Look, I made a hat - Tudor pearls

Tudor pearls

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Tudor pearls

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Apr. 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 PM

I'm in love with the pearl treatment on this gable hood:

Supposedly this is a 19th century print of a Holbein drawing. I'm not so well educated on Holbein's work, so I truly don't know if the pearls are black in the original. I'm scouring wardrobe accounts trying to find proof of colored pearls, but I'm not having much luck. I see entries relating to golden pearls, ragged pearls, and even glass pearls, but nothing about black pearls.

So...before my eyes cross any further, does anybody have any evidence that they were available/used? I have the feeling that the proof will be right there in front of my face.

Of course, if anyone has a suggestion as to what else they could be besides black pearls, please say so.

Mood: curious

( 5 comments — Leave a comment )

lindseyerin37 wrote:

Apr. 3rd, 2009 04:21 am (UTC)

I have a book called "Holbein Portrait Drawings" published by Dover and I couldn't find that one in particular, but I did find this...

http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll13/lindseyerin37/?action=view¤t=100_0286.jpg

Sorry for the terrible quality, but my scanner isn't working, so I did it with my camera. Let me know if you want more info!

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trystbat wrote:

Apr. 3rd, 2009 04:39 am (UTC)

IIRC, either Elizabeth I or Mary Queen of Scots owned black pearls, but that was jewelry, not necessarily jeweled fabric. Can't find the reference for it right now (yo, Sarah, is it in QEWU? if not, then it's a MQoS thing & I'll hunt for it :-). That's not quite as far back as Holbein, but closer than nothin'.

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sarahbellem wrote:

Apr. 3rd, 2009 09:05 pm (UTC)

Both owned a strand of black pearls... First it was Mary QOS, but Elizabeth acquired them after she took Mary ~~prisoner~~ in exile. I'm blanking on the portrait that shows QEI wearing them... Possibly one of the sieve portraits? Anyway, it was a long strand of approx. 10mm black pearls.

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seekatesew wrote:

Apr. 3rd, 2009 05:35 am (UTC)

Are they white pearls, just shaded to stand out?

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myladyswardrobe wrote:

Apr. 3rd, 2009 09:38 am (UTC)

Grey Pearls were seen and were available but they were, even then, deemed t be remarkable and rare. As

trystbat says, Mary, Queen of Scots had a rope of grey/black pearls and I think Elizabeth bought them when Mary lost her throne.

However, in the case of this image, I would say that the pearls would be small normal pearl colour. The 19th century retouching will have changed them a little bit from what Holbein originally drew.

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( 5 comments — Leave a comment )

December 2009