> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Barthel_Bruyn_3.png > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bartholom%C3%A4us_Bruyn_d._%C3%84._003 > .jpg
> I love the huge wide belts with enormous buckles. I've never noticed them > before...such wide ones [that orange quilted one in the 1st pic is fantastic!] > and worn in this style with the end through the buckle and just hanging. I > never really studied this region before. Is it just a regional thing? It is indeed a very regional style:) I've made a study to try and work out how far the style spread and it seems to be pretty confined. I have looked at the duchies of the area of modern day NorthRhine Westphalia and it really does show an amazing blend of "Dutch" and "German styles". In fact there is an extant buckle in a museum. http://www.wesel.de/wese/eng/fotomuseum.html You'll need to click the arrows a couple of times: "Belt buckle - master from the rhineland or lower rhineland, working in the 16th century, about 1530/1560; only a few copies have been preserved. It was only shown on panels by Bartholom?us Bruyn the elder and his workshop." I did find a reference to a pearled belt in the huge inventary, and they are also worn of this wide buckle variety. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bruyn_c_1542.jpg There was also a kind which was worn with a large roundel at the front held by intricate chain work. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Barthel_Bruyn_-_Salsburg.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bruyn_Young_Woman.jpg I chose this latter style for my recreation of a later portrait: http://costumes.glittersweet.com/sca/k/2cleves.htm I believe the gold belts to be brocaded narrow ware, in most cases, as you often see the same lines used to indicate brocade cloth on these belts: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bartholom%C3%A4us_Bruyn_d._%C3%84._002.jpg The lines go widthways which makes sens if they are woven specifically to that width. Regards, Michaela de Bruce http://glittersweet.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume