Description

Inspired  by motifs featured on the Bacton Altar Cloth – the Mistletoe and Snail Embroidery Kit designed by the Studio at the RSN and uses the same techniques and stitches with extra working of Woven Wheels in gold for the berries and the snail in a variation of the Goldwork technique known as Or Nué. The studio  matched fabric and threads as near as possible to the original. The original fabric of the dress was a very special, ribbed cream silk with a silver metallic weft thread.  Choosing quality fabric which is a silk and wool mix that would take multiple strands of stranded cotton being passed through the rib along with the thick end of the metallic thread.

The RSN Embroidery Studio worked with Historic Royal Palaces to help bring the embroidery of this wonderful piece to life and show what the dress might have looked like when it was originally stitched.

About the Bacton Altar Cloth

The richly embroidered altar cloth was found hanging in a glass case in St Faith’s Church, Bacton, having been retired as an altar cloth over a hundred years ago. Bacton was the birthplace of one of Elizabeth I’s most faithful servants, Blanche Parry, who began her 57 year service supervising the royal cradle rockers, and died as her Chief Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber. It is believed that the altar cloth was given to the church by or in memory of Blanche Parry. It is also known that Queen Elizabeth I would give Blanche her clothes and this piece of embroidery has motifs typical to the designs of the late 16th century and has a close resemblance to the bodice that can be seen in ‘The Rainbow’ portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, c.1600.