The King's Servants: men's dress at the accession of Henry VIII - REVISED 2ND EDITION
The King's Servants: men's dress at the accession of Henry VIII - REVISED 2ND EDITION
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Written by Caroline Johnson; edited by Jane Malcolm-Davies and Ninya Mikhaila
• 52 full-colour pages
• Patterns for shirts (basic and Holbein), Early Tudor man's doublet, hose, coat, jacket and bonnets (great and small) with variations and comprehensive step-by-step making instructions
• Over 20 historical illustrations
• Detailed line drawings and illustrations by Michael Perry
• Photographs showing finished reconstructed garments worn by real people
• Paperback
• 8in x 10in (20.5cm x 25.5cm)
The King's Servants offers detailed insight into middle-class men’s clothing at the beginning of the 16th century. It provides a vivid picture of Henry VIII’s early court using evidence from royal warrants and account books in The National Archive.
Printing a Second Edition has allowed us to correct mistakes and to make improvements in response to comments by readers.
Transcriptions and translations of more than 200 hand-written pages of the original 16th century Latin and English documents reveal a wealth of fascinating facts about garments for servants at the Tudor court. The typical clothes worn by middling men during the decades between the battles of Bosworth (1485) and Flodden (1513) are described and reconstructed in this beautifully illustrated book.
Previously unpublished documents, including bundles of orders for clothes and parchment books recording payments to such people as mercers, drapers, tailors, cordwainers and silkwomen, are carefully analysed to provide details of the usual allocation of dress to different ranks of servants at the royal court. The book focuses on the middle-ranking men who were clerks, messengers and huntsmen.
Trends in men’s fashion at the turn of the 16th century emerge as the documents investigated demonstrate Henry VII’s expenditure as well as his son’s. A noteworthy inclusion is an early livery issued to Henry VII’s newly-founded Yeomen of the Guard, who were resplendent in green and white damask coats embellished with lavish gold embroidery.
The book features patterns for a man’s complete costume, including shirt, doublet, hose, coat, jacket and bonnets with variations.
This book is also available at a discount in combination offer with its counterpart, The Queen's Servants.
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This is a super book - beautifully illustrated and inspirational. I bought it to complete my small collection of Tudor costume books but, as primarily a maker of women’s costume, didn’t anticipate the huge wave of enthusiasm I felt when poring over its pages. I will definitely be creating more stuff for the chaps in my life!
The book arrived even faster than I expected.
Slight water damage- not the fault of the seller but the delivery service. Excellent and informative, & an incredible amount of useful material. Highly recommend! I would disagree with their reconstruction of jacket and coat skirts- I think they were cut on the round rather than rectangular, but otherwise their reconstructions hold up well.
Bought as a gift for a friend, great book arrived in good time.
Excellent book, informative and with interesting patterns.