Research Skills

[femkes_follies]

I really do appreciate all the nudges and leg-ups I've been given as I try to expand my research skills. And I'm glad other people are finding some of the info useful/enjoyable. The plan is for a web page coming this fall/winter.

Toward that end, I wonder what advice you all may have in regards to finding period wills that might list clothing items or other fun stuff.

Parte the First - If you know the inventory number of the manuscript, how do you locate it? And what are the chances that, having located it, you might be able to obtain a copy? Most importantly, at a decent rate. The Bodleian has an Album AMicorum that looks interesting, but I'm not up for shelling out $60-70 if I don't know if it will be useful

Parte the Second - How do you systematically search for extant documents, like wills, that may not be obviously costume-related? And while I'm at it, other than the Alcega, Enns, and Milan books, are there other extant tailor's books anyone knows of? Has anybody spent any time at all looking into the Polish one in L.A.?


One other tidbit that's been knocking around in my brain. I noticed, when comparing, that the "Cheese Museum" ladies are all in dark colors, though none in blue. The ladies in Bruyn's Trachtenbuch are VERY often in blue. And a bit of yellow/ochre is not uncommon. Is this just a factor of those colors preferred by the artist? Or are we seeing a difference in dress? The Cheese Ladies appear to be middle class, in what Dad would call "Sunday-go-ta-meetin'" dresses. And dark aprons. The trachtenbuch ladies are sort of all over the map classwise. And there aren't enough Dutch ladies to REALLY get a feel. Is it just a Nord-Holland thing that eschews blue? Or is it a more work-a-day color, perhaps due to the cost of the dye. Which doesn't QUITE add up, as some of the Flemish ladies are in red in the trachtenbuch. And one of the Cheese Ladies was in Dark green, I think. Which is most likely to be weld over indigo or woad.

?!?!?!?

I'm chasing my tail here, if anybody has any thoughts, I'd be interested.

EDIT: I did find THIS one, which is interesting. I wonder how "German" the German cloak is.

http://www.vertetsable.com/research_freyle.htm

Comments

Blue

[gwacie.livejournal.com]

The lack of blue could also be related to the cost of the paint; if these paintings weren't made for a wealthy benefactor it's likely the artist would have been interested in saving money by avoiding more expensive pigments. Remember that pretty Lapis blue cost more than the same weight of gold!

Just a thought. They did look like they had a fairly limited color pallet in the paintings, it might also have been an artistic choice to keep them all in the same or similar colors.

Re: Blue

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

That did occur to me. Though Lapis was hardly the only blue pigment available. Indigo works fairly well, as do some of the copper clues. So I'm not sure. Cennini has a number of recipes, as does the Dutch Boke of Secrets.

I'd almost be more inclined to think it was deliberate on the part of the artist. I wonder who he painted them for. It seems like an odd undertaking unless it WAS a commission. But who can tell at this point?

Or maybe more likely that the dresses in that province were infrequently blue. If you look at later Dutch provincial costumes, it's not a color that comes up much. Black, red, yellow, and green are much more frequent.

Re: Blue

[pinkdiamond.livejournal.com]

But those cheaper blues changed colour over time:) That's why we have a number of greenish brown backgrounds;) The blue in inks was much more light fast. I think it is mostly down to materials. I find a lot of blue in textiles for example.


As for how to find, I've been doing a really wide net search for phrases that might pop up in wills and inventories. item/iten/ytem and then the object. It's turned up a few gems and a few "bugger can't they just let us look at the whole page at least" snippets in google books.

I have found a few other gems in google books by looking for buckram. I found one of the Marys' wardrobe accounts from when she was a princess (Henry's sister/daughter/neice can't recall which.) Also a list of materials used for festivals. I think I tried a couple of variations on the term.

Because I live just so far away from Europe and am surrounded by sea for that matter I've pretty much not bothered about ILL from Europe. I can try with my library but also being a local rather than University library it's less likely to happen too.

Re: Blue

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling a bit disgruntled that my Alma Mater doesn't offer any additional privileges for Alumni. You'd think after what 8 years of education cost me, I'd be worth something to them. *sigh*

I probably need to shake down my Aunt Janice for help. She's been doing geneaological research for years and has somebody overseas that hunts down and translate documents for her. Unfortunately, she and Dad are kind of butting heads right now. So I think I'll wait a bit, as I REALLY don't want to get involved in this particular sibling spat. Once I get her full and undivided attention, I might see if I can get her little helper to go seek out copies of stuff _I_ want and send them on.