Oldest surviving fashions on display

It is only very occasionally that fashionable dress from the 17th century is displayed in museums in this country. This is because dress from over 400 years ago just does not survive for posterity. On the 22 September, however, the Fashion Museum in Bath opens a small display of some of the rarest surviving historic pieces of fashions from the 17th century in any museum anywhere in the world.

 

The new display at the Council-run museum, includes nearly 20 examples of beautifully decorated gloves, ranging in date from the early years of the century when James I was King to the 1660s when his grandson Charles II was restored to the throne.

 

In this historical context, one pair of gloves in the display is of particular interest. These are the large doeskin gloves (dyed brown) with insets of red silk satin embroidered in metal threads which are believed to have belonged to King James I.

 

All of the gloves are items of dress or apparel that were worn only on special occasions, such as having a portrait painted, when the sitter would wear his most elaborate clothes so as to give subliminal messages about his wealth and status in society.  But these gloves were also given as gifts on ceremonial or formal occasions. Again, this was a gesture which was intended to impress, and to show the importance of the person offering the gift.

 

As such these are the finest examples of craftsmanship of the age. From the time-consuming process of preparing, or dressing, the different types of leather from which the gloves were made to the exquisite embroidery using coloured silk threads, tiny seed pearls, and different types of gold and silver metal thread, these are the epitome of the international luxury goods trade which was based in London in the 17th century. 

 

All of the gloves are on loan to the Fashion Museum from The Gloves’ Collections Trust, a special body set up by the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London to care for what is possibly the finest collection of historic gloves in the world. The collection is known as the Spence collection, as it was formed by antiquarian Robert Spence and given to the Worshipful Company in 1959.

 

This display at the Fashion Museum will also include five pieces of silver ware of comparable date, and of a similar high quality, which have been generously lent to the Museum by the Holburne Museum of Art. The idea is that these exquisite treasures will give visitors an idea of the richness and opulence of the 17th century, reinforcing the impression given by the embroidered gloves. There are also similarities in the use of design motifs between the silver and the gloves, for example a similar treatment of a flower, or a bird, on both the gloves and the silver.

 

Rosemary Harden, Manager of the Fashion Museum commented:
“Fashion is all about adornment and looking your best and, as such, has always been part of the decorative arts.  It is through the support of the Gloves Collection Trust and the Holburne Museum of Art that the Fashion Museum is able this autumn to put on a display that shows this important aspect of the subject, and with material of such quality and antiquity. Every time I look at the gloves from the Glove Collection Trust and the silver from the Holburne I am astounded by the workmanship, the quality of the materials and of the design. My hope is that visitors to the Fashion Museum over the  forthcoming months will share the same sense of marvel and wonder”.

 

For more information on the Gloves exhibition, and the Fashion Museum log onto http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/. The Museum is open daily, 11.00-17.00, exit 18.00.

 

ENDS

 

Notes to Editors:
Attached picture: James I’s gloves, about 1610 – 1625, Gloves Collection Trust

For images contact: Maggie Bone, Museums Publicity Officer, Bath & North East Somerset Council, on 01225 477736, or e-mail maggie_bone@bathnes.gov.uk

For comment:
Rosemary Harden, Manager, Fashion Museum, on 01225 477282 or email rosemary_harden@bathnes.gov.uk

 

Fashion Museum
• The Fashion Museum was formerly known as the Museum of Costume, it is owned and operated by Bath & North East Somerset Council. A major redisplay and relaunch of the Museum began in January 2007 and was completed in July 2007.
• The Museum has an outstanding collection of more than 60,000 objects of fashionable dress- including dresses, shirts, skirts, jumpers, and even underwear and nightgowns, plus shoes and accessories from the late sixteenth century to the present day. The Collection also includes works on paper (for example, fashion drawings, photographs and dressmaking patterns) that relate to the history of fashion.
• It is one of the largest and finest collections of original fashionable dress in the world, and in 1999 it was awarded Designated status by the UK government as a non-national museum that holds a pre-eminent collection.

Issued by Bath & North East Somerset Council press office, tel 01225 477827 or 477283.