I tried to send this yesterday but was having problems with our new email server ... and exactly what my email address is!
Subject: Re: [lace] Re: Brilliana Lady Harley > *Yellow* "starched ruffs and bands"? *Yellow* ruff (on Mrs Turner)? > Yellow??? What "gives" here, does anyone know? Does Planche mean > "gilt" (metallic), or yellowed linen? And, if linen, how come it was > allowed to get yellow? This is the first time I've *ever* heard of > yellow lace and here he seems to be suggesting it was commonplace... Funnily enough I was listening (again) to Lisa Picard's Elizabethan London on my way into work on this very soggy grey morning. I'd got to the section "Dress". She describes in some detail the construction of a ruff, and says they could be yellow, pink, mauve, blue - the colour was added through vegetable dyes at the starching. She doesn't say what produced the yellow, but I think lichen dyes yellow. Picard comments that these tints are not shown in many portraits of the period because of the zeal of the 19th century restorers who *knew* that ruffs were white and cleaned the painted neckwear until it was! However Queen Elizabeth took against blue in 1595 and "in a magnificent exercise of the royal prerogative told the Lord Mayor to tell the Aldermen to tell the parish beadles to tell the occupants of every house in their parish that 'Her Majesty's pleasure is that no blue starch shall be used or worn by any of her majesty's subjects', so the said loyal subjects had better hastily get some cochineal and dye the offender mauve. (!)". Picard's 4 books on historical London. Elizabethan, Restoration, Georgian (Dr Johnson) and Victorian are well worth a read and listen. Lots of little details, and a dry wit. If you do search inside at amazon on her book for ruffs you can read the section. Louise In a well-soaked but Sunny Cambridge - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
