Product Description: The collection of late 16th-century embroidery, needlework and wrought linen at the National Trust's Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is the most important of its type in Britain, and probably in the Western World. Largely commissioned and acquired by the redoubtable Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury - known as 'Bess of Hardwick' - these pieces, some 200 in total with many of the highest quality, range from small fragments of exquisite needlework to a dramatic set of huge wall hangings depicting 'Heroic Women of the Ancient World'...read more

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire houses a world-famous collection of 16th and 17th century textile furnishings. In this illustrated and authoritative introduction to the collection, the author places the textiles in their day-to-day context .

Product Description: Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, more famously known as Bess of Hardwick, was born c. 1527 and became one of the most influential women of the age. Married and widowed four times, she was an astute businesswoman who succeeded in amassing a huge personal fortune and extensive estates...read more

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, England, houses a world-famous collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century textiles. The fact that these exquisite pillow covers, wall hangings, bedcovers, carpets, and upholsteries, many decorated with superb embroidery, have survived in such good condition is little short of miraculous, and due in part to the formidable Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick, who built the house in the 1590s. In her will, Bess instructed her heirs to 'have speciall care and regard to p'serve the same from all manner of wett, mothe and other hurte or spoyle thereof'. In this first illustrated and scholarly account of the collection, Santina Levey places the textiles in their day to day context. Using ledgers and other archival material she describes the origins of the different types of textiles, whether purchased ready-made or put together and decorated by embroiderers, whose work is illustrated by stunning close-up details. Inventories, letters, and personal reminiscences are used to chart the later history of the house and the inevitable alterations that four hundred years of use wrought on the original furnishings. Complete with a glossary and bibliography, this is an invaluable source of information for anyone interested in Elizabethan textiles.