Wed Jul 27, 2022 05:20 PM

Back in 2016 Routeledge Archeology had 2 weeks where there was free online access to many of their journals. And in 2015, the journal Costume had 50 articles available for free as part of a celebration. I binged the articles, but not all of the information got filed in my brain. So, rereading Janet Arnold’s 2000 article, “Serpents and Flowers: Embroidery Designs from Thomas Trevelyon’s Miscellanies of 1608 and 1616” was really exciting. Because I remember reading it, but I don’t remember really absorbing beautiful snake designs she was talking about.

Arnold also pointed out the design from Trevelyon turning up embroidered on the skirt of Elizabeth Finch, Countess of Winchilsea in a portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger dated 1600. Arnold quotes Karen Hearn and the exhibition “Dynasties: Paintings in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630” that was held at the Tate Gallery in 1995. Hearn talks quite a bit about the embroidery in the portrait, including the ruff and Arnold suggests the dress is dark brown wool either couched in gold or possibly embroidered in chainstitch.

I wasn’t able to find a clear enough image of the snakes in the portrait online, the one at Wikipedia is pretty small. The portrait is held in a private collection, but I own the exhibition catalog, so I took a picture of the page. The Trevelyon’s Miscellany is available at the Folger Library via their Luna viewer and I’ve linked that previously, but there is a very accessible PDF at the Library of Congress’s site. https://lccn.loc.gov/2021667877

The exhibition catalog for Dynasties is a large coffee table book full of gorgeous pictures and interesting essays, so if you get a chance, it’s well worth a read. I think I’m going to go back and see what else I looked at back in 2016 that didn’t stick.