back to overview
 


Clothing and Textiles


Clothing and Textiles



4,629 photos
White ground jug, attributed to the Brygos painter, around 490 BCE. The finely dressed woman is spinning woollen thread; she holds a distaff in her left hand, and draws out a strand of wooll with her right. The wooll is attached to a hook at the top of the weighted spindle. As the thread lengthens, the spindle sinks to the ground and the woman will have to stop, wind the thread around the spindle and start again. The vase represents an early experiment in the technique of painting in outline on a white ground. GR 1873.8-20.304
#03050310

White ground jug, attributed to the Brygos painter, around 490 BCE. The finely d...

Limestone statue of a female worshipper playing a lyre, Cyprus, 300-280 BCE. She wears a chiton girded jyst below her breast, and a himation draped around her lower body and up ovr her head. This is the typical dress of the Ptolemaic period in Cyprus. GR 1917.7-1.171
#03050312

Limestone statue of a female worshipper playing a lyre, Cyprus, 300-280 BCE. She...

Terracotta ash-urn in the form of a woman lying in bed, Etruscan, 510-490 BCE. The lid shows a deceased young woman lying in bed with her locks carefully arranged over the bedspread. She wears fashionable shoes with upturned toes. The bed has moulded legs and friezes of animals down either side. GR 1879.6-24.1
#03050367

Terracotta ash-urn in the form of a woman lying in bed, Etruscan, 510-490 BCE....

Bronze statuette of Vanth, Etruscan, found near Mount Vesuvius, Italy, 425-400 BCE. Vanth was the servant of Charun (Greek Cheiron), lord of the Underworld. She begins to appear in Etruscan mythology from the late 5th century BC and becomes the most frequent represented of Etruscan death demons or spirits. She attends from the moment of death until the entry into the Underworld. GR 1772.3-2.15
#03050369

Bronze statuette of Vanth, Etruscan, found near Mount Vesuvius, Italy, 425-400 B...

Painted sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, 150-140 BCE, found at Poggio Cantarello, Tuscany,Italy. Her name is inscribed on the chest. She is depicted reclining upon a mattress and pillow, holding an open-lidded mirror in her left hand and raising her right hand to adjust her cloak. She wears a chiton with a high girdle and jewelry comprising a tiara, earrings, necklace, bracelets and finger-rings. The Etruscans practicesd both cremation and inhumation, but inhumation remained the traditional funeral in the south. GR 1887.4-2.1
#03050370

Painted sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, 150-140 BCE, found at Poggio Ca...

"Togatus Barberini", a man in a toga, exhibiting his rank and membership in a patrician family. The toga was introduced by Caesar Augustus, to be worn in the theatre and upon official occasions. The man holds the portraits of his ancestors - the father in the left, the grandfather in the right hand. The head was added during a seventeenth century restoration. I 56
#030504 9

"Togatus Barberini", a man in a toga, exhibiting his rank and membership in a p...

Silver ring brooch, Irish, 9th century. Brooch cast in silver before the addition of gilding and amber; there may once have been panels of gold filigree work in the three empty lozenges. There is no catch plate so in use the brooch works as a pin with a huge disc head. The fine, repetitive interlace and style of the little animals in the central panels suggest a date in the ninth century, a period when Viking activity made silver and Baltic amber more abundant. Empty recesses on the back may have been filled with lead to falsify the weight. The style shows the influence of contemporary continental animal art. The brooch is said to have come from the ancient royal site of Tara, County Meath, in Ireland, and came into the collection of Thomas Bateman, the pioneering Derbyshire archaeologist, in the nineteenth century. M&ME, 1893,6-18,29
#03050441

Silver ring brooch, Irish, 9th century. Brooch cast in silver before the additio...

Thistle brooch, Irish-Viking, first half of the 10th century. The brooch consists of an almost complete hoop passed through the ball-shaped head of a long pin. The terminals of the hoop and the pin head are both hollow-cast balls that have been filed and punched on the front to give them their thistle flower appearance. Large brooches like this were probably worn by men to fasten heavy cloaks of wool or leather, with the dangerous pin pointing upwards over the shoulder. These thistle brooches seem to have originated in Ireland in a smaller solid form in the second half of the ninth century, but their popularity and size soon grew in the Viking Period. The impractical size of this brooch suggests that it was an important display of wealth and prestige. Silver jewellery was often cut up and used for payment by weight. This example was found in a field at Newbiggin Moor, near Penrith, Cumbria, in 1785. M&ME, 1909,6-24,2
#03050442

Thistle brooch, Irish-Viking, first half of the 10th century. The brooch consist...

Shoulder clasps from the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon, early 7th century. Shoulder-clasps made in two halves, hinged and fastened by a strong pin. The decoration on each half is nearly identical - four panels with geometric stepped cell-work within borders of sinuous animal ornament, executed in garnet cloisonné, chequerboard millefiori and opaque blue glass. The four curved ends show two entwined boars made with some of the largest garnets known in Anglo-Saxon England. Their strong shoulders are picked out in large slabs of millefiori, their tusks in blue glass and their spiky crests and curly tails in deliberately small garnets. The boar, a symbol of ferocity, strength and courage, may be a reminder of the king's qualities as a warrior. It is also used as a protective device in early Anglo-Saxon England. The shoulder clasps are based on Roman prototypes that were fashionable several centuries before the rise of the East Anglian Kingdom in the late sixth century. M&ME, 1939,10-10,4;M&ME, 1939,10-10,5
#03050459

Shoulder clasps from the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon, early 7th centu...

Witham triple pin set, Anglo-Saxon, late 8th century. This unusual and richly decorated set of linked dress pins is the only surviving triple set. One is a replacement: two have matching layouts with circular holes and plain bars dividing the panels of ornament, while the third has an openwork cross and a rope pattern round the border. All three are finely worked with delicate panels of interlace framing a variety of beasts and birds in profile. The design of every panel is different. Pin sets and single pins, often elaborately decorated, came into fashion in the middle Saxon period and brooches seem to have become less common. It is not easy to see how these three pins were worn, pairs of linked pins would be simply fixed one each side of an opening. The pins were discovered in the river Witham at Fiskerton, Lincolnshire, in 1826. M&ME, 1858,11-16,4
#03050465

Witham triple pin set, Anglo-Saxon, late 8th century. This unusual and richly de...

The Londesborough Brooch, Irish, 8th-9th century. The Londesborough brooch is unusual in that all its fine decoration is cast and no filigree was used. The brooch is a heavy silver ring cast with complex patterns of interlace, spirals, animal and bird motifs and then thickly gilded on the front. Seven circular amber settings on the hoop compliment the gold. The pin was made from three pieces and the head is decorated in a style to match the hoop, with a large domed boss and amber at its centre. Two L-shaped fields at the top corners once held blue glass. The back of the brooch is also decorated with amber and has as well two inset gilt-bronze discs with Celtic triskeles. M&ME, 1888,7-19,101
#03050466

The Londesborough Brooch, Irish, 8th-9th century. The Londesborough brooch is un...

The Strickland Brooch, Anglo-Saxon, mid-9th century. Plain gold panels enrich a lively pattern of dog-like animals with collars, deeply carved to form an openwork effect. The quatrefoil is divided by animal heads and raised bosses. The arms of the central cruciform (cross-shaped) motif, with another boss at its centre, end with four identical heads at the edge. The Anglo-Saxon love of colour and light is clear from the black niello inlay and blue glass eyes which make the decoration stand out. Small dots punched into some areas give it a sparkling appearance. Gold was scarce and highly prized at the time. This style, called 'Trewhiddle' after a Cornish hoard, is typical of fine Anglo-Saxon metalwork of the ninth century. The brooch, which could also be worn as a pendant, is named after the Strickland family of Yorkshire, and may have belonged to Sir William Strickland, a keen collector of antiquities in the nineteenth century. M&ME, 1949,7-2,1
#03050467

The Strickland Brooch, Anglo-Saxon, mid-9th century. Plain gold panels enrich a...