “doublets of defense” - they do not have added padding or protection intended for combat.

Although most doublets would have used wool stiffening, other materials were possible. Two 1610-20 Girl’s Loose Gowns (described in Patterns of Fashion, pattern numbers 55 and 56) used buckram stiffening in the same shaping as the wool padding I used. 

Extant German jerkin from 1580. The buttons are thread-wrapped, and the wrapping has come off some of the wooden cores. The high collar and body shaping are similar to the design I made.

German National Museum, inventory number T832. circa 1580. Cloth. 48cm x 73cm.

http://objektkatalog.gnm.de/objekt/T832

Extant youth’s leather jerkin, described in Patterns of Fashion. The buttons are pewter, done in the style of thread-wrapped buttons.

Museum of London, inventory number 36.237. Produced 1550 - 1560. Leather.

http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/ Online/object.aspx?objectID=object-118831&rows=1&start=85&sort=summaryTitle+asc