Coif
1600-1625 (made)
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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.
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. |
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| 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 created | June 23, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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