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Not currently on display at the V&A

Coif

1600-1625 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This coif is a fine example of blackwork, a style of needlework popular in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was worked with a single colour of silk, usually black, as in this coif, but also blue, red or green on linen. This coif is a particularly lavish example as the blackwork has been embellished with embroidery in silver-gilt thread and trimmed with silver-gilt bobbin lace.

Until the end of the 17th century the coif was informal headwear for women. Plain linen versions were worn by the working-class. Middle-class and aristocratic women wore elaborately decorated coifs. It would have been worn by itself indoors, or with a hat on top in public. In Western Europe it was customary for both men and women to cover their heads in public up until the 1960s. A hat was an essential part of respectable dress and, from a health perspective, head coverings were considered necessary to protect against chills and disease.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Linen, black silk thread, silver-gilt thread and spangles; hand-sewn and hand-embroidered
Brief description
A woman's coif of linen, 1600-1624, English; Blackwork, silver gilt thread, spangles and bobbin lace
Physical description
A linen coif embroidered with black silk in speckling stitch and outline stitch, and silver-gilt thread in plaited braid and detached buttonhole stitch, with silver-gilt spangles. The pattern consists of silver-gilt scrolling stems bearing blackwork roses, foxglove, insects and birds. The coif is unlined, with a casing at the bottom. The front is edged with bobbin lace in silver-gilt thread and spangles. The seam at the top appears to have been unpicked and re-sewn at a later date.
Dimensions
  • Approx. length: 23.2cm
  • Approx width: 22.0cm
Style
Gallery label
Woman's coif. English; first quarter 17th century. Linen embroidered with silver-gilt thread and silk in double ladder, detached buttonhole, plaited braid, cable chain, stem, satin, running and speckling stitches with knots and spangles. Trimmed with silver-gilt bobbon lace.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This coif is a fine example of blackwork, a style of needlework popular in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was worked with a single colour of silk, usually black, as in this coif, but also blue, red or green on linen. This coif is a particularly lavish example as the blackwork has been embellished with embroidery in silver-gilt thread and trimmed with silver-gilt bobbin lace.

Until the end of the 17th century the coif was informal headwear for women. Plain linen versions were worn by the working-class. Middle-class and aristocratic women wore elaborately decorated coifs. It would have been worn by itself indoors, or with a hat on top in public. In Western Europe it was customary for both men and women to cover their heads in public up until the 1960s. A hat was an essential part of respectable dress and, from a health perspective, head coverings were considered necessary to protect against chills and disease.
Bibliographic reference
John Lea Nevinson, Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Textiles, London: HMSO, 1938, p.84
Collection
Accession number
252-1899

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Record createdJune 23, 2009
Record URL
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