It is a long time since we have had an item from one of our visiting students. Over the last couple of years, placements of students has, for obvious reasons, been limited, but we are now getting back to normal with this important part of museum life. Katy England currently has a University of Brighton student working with her (more later) and Bridget Telfer has passed us this from Helen:
Hi, my name is Helen, and I am currently studying Costume and Performance Design at Arts University Bournemouth. I have been completing my placement at Salisbury Museum over the course of the last few months, working within the costume collections. Throughout my placement I have been compiling a list of historic garments and accessories, which would be appropriate to display as part of the new redevelopment at the museum.
Working within Salisbury Museum has not only given me a better insight to the local history of the area but has allowed me to explore, in much more detail, what people used to wear and why, over the centuries. I have particularly enjoyed the freedom to explore various collections and trying to understand the materials and construction techniques used, something I find very valuable as a costume maker!
Overall, my time at the museum has been incredibly interesting, and I look forward to seeing all the collections a come together within the new redevelopment in the next few years!
One of the items chosen for the new galleries is this fabulous pair of gloves. They have been on our Look Again Instagram account page for sometime and the information below has already been gleaned by the Look Again team:
These gorgeous gloves are from around 1660 and are actually lined with book pages You never know what secrets clothes and accessories are hiding! I love the older items in the collection like this as I find it so incredible that they’ve managed to survive so long, especially when they’re made from fragile materials.
Gloves in general are super interesting pieces. Traditionally they were given as New Years gifts and often had hidden meanings or said something about the owner’s status. During the 17th century in France and England gloves were often scented and considered quite a romantic gift. I certainly wouldn’t say no to a pair like these!
Why does someone line their gloves with book pages? To help them keep their shape? I want to know more about those pages! These are made of doe skin* – comparatively soft – and support might be needed. But a lining might suggest a need to make them fit someone better, or even to keep their hands warm.
The embroidery and fringe are exquisite and include silver thread. Or threads of silver? It is likely that the type of flowers are significant. As the entry above says, hidden meanings! But at the moment the flowers remain unidentified.
Notice that the right hand glove is a little dirty and shows the folds which the fingers made when the gloves were worn. The fact that this glove is slightly soiled while the other is not suggests a right-handed owner. It is doubtful they were worn regularly. Gloves of this quality were worn sometimes just for ceremony.
The way to handle glass negatives was written up long before modern scanners and computers existed. These ancient rules should be read and then ignored! Even the liquids recommended for “cleaning” the glass negatives are now banned. However de-ionised or distilled water is excellent for cleaning, if required.
Over the past ten years I have had the privilege of scanning all the museum’s glass plate negatives and glass lantern slides. This amounts to over 5,388. They have varied in size from several inches square to larger than A4 size. Some had been kept in strong wooden or metal boxes. Others had been exposed to years of dust. Some had writing on them. Some had small labels on them with writing that was often well faded. Most were simple negatives but some were positives to be looked at via reflected light. A few were colour – experiments carried out by very keen photographers who were well versed in physics and chemistry.
I have carried out many experiments to investigate how to obtain the best jpeg images from these glass plates. The first rule is scan straight away and see what you get. You can always scan again after cleaning, if required. Amazingly, even ancient wrapping-paper well stuck to the glass plate, often causes no appreciable degradation. It all depends upon the scanner, what wavelengths it uses and the capabilities of the scanning software. I have read how other museums cope, and accidental breakages, whilst cleaning etc, before their scanning, do happen. Hence another reason to scan straight away before attempting any cleaning or close examination of the glass plate.
The real task when dealing with glass negatives is ‘what is the image of?’ Unlike prints, there is no back to write on! Is there any text in the image that can be read? Is the image one of a set where information can be pooled from all the images.
I have no information to go with the attached image here but for someone studying social history, this image is full of information.
The ladies all have hats. To the costume expert, their dress styles should give a strong clue as to the date. I’m not a costume expert but I suspect around 1910. Many of the gentlemen have elaborate moustaches.
To the far left there is a peak-capped bandsman with a collection of music stands. In the background there are crowds of people and bunting. There are some detached houses in the background to this area of grass similar to Hudson’s field.
Bandsman in background?
The lady seated with her sun umbrella, and the gentleman next to her, I would say are the reason for the photograph. This gentleman is wearing a winged collar as is his friend to his left and the gentleman far right in the back row. At least seven gentlemen have straw boaters in their hands. Two gentlemen have trilby hats. Was it compulsory that ladies wore their hats and gentlemen held theirs for photos?
Quite a few of the gentlemen have a small badge or medal pinned to their left lapels. The gentleman on the far right has his pipe in his right hand. The gentleman seated and to his right has a card in his hand. Would this be a programme? The young boy on the ground in front of the important couple, is the only young person in the group photograph. I conclude that he is related to the important couple.
The faces are clear enough that someone might recognise them as their ancient relative. Maybe in years to come, Google, with its facial recognition software, will be able to name them via DNA facial features.
If anyone can add to the above, please email the museum. Maybe someone has a framed print of this image on their mantlepiece, with writing on the back!
The costume ladies have come across an interesting little gem…
We all know that in the 1800s, portly gentlemen would reach into their waistcoat pocket for their watch, gaze at it short-sightedly and return it there, safe on its gold or silver chain.
But what did women do?
They had a watch pocket like this, attached to a belt..
This example dates from the early 1800s. Rather charmingly, someone has embroidered it with a representation of a herb. We think it is thyme….
Costume Project Volunteers are invited to come along for a project catch-up and tea, coffee and cake on:
Wednesday 20 November from 2pm til 3.30pm.
Katy England would like to discuss the exciting next steps with the ‘Look Again; Discovering Centuries of Change’ project. There will also be an opportunity to discuss other costume cataloguing issues.
Please can you let Bridget know if you are able to attend.
One of our ‘costume ladies’, museum Volunteer and member of the Arts Society, Sarah Brumfitt, models a very unusual Georgina Von Etzdorf stole from our collection.
Georgina von Etzdorf is a British textile designer whose fashion label is renowned for its luxurious velvet scarves and clothing accessories, worn by royalty and celebrities . Much of her work has emanated from, as she describes it, a barn near Salisbury. We now have some of it here at the museum.
The stole is called ‘Hands’. Look again and see why! It is from a collection called ‘The Sun’s Anvil’ and was designed in 1998 for the Spring Collection that year. The pattern was laser cut on a gold a silver fabric.
Her fabrics have been mainly made into jackets, gowns scarves and ties; also into gloves, belts hats and sleep wear.
It is the task of the costume volunteers to check all the items in our costume collection (for bugs and other similar issues), to re-catalogue prior to recording on our computer system, and to repack to approved museum standards.
As you will be aware, perhaps if you follow our blog, many stunning items are ‘unearthed’, not least, last week, a damask tablecloth.
The museum has, from time to time, taken in what might be called ‘related items’ to the costume collection, including buttons, fans, swatches of cloth, handkerchiefs, bedspreads, and, in this case a tablecloth.
As part of the weave of this cloth there were complicated and detailed street scenes and references to a celebration associated with George II. It has been provisionally identified as Dutch (because of the appearance of the name of our capital city, spelled ‘Londen’).
George II , born in what is now Germany, came to the throne in 1729 at the age of 44 and remained until his death in 1760. The tablecloth may well be a souvenir of the coronation.
It was, as you might imagine, extremely difficult to photograph effectively but these views may offer an idea of the exceptional weaving:
From Britannica on-line: Crusaders who had passed through Damascus introduced the fabric to Europe in the 11th century, and the weaving of linen damask became established in flax-growing countries—in France, for example, by the mid-13th century. The Flemish city of Courtrai was noted for its table linen in the 15th century, as was Haarlem, Netherlands, in the 17th and 18th centuries. William III established damask weaving in Ireland in the late 17th century.
Antique damask was 18 to 25 inches (45 to 63 cm) wide, the distance a shuttle carrying the weft threads could be thrown by hand from selvage to selvage through the raised warps. Widths of 50 inches (127 cm) and more could be produced by mechanizedweaving,which was introduced about 1835.
My name is Maddie Rodbert, and I have taken part in a placement week at the museum as part of my degree in Archaeology and Anthropology. As I could have been digging somewhere in the back-end of rainy Wales for a fortnight, this was hugely preferable. Although I am enjoying my course, I would much rather someone else hand me things that have already been dug up to look at; this means that the time I have spent at the museum has been hugely interesting as that is exactly what I have been able to do.
During my time at the museum I have been helping out a lot with the volunteers who go through every room, cupboard and shelf to properly label and record all the donated items, whether it be clothing, tools or bones. What is out on display is such a minor selection of what is in the museum as most of it is archived away on towering shelves in the areas off limits to the public.
I have been fortunate enough to spend the week in the labyrinthine corridors behind the rooms in which the public spend their time. It may seem strange that such a large building does not have more rooms for people to explore but in actual fact they are all full to the brim with… things. If I were to romanticise it for a child I could tell them “there is buried treasure behind the exhibits, things from Greek myth and Arthurian legend”. However most of it really is not the sort of exciting treasure one would expect to see at first glance. During the week we have been acquainted with everything from 150,000 year old hand axes to Celtic torcs, medieval flag poles to questionable thirties hats (the hat was a highlight – it really was quite awful). However, it was an amazing opportunity to work with the various volunteers who work on the many areas of research. It takes a huge amount of work to run a museum and when there is so much donated to them, it takes years to make sure everything is recorded and stored appropriately. The first thing we are taught on this at university is that the only difference between grave robbing and archaeology is the process of recording the finds, as the removal of the items is essentially robbing them of their historical context. Without the information written down, that moment in history is lost forever and this really cemented in me the importance of the work the museum does.
The Festival of Archaeology weekend was a time for all the work to be shown off to the public. I got my first insight into the immense fun of having a press pass as I made my way around photographing and documenting the festival. Covering multiple areas of history, prehistoric all the way up to the First World War, there was a lot that brought history to life for both adults and children. What most people learnt from the day seemed to be that archaeology is really quite vague; we can never truly know exactly what happened all those years ago but the fun of it is the interpretation. No matter how fantastic the condition of the items are, the stories we tell in the modern day are clearly as important as the ones we attempt to discover.
One of a nationally important collection of agricultural smocks in our costume store
Great news – we have been successful in our application for a Costume Society Museum Placement Award which means that university student placement Sue Martin will be working on the Look Again project part time over the summer, working closely with the Arts Society volunteers.
The Salisbury Museum holds a nationally significant collection of costume and textiles which contains around 5,000 items. For the last two years, a group of 14 Arts Society volunteers (in four groups) have been working through the items in storage to re-catalogue the collection.
In December 2017, the museum was awarded a grant from the Museums Association Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund for a project, headed up by our own Katy England: Look Again: Discovering Centuries of Fashion, which aims to work with the local community, particularly young people (11-18) to reinterpret and redisplay the costume collection so it appeals to a wider audience.
The Arts Society volunteers are rediscovering many forgotten gems in the collection and will be sharing these with the young people as part of the Look Again project.
Sue will work with each group of Arts Society Volunteers to select and research items to be proposed to the young people working on Look Again.
This project will allow a greater selection of items from the collection to be offered for display in the new galleries. The current Art Society volunteers will be supported to research the items which will result in the artefacts themselves being presented to the young people in a more coordinated and understandable way. The items selected will be shown to the local community through the Look Again project, for example through social media channels.
Sue’s lifelong interest in textiles means she has been involved in the creation of woven, knitted and printed fabrics, but never worked with historical garments. She is particularly interested in the use of traditional fabrics and construction in historical dresses and accessories, but also interested in how costume collections can reach a wider audience.
Hello my name is Ella Louden. I am 17 years old, I have just finished my first year of A-levels, studying Art, Biology and Maths at Godolphin school. I am thinking about going to university and I am considering art courses. I am particularly interested in textiles and fashion.
I decided to do work experience at Salisbury Museum, shortly after visiting the museum with the school and a few of us come down to look at the costume collection. The aim was to start off our new art project which I am currently doing. It is a personal investigation on “Flowers in Art”. For my project I wanted to get the chance to have a closer look at some of the costumes they have here hidden in the boxes and also learn about the history. This experience has given me the chance to use what I have learnt and the photos I have taken to develop my project. Not only will the costumes I have seen inspire my art but also the ceramics and any other items that contained floral prints and patterns. Working at the museum has also given me the experience of learning how to catalogue, and to work alongside a lot of different people.
What I particularly enjoyed was the ‘spotlight tour’ on Monday. This was a good start to the week as I could get a feel for the museum and what it had it to offer. I don’t know the museum very well and it was handy learn more about it before working with the volunteers. Of course I also really enjoyed the costume cataloguing and although on the Wednesday some curtains weren’t particularly exciting, I realised you had no clue what was going to be inside some of the boxes. It was quite intriguing. I was able to see some of the beautiful lace and patterns in the fascinating clothes they used to wear and what the fashions were like in those days. On my last day I really enjoyed cataloguing the Rex Whistler Archive. It was incredible to see he was so talented at drawing and painting even at such a young age. I got to see some of his beautiful costume designs that he had done for ballets. It was fascinating to see these designs – a bit different to his paintings shown in the museum.
Overall my week was very good and it’s been pleasure to meet all the lovely staff and volunteers who work at the museum. It is astonishing to know how little of the fascinating collection of artefacts the museum have on display and how so much effect is needed to go through the collections and catalogue it all.