coat

Summary

brown silk/wool mixture cloth, lined with blue and brown shot silk. High round neck bound with silk braid; 30 buttons and button holes down front opening, the bottom 8 button holes uncut; elbow length sleeves in 2 sections, widening to come below elbow on outer arm; turn-back cuff falling below sleeve with irregular pleating parallel with arm, edged with braid and trimmed with 6 buttons on the upper edge; skirt in 4 flared sections, open from waist at sides, caught at base; top of opening trimmed with 3 buttons and false button holes; opening at back, trimmed with 15 buttons and false button holes; pocket on each side of skirt front, vertical slit beneath pocket flap with central box pleat, buttoned down each side with 7 buttons and with 3 buttons along the bottom on each side of pleat; inner belt of fawn silk figured in red, black and brown sewn in side seams and fastening in front with 3 silver thread buttons and trimmed with silver fringe. Associated with Chetham's Library in Manchester. Possibly belonging to the Headmaster at the time.

Display Label

Clothes from the seventeenth century are now extremely rare survivals, especially whole garments like man's doublets and shirts, or women's bodices or stays. The Gallery has a comprehensive selection of such pieces, as well as accessories like gloves, fans, purses and shoes, many of which belonged to a single family, the Filmers of Kent. Clothing of this date is often made much more interesting by the sophisticated and imaginative embroidery which decorates it, as in all the examples shown. The main image shows a woman's informal, but highly fashionable, jacket entirely covered in coloured silk embroidery showing symmetrical scrolling foliage holding polychrome bunches of grapes. Even the linen shirt in the last image, dating from the 1630s and the earliest man's shirt in the collections, has fine whitework embroidery at the neck as well as a scalloped needle lace falling collar.