Cloak

Crimson silk velvet short round cloak, the silk made in Italy, France, Spain or England. The circular cloak is arranged with the lengths of velvet joined at the centre back, and open at the centre front with selvages folded under. Small semi-circular pieces are added on both sides to give the circular shape. The velvet is arranged with the pile running up and down alternately (down on the right front and up on the left front), although there is very little nap to be seen. The embroidery is worked onto the velvet without a linen backing. The velvet is 21 1/2" wide with bright green selvedges, ca. 1/2" wide. The original lining of light crimson silk taffeta has been cut away but a fragment remains beneath the short fringed braid and is hidden by a later lining dating from the early C17, probably stitched in in the C19 for a painter's studio. A tuck has been taken in the left front only, beneath the embroidered guard, probably to hide a slit in the velvet. Present lining is a red and gold patterned silk, characteristic of early C17. The collar is a straight strip with a small piece cut out to shape it. It has been cut about at some time and pieces of velvet fitted in; bordered with fringed braid of ca. 1/2" with same red silk and gold thread of strip wrapped round a beige silk core.

Embroidered with silver-gilt and silver thread, purl (of two different widths, both tightly and loosely coiled) and cord in laid and couched work partially padded; a little blue (in 2 shades), green and yellow silk are used to shade the gold work, most notably the green silk interlaid with the silver purl of each outer pair of feathers. The effect of the embroidery is enhanced by the contrasting textures of the metal thread and the combination, for example, of silver thread loosely looped around the laid lines of silver gilt thread. The edges are trimmed with a narrow (1cm) braid of red silk and silver gilt thread, woven with a tufted outer edge. The front edges and hem are decorated with a broad border (11 cm wide), outlined by parallel lines (1.2 cm apart) of silver-gilt cord enclosing two looped lines of silver purl lying back to back and held by tiny ties of silver between the loops. The main area of the border is filled by a bold pattern of C-shaped foliate branches in interlocking pairs. Between each alternate pair is an uprighty spray of three feathers of exotic leaves. Thw two outer feathers curve over the edges of the adjacent branches and the leaves are tied to them with narrow ribbons. At the bottom of each front border is a large M beneath a coronet. The centre of the cloak is divided into eight segments by seven bands ( 5 cm wide) decorated with a scaled down version of the border pattern, outlined with a single line of silver-gilt cord and a single line of looped silver purl. In the centre-back band the feather and leaf motifs are replaced by thin S-shapes tied with thin ribbon loops. As similar knot of thin ribbon decorates the centre back of the band round the neck edge, which otherwise matches the other bands. The embroidery on the altered collar matches that of the border. The cloak was originally lined with plain red silk taffet, but this has been replaced with a red and gold small patterned silk of the first quarter of the C17.