A few months ago I highlighted the news about the Bacton Altar Cloth, which is believed to have been cut from a gown once worn by Queen Elizabeth I - click here to view my talk on this. Well, it's been back in the news because experts have concluded that "all the evidence points to it having once been a skirt worn by the Tudor queen, making it the only known survivor of her famously lavish wardrobe". It is thought that it could be the skirt that matches the bodice worn by Elizabeth I in the Rainbow Portrait.
The cloth is to undergo restoration work and then it will be displayed at Hampton Court Palace.
You can read more in the news article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/07/queen-elizabeth-long-lost-skirt-found-church-altar-herefordshire/.
Thank you to Jane Moulder for sharing this news article with me.
Wow!!!!!
The only thing I find annoying about this news report is that it calls Hampton Court Palace the cloth’s “rightful home” when isn’t that the church at Bacton seeing as it was given to Bacton, probably by Blanche Parry, and has been there for hundreds of years? I can see why HCP would want it and I can understand that more people will see it there, but part of me thinks that it’s a shame.
What an amazing discovery!! The rainbow portrait is my favorite of Eluzabeth I.
This is very interesting and at the same time a shame that more of Elizabeth I’s exquisite wardrobe didn’t survive. I guess that there is always the chance that great-grandmother’s dining room chairs could be upholstered in fabric that belonged in a royal wardrobe once upon a time.