I saw the sleeve!!!!! *bounce* *bounce* *bounce*
Yesterday we got back from a week in England, which included a weekend in London. Although the VA and the British Museum are currently remodeling their medieval galleries, the Museum of London is *not* (having already done so) and so my consort and I had something to occupy ourselves on Saturday while my husband attended an SCA event and did geeky herald things.
The MoL does not ban photography. And they have many nifty things one can see and take pictures of and fantasize about fondling. Including the 14th c. sleeve fragment. It's in a glass display case along with some textile production tools out where everyone can see. I was inches away from the actual sleeve! I was overcome with emotion, but not so much that I couldn't focus the camera. And I confess that the only reason I did not leave noseprints on the glass is because my eyes can't focus very well that close, but I did steam it up a bit. :-)
My consort does not get to make fun of me because he was having similar geekstasies over the riveted mail hauberk in the next case over.
The sleeve is very small, as if for a child, which leads one to speculate on whether it's shrunk over time or was that small to begin with. They don't have anything useful like measurements or anything in the cases, but at least the actual dimensions and other necessary and/or helpful pieces of information are in _Textiles and Clothing_ if one needs them.
Once the slides have been developed, mine can be scanned and then hopefully more research can take place.
Some other costumey stuff like the effigy of John Seymour (Jane Seymour's father) and the effigies of whomever is buried opposite Bishop Bekynton at Wells Cathedral (15th c, IIRC) and the effigy of some other guy in an Elizabethan ruff in some church somewhere (I have notes, don't worry!).
Still swooning, Jen/Margaret _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
