Sweetmeat purse, English, c1580
Silk satin, silk, gold and silver thread, and silver spangles
The embroidered flowers, animals and insects on this purse echo the fashions worn by English nobility between 1560 and 1610. Men and women alike wore bodices heavily decorated with embroidery in silk, gold and silver thread, as well as spangles, which were then known as ‘Os’. Motifs were taken from popular texts, such as Claude Paradin’s Devises Heroiques (1557) and Thomas Trevelyon’s Miscellany (1608).
Accession Number: SHM.2010.T.2
