{"id":31,"date":"2024-11-19T22:23:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T22:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greensleevesprojectblog.co.uk\/?p=31"},"modified":"2024-11-20T20:15:05","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T20:15:05","slug":"kerchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensleevesprojectblog.co.uk\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Kerchers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“I bought thee kerchers to thy head,
that were wrought fine and gallantly:
I kept thee both boord and bed,
Which cost my purse wel fauouredly,<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The \u2018kercher,\u2019 a linen head covering worn by women beneath hats and hoods, is rarely seen in portraiture of the 1570s and 1580s, due to it being covered by another layer when worn formally. The above portrait of Joene Goldston is quite unusual in showing a wired kercher without it being covered by a hat or hood. Frustratingly it’s not of particularly good quality compared to other portraits of the time, and the detail is quite unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

However, kerchers (or, as they\u2019re more commonly known these days, coifs) are relatively common survivors in museum collections compared to other 16th and early 17th century clothing. They\u2019re small, so difficult to chop up and turn into other garments, and surviving ones are commonly heavily embroidered. It’s quite likely that they were kept because of the beauty and skill of the work they show. Many of the surviving examples are worked in many colours, or with gold and silver threads, but monochrome ones like the above whiteworked one are also beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Plainer versions of these kerchers were also created and worn at all levels of society, but rarely survive. Instead, we have to look to the pictorial record as well as wills and inventories to find these. Lucas de Heere’s pictures of English women gives an idea of what some of the linen head coverings worn in the 1570s looked like. The phrase “wrought fine and gallantly” suggests that the kercher is embroidered, though it’s difficult to extrapolate from that exactly what sort of embroidery the author of Greensleeves was envisioning. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Greensleeves\u2019s finely wrought kerchers will be made by Sarah Thursfield<\/a>, author of The Medieval Tailor\u2019s Assistant<\/a>. She\u2019ll be using drawn thread work and cut work to decorate floral motifs spotted regularly across the linen, based on a variety of extant kerchers including the one shown earlier. Here are a couple of pictures of her samples, though the final version will use finer linen!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I bought thee kerchers to thy head,that were wrought fine and gallantly:I kept thee both boord and bed,Which cost my purse wel fauouredly,“ The \u2018kercher,\u2019 a linen head covering worn by women beneath hats and hoods, is rarely seen in portraiture of the 1570s and 1580s, due to it being covered by another layer when … Continue reading “Kerchers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[35,30,27,28,32,29,31],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kerchers","tag-blog","tag-coif","tag-embroidery","tag-linen","tag-sample","tag-sarah-thursfield","tag-whitework"],"yoast_head":"\nKerchers - The Greensleeves Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The \u2018kercher,\u2019 a linen head covering worn by women beneath hats and hoods, is rarely seen in portraiture of the 1570s and 1580s, due to it being covered by another layer when worn formally. 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