Materials and Making

Metal thread embroidery was a feature of seventeenth and eighteenth century costume, representing the most costly form of decoration and used for the most formal clothing. Women's gowns, gloves and shoes were often embroidered with raised or couched silver thread for evening wear where it would have shone and sparkled in candlelight. Now the metal thread has tarnished somewhat, although the designs are usually still clear, as in the similar metal thread stitching used to decorate the gauntlets of the pair of gloves below, dating from about 1600.

This embroidery in looped threads and spangles represents stylised thistles and leaves and has a blue silk satin ground. These mules or backless shoes are the earliest fashionable footwear in the collections, dating from the period of the Restoration of Charles ll around 1660. Typically, they have the squared blunt toe which is said to have come to England as a fashion from France where Charles had been in exile. These remarkably preserved shoes belonged to the Corneley family who lived in Reading.

Full item descriptions:

"shoes & mules" [1952.122]
"gloves" [1952.356]

Related Themes:

Embroidery
Women's Shoes