15 March 2012

An Elizabethan vizard


Not wizard.  Vizard.  This is one of the treasures in the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
The mask was found during the renovation of an inner wall of a 16th-century stone building. The wall was approximately four feet thick, and the mask was found concealed within the inner hard core of the wall...

The outer fabric is black velvet. The lining is silk. The inside is strengthened by a pressed-paper inner. The three layers are stitched together by a black cotton thread. On the lining, just below the centre of the mouth, is a loose thread of white cotton. This cotton would have held the black glass bead (found in association with the mask)... The black glass bead was used to hold the mask in place. With a lack of holes to allow string or elastic to be put around the head, the mask would have instead been held in place by the wearer holding the black bead in her mouth...

[An] Elizabethan scholar, Randle Holme, wrote: "A mask . . . This is a thing that in former times Gentlewomen used to put over their Faces when they travel to keep them from Sun burning....Visard Mask, which covers the whole face, having holes for the eyes, a case for the nose, and a slit for the mouth, and to speak through; this kind of Mask is taken off and put in a moment of time, being only held in the Teeth by means of a round bead fastned on the inside over against the mouth."
Further details at the link.

6 comments:

  1. So the origin of visor…I understood it to more like the part of a knight's helmet that covers the face, much as we see with racing helmets of today.

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  2. But how/why did it end up sealed in the inner core of a 16th centure wall?

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    1. Heumpje, several theories are mentioned at the Portable Antiquities Scheme link. I only transcribe parts of source material; I don't consider it polite or ethical to take too much material. You'll need to click on my links for full stories.

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  3. More of this sort of thing:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16801512

    And this, which is also linked from the above.

    http://www.concealedgarments.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/DCGP_Outside_In_pp_238-255_0931.pdf

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    Replies
    1. Wow. That second one is excellent. Thank you, Rexybaby.

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  4. There's an Australian TV Comedian (he used to have a tv show but has since moved on, I think) named Steve Vizard. I wonder if he knows the origin of his surname?

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