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Thursday 15 August 2013

Sir Christopher Hatton's Blackwork Collars


It was by chance that I can across a rather splendid image of Sir Christopher Hatton during some researches. Sir Christopher Hatton (1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. I simply had to remark on his wonderful black work collar embroidered with delicately coiling flowers within a bold saw-tooth border - the whole collar edged with very fine lace. And at that point, I broke off what I was doing to go in search of other images of Sir Christopher to see if he might have any other collars of note.
And I next came across this very beautiful example set with floral sprigs as if an illustration for some herbal or nurseryman's book.
And in this case, it wasn't simply collar - but also cuffs to match.

I subsequently found two more images, though the resolution is quite poor, it did prove that Sir Christopher had something of a penchant for blackwork embroidered collars. The collar above resembles the one previously shown, though is different. And the one below, by comparison, exhibits more formal and geometric designs. Perhaps you know of other images?

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