Pair of Stockings
1590-1630 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Linen boot hose were essential accessories for protecting men’s fashionable knitted silk stocking from the rough edges inside their leather boots. This pair were cut on the bias (across the grain of the weave) to fit the leg snugly. The seams are edged with a simple, detached chain stitch and each stocking fastens with a braided silk lace and aiglet., threaded through eyelets. The soles of boot hose wore out quickly and would have been regularly replaced, as seen in this example.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | Linen, silk; hand-woven, hand-embroidered, hand-sewn |
| Brief description | Man's stockings or boot hose, 1590-1630, English; linen embroidered with green silk thread |
| Physical description | Pair of man’s stockings or boot hose of bleached woven linen, pieced and cut with a centre-back seam, a clock on the outside and bound opening on the inside of the leg. The seams are edged with half-back and spaced chain stitches along the seams. There are 14 worked eyelets on each side of each leg opening, fastened with a finger-looped lace of dark green silk, knotted inside the stocking at one end, with a metal aiguillette at the other. The stockings have been later re-soled with a lighter, finer linen. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Made in England |
| Summary | Linen boot hose were essential accessories for protecting men’s fashionable knitted silk stocking from the rough edges inside their leather boots. This pair were cut on the bias (across the grain of the weave) to fit the leg snugly. The seams are edged with a simple, detached chain stitch and each stocking fastens with a braided silk lace and aiglet., threaded through eyelets. The soles of boot hose wore out quickly and would have been regularly replaced, as seen in this example. |
| Bibliographic reference | Susan North, ‘Embroidered linen stocking’, in 17th-Century Men’s Dress Patterns, 1600-1630, by Melanie Braun et al. Thames & Hudson and V&A Museum, 2016, pp.170-5. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.126&A-1938 |
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| Record created | March 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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