HNW - blackwork usage in 1500s England and Scotland

[Carol Thomas]

At 10:59 PM 9/25/98 EDT, you wrote:
>OK, list - I need your help.  I am looking to document the usage of blackwork
>in 1500s England and Scotland.  I know the salient points about what it was
>used ON (i.e., clothing, "night" caps, bodices, pillow covers, other
>furnishings, etc.).  My question has more to do with WHO would have used it -
>its usage in a social context.  To be specific, would it have been appropriate
>for an upper middle class woman to have worn, for example, a blackwork
>embroidered cap?  A bodice decorated in blackwork?  Or was blackwork
>decoration on clothing primarily the purview of the rich? 

Mary Gostelow's Blackwork, recently reprinted by Dover, might help.

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