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Greet Verschatse and author in the Trezoor in Kortrijk, Belgium, discussing the chasuble in the foreground, attributed to Thomas Becket. Photograph by Willem Vogelsang.Willem and I have just come back from a visit to Kortrijk (Courtrai) in southwestern Belgium, a town with a long and fascinating medieval and later history. More specifically, we were there to see a late 12th century chasuble that is directly associated with the cult of Saint Thomas Becket, the British archbishop murdered in Canterbury on 29 December 1179 on the implied orders of King Henry II of England (reign: 1154-1189), which led to the famous Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Last year we went to see another collection of Thomas Becket garments, namely in Sens in France. As a result of our examination of the Sens pieces, we were kindly invited by Greet Verschatse of the local Museum Texture to come and see the chasuble in Kortrijk. Their Becket chasuble is actually stored at Trezoor, a large municipal storage depot and study centre for cultural heritage, on the outskirts of the city.

Greet Verschatse is a Becket ‘fanatic’ who has been investigating for many years Becket textiles and related items that spread all around Europe as part of a huge, medieval cult of the saint. All of this resulted in an exhibition at the museum called Thomas Becket in Vlaanderen: Waarheid of legende ('Thomas Becket in Flanders: Truth or Legend') in 2000. There is a book with the same title edited by Raoul Bauer, which gives a wide range of historic and technical details.

Partial Palestinian shawl from Hebron, c. 1900 (TRC 2023.0064).Among the textiles and garments recently donated to the TRC Leiden by the Dool family, Dordrecht, is an embroidered cloth (obviously damaged) that has since been identified as part of a Palestinian embroidered shawl (TRC 2023.0064). More specifically it is very likely that it comes from Hebron, in what is now the southern West Bank and about 19 km south of Jerusalem. In the Hebron region such a shawl is called a ghudfeh. Furthermore, the piece appears to date to c. 1900. But how did we come to these conclusions? In other words, what did the embroidery tell us?

There are various clues:

The ground cloth is hand woven and is made up of three lengths of cloth that are each about 36 cm in width and have slightly ‘wobbly’ selvedges (not the 'perfect' selvedges associated with machine made cloth). The width of the cloth is an indication that the cloth was probably woven on a horizontal loom (normal for the Levant) worked by one person. Such a three-piece shawl is common for Hebron shawls. The Hebron element is also suggested by the type of fringing at one of the transverse ends.

Notebook published by the Gingham Girl Flour Company, with the gingham-design also printed on their feed sacks (TRC 2018.0002).A few days ago we were talking with people of the Leidse Deken foundation, who want to re-establish the weaving of woollen blankets in Leiden, as part of the growing world-wide attention and interest in sustainability in all its many forms.

I started to wonder if there was a textile printing works in the Netherlands, or indeed elsewhere in Europe, which are involved in producing printed cotton bags that can be up-cycled into garments, toys or other items such as cushions and curtains, rather than plastic bags that cause huge environmental problems.

In other words, a modern version of the feed sack textiles that were so popular in northern America between 1925 and 1965! Ironically, these cotton feed sacks went out of production as a result of the increased use of paper and plastic bags.

Label of a Leiden 'Van Wijk' blanket (TRC 2021.1344). The label says: "Anno 1795 HOLLAND 100% VIRGIN WOOL  van Wijk  Leiden   LEIDSE GEGARANDEERD VAN WIJK 100%  ZUIVER WOL DEKEN"A few weeks ago the TRC Collection was augmented with a woollen blanket that was originally made in Leiden. It was produced by the now long-gone company of Van Wijk, which was located, it so happens, since 1863 not far from the present premises of the TRC. If you look out of the TRC’s front door then you can easily see the Van Wijk tower.

This ‘new’ blanket (TRC 2022.2711) can be added to three other blankets, also with a Leiden origin, which were included in the TRC Collection some time ago (TRC 2019.2148; TRC 2021.1344; TRC 2021.2195).

In the 19th and 20th century, Leiden was a city well-known for its blanket production. There was hardly a household in the Netherlands that did not have blankets made in Leiden. Famous names are Scheltema (established in 1817), Van Wijk (1815), Zaalberg (1814) and Zuurdeeg (1804).

Detail of an embroidered Yemeni dress, late 20th century (TRC 1997.0213).The Diplomat magazine in The Hague has just published a short article about the TRC following TRC's director Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood's lecture for the Arts Society The Hague on January 10th 2023.

The text can be downloaded here.

22 January 2023

Fragment of cloth with a stylised human figure in dark purple wool on an unbleached linen ground. Hand spun and woven (dovetail tapestry, weft-faced). Coptic, mid-first millennium. Dool family donation (TRC 2023.0070).What is a Coptic textile? A simple question that is fraught with many problems and aspects!

There are so many academic discussions about this subject. Basically, ‘Coptic textile’ is a general term for cloth from Egypt that dates to between the fourth and eighth century. But there are those who would disagree with this and prefer a more specific terminology, and dates. Others would like to the use the term ‘Late Antique’, or even ‘early Islamic’.

Furthermore, must the pattern associated with a ‘Coptic textile’ include one or more Christian symbols, that would undeniably link the piece with the Coptic Orthodox Church, which is based in Egypt and one of the oldest of the Christian community?

Collection of books from Denmark, recently donated to the TRC LibraryIt may be grey, cold and wet outside, but we have a warm feeling because it's raining books here! The last week has seen three different collections of books arriving at the TRC.

The first was a donation of books by the Eva Andersson, director of the Centre for Textile Research, The Saxo Institute, Copenhagen University  from their impressive series of academic books about textiles and garments with ancient and archeological themes, such as Iconic Costumes: Scandinavian Late Iron Age Costume Iconography; Gods and Garments: Textiles in Greek Sanctuaries in the 7th to the 1st Centuries BC;  Textiles and Clothing along the Silk Roads, etc. We would like to thank Eva for organising this gift.

Then we were given three boxes of books by René Lugtigheid, a Dutch textile conservator and lecturer who is retiring and moving to a more peaceful life of gardening and embroidery (I can only approve). This was a mixed group and some of the books we do not have, others will be placed in the TRC Shop, with permission of René. It is her way of supporting the work and activities of the TRC.

Oil painting of Margaret Layton with a detailed display of her garments, by Marcus Gheeraerds, c. 1620. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, T.228-1994. Open domain.Willem and I went to a museum recently with lots and lots of paintings, rather than ‘just’ textiles! But what struck me was how the two of us approach looking at a painting in different ways. I must admit that neither of us are really interested in vague comments about how the light falls upon the subject, or whether the abstract lines suggest a deep fear of something or other.

Willem likes looking at when a painting was made, by whom and what buildings, if any, are depicted. He especially likes looking at Dutch paintings to see if a particular building is still there or not, and can he recognize landscapes and other features. We have been going to various towns and places, for example, associated with the Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh.

And how do I approach a painting? Well, I have a practical nature and I really like late medieval, Renaissance and various schools of 19th century paintings that show lots of details that I can use in books, articles and exhibitions. I am currently working, for example, on the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery, more specifically vol. 4, which is about Scandinavian and West European embroidery.