Quarries

1646: "This panel comprises nine quarries (small diamond-shaped panels) of green tinted glass, each diamond engraved with an inscription. (See Further Information.) They are purported to have been written by Charles I (1600-1649) to his wife Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) on the window of his prison at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, where he was detained in 1646. There is, however, no evidence to support this supposed provenance. The glass is hand blown and extremely thin, qualities compatible with a 17th-century date." Link

Shagreen

1680: "This small book with its matching gold stylus would have fitted into a pocket. It might have been used as a diary or a notebook. The cover is of black shagreen, a type of leather made from shark or fish skin, and decorated with round-headed gold studs. The inside cover is lined with a thick paper painted with leaves in gold on a purple ground. When the book is closed, four bands of engraved gold form a tube into which the stylus fits. The book would originally have held paper, which would have been coated so that the metal stylus would leave a track like that of a pencil on paper." Link

Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis)

1977: "This photograph is a print made in 1995 from the original transparency. This was used as an illustration in Roger Phillips's book, The Wild Flowers of Britain, which was published in London by Pan Books in 1977. Phillips pioneered the use of photography for field guides to plants. His own curiosity about plants inspired him to produce the book. He was frustrated with the standard flora or field guide that catalogues plants by family and assumes that the user has some specialist botanical knowledge.

As a photographer, Phillips set out ‘to make a book in which the visual is paramount’. He organised the contents in a way that was logical and accessible to those without any special knowledge of botany. In fact, he reverts to much earlier models such as the florilegia (decorative flower books) of the 17th century, and arranges the plants by their season of flowering." Link

Jacket

1600 - 1625: Ivory silk and linen with a silver stripe. This is a rare example of an informal woman's jacket from the early 17th century. It would have been worn over a petticoat and stays, with a linen or lace collar and cuffs and a decorative coif. Length 66 cm
Width 134.6 cm (including sleeves). Link

Life Before Television

Turn off your flat screen television and get lost in 17th, 18th and 19th century optical entertainment. Link

Sash

17th century: Mughal period (1526–1858) Islamic; Attributed to India. Silk and cotton; L. 125 in. (317.5 cm) W. 27.00 in. (68.6 cm)
One of the key elements of dress at the Mughal court was the patka, a sash or girdle tied around the waist with the ends hanging loose in front. The sash's end panels were usually decorated, since they were visible. Less elaborate decoration or even plain ground was used for the broad expanse of fabric in between, the area customarily gathered and hence concealed. To the sash were attached various accessories such as daggers and thumb rings.

Here, the decoration, applied mostly in a chain stitch, is confined to a narrow border of blossoms and reciprocal vines that outlines the piece and to the end panels, where eight delicate identical flowers gently twist and sway. Both the use of flowers in profile and the colors (red, white, yellow, and mint green) hark back to the style made popular under Shah Jahan. Link

Battle Illustrated

"1613: Iroquois fort and battle. 1 plate, folded." Link

Embroidery

" 1600-1630: Linen, embroidered with silks, bordered with bobbin lace worked in silver and silver-gilt thread. Handkerchiefs made of plain linen served the same function they do today, but if they were decorated they could also be carried purely as fashionable accessories and given as gifts. Amongst the textiles listed in the inventory taken on Henry VIII's death in 1547 were 15 dozen 'handkerchers garnished with golde and siluer and gold [sic] of all sortes'." Link

Grotesques

" 1755: This print is an etching, made by using acid to burn lines into a metal plate that are then filled with ink. The plate is then pressed onto paper, which transfers the image.

Ever since the various East India Companies had begun to introduce porcelain and other exotic oriental goods to Europe in the 17th century, East Asia had fascinated Europeans.This print is the title-page to A New Book of Chinese Ornaments (1755), the first pattern book of Chinoiserie designs by the French painter and designer Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808). This print demonstrates how Pillement adapted traditional French Rococo ornament to his own idea of Chinese patterns suited to British taste. The curving foliage ladder is a typically French Rococo shape and recalls so-called Grotesques (decorative patterns full of sinuous lines, cloudy foliage, monkeys, sphinxes and other fancies) by the French master Jean Bérain (1639-1711). The wispy pavilion seemingly suspended in space, the monkey and cup of tea balanced on a branch, a Chinese man teetering on a C-shaped scroll, these are all characteristic of Pillement's work and suggest a fantastic, airy world, one that the artist delighted in portraying." Link

Lace

" 1600-1650: Lace-making developed in England during the 16th century in response to the growth in personal wealth and to changes in fashionable dress. Needle lace, still then seen as a branch of embroidery, was made in professional workshops in London. But through the teaching of embroidery as a domestic skill with needle lace stitches in the repertoire, lace was also made at home, for the decoration of household linen, clothing and other objects. This piece appears to have been made without a practical purpose, but as a demonstration of the embroiderer's skill." Link and Link