COSTUME The Property of the Executors of a Deceased Estate
An important skirt or petticoat of crimson silk finely embroidered with scrolling flowers, thistles, pea-pods, birds and butterflies, in coloured silks and gold and silver thread - late 16th century

Details
An important skirt or petticoat of crimson silk finely embroidered with scrolling flowers, thistles, pea-pods, birds and butterflies, in coloured silks and gold and silver thread - late 16th century
See Front Cover

Provenance
Said to have belonged to William Dering, a page at the Court of Charles I
John Thurlow Dering's daughter Anne married William Walter Lee Warner olim Bagge in about 1820. Thence by descent
Literature
Wingfield Digby, George, Elizabethan Embroidery, 1963, p.93
Synge, Lanto, Antique Needlework, 1989, p.163
Arnold, Janet, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, 1988, p.94
Swain, Margaret, The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots, New York, 1973 p.82 - 83 and p. 121, illustrated p. 83
Exhibited
Needlework Exhibition, Stuart Hall, Norwich, 1930, cat. no. 36
Needlework in East Anglia, Norwich Castle Museum, 1961, cat. no. 13
Sale room notice
According to family tradition the skirt was said to have been embroidered by Mary Queen of Scots, possibly the skirt she worked for Queen Elizabeth I. It is said to have belonged to William Dering, a page at the Court of Charles I. John Thurlow Dering's daughter Anne married William Walter Lee Warner, olim Bagge in about 1820 - thence by descent.
Such is the quality of the workmanship that it must be the product of London Broderers. It must have been a Royal Commission executed in the late 16th Century or even the very early 17th Century - as style remained very similar until 1610 or even 1620.
The Family tradition seems very plausible but the reigns may have become confused. It now seems much more likely that it was made for Anne of Denmark, daughter in law of Mary, Queen of Scots - she married King James VI of Scotland on 23 November, 1589 at Upsala and he ascended to the Throne of England in 1603 upon the death of Queen Elizabeth.
Both James I and VI and Anne of Denmark were known to dress extremely lavishly and there are inventories of the fine clothes left in Denmark House, London, on her death in 1619. It could very probably have been claimed as a perkquisit by her son King Charles I's page.
So the traditional link with the family of Mary Queen of Scots remains firm; however the link with her daughter in law Queen Anne, of Denmark, wife of King James VI and I, is stronger still.

Lot Essay

Said to have been the petticoat embroidered by Mary, Queen of Scots for Queen Elizabeth I.
Margaret Swain noted that the Queen of Scots, who was held captive at Hardwick, embroidered a petticoat for Elizabeth, Mary wrote to the French ambassador in London in 1574 for satin and silk: "I must give you the trouble of acting for me in smaller matters, viz. to send me as soon as you can eight ells of crimson satin of the colour of the sample of silk which I send you, the best that can be found in London, but I should like to have it in fifteen days, and one pound of the thinner and double silver thread." Mary completed the gift, as skirt of crimson satin lined with matching taffeta, in May and asked the French ambassador to present it to the Queen on her behalf "as evidence of the honour I bear her, and the desire I have to employ myself in anything agreable to her." At the same time The Earl of Shrewsbury, who held Mary, Queen of Scots, in his custody, wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State, that: "Some in my house are infected with the measles, and it may be dangerous for the Queen to receive anything hence before it has been well aired. God preserve her. She is a precious jewel to all men". The petticoat was no doubt aired throughly, as it was later in May when the French ambassador described its reception in a letter to his King. "The Queen of Scots, your sister-in-law, is very well, and yesterday I presented on her behalf a skirt of crimson satin, worked with silver, very fine and all worked in her own hand, to the Queen of England, to whom the present was very agreeable, for she found it very nice and has prized it much; and she seemed to me that I found her much softened towards her."

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