Of Horses' Tails And Tudor Jewellery.....

[ferlew]

Been watching Wolf Hall, Beeb2. Noted there was a trend for the ladies in it to wear their necklaces in two loops, one acting as a choker, and the longer loop disappearing into their bodice. Seems odd, ione would have thought the longer loop would be on the outside of the gown. Any ideas?

Also, followed a little group of horses through the village this afternoon, and one young girls horse appeared to have had it's tail waved, and then beads attached. It almost looked like the horse had a beaded hairnet on it's tail.
Can anyone shed any light, I hate not knowing things. Thank you.

[Prudie]

I don't know about the necklace but I expect the horse has had its tail plaited and some beads put in. It's always been practice to plait a tail for showy events. Their tail is just as capable of being dressed as human hair. I expect the rider had been having fun with it.

[Peter Pedant]

There are enough Tudor portraits for you to check if they do that with pearlls

Anne's fave colour is black ( a very expensive dye then )
and she only wears that in the execution scene - presumably the needs of colour tv.

I thought you made like a birdie ( no block ) as a signal for the executioner - but I suppose you could say I wasnt there so I dont really know

[ferlew]

That so did not answer my questions, but thank you anyway PP.

[Prudie]

Sorry ferlew, what did you want to know about the horse's tail then?

[ferlew]

Thanks Prudie, just wanted to know if they actually threaded the beads onto the tail hair, or was it some king of beaded equine "hair net" ?

[andy-hughes]

Peter Pedant - "I thought you made like a birdie ( no block ) as a signal for the executioner "

If the prisoner wished to give a signal to the executioner that he or she was ready, then they advised at the time, it was not always the same signal.

I am sure one of the Henry VIII films showing a wife's execution has he putting her arms out behind her as a signal, but that doesn't mean it was always done that way.

[Prudie]

Yes the beads would have been threaded in and the rest of the hair probably plaited or braided a bit like corn rows or however they fancied doing it.

here's a selection from google images
https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=imghp&;tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1084&bih=454&q=plaited+horse+tails&oq=plaited+horse+tails&;gs_l=img.12..0.3251.14466.0.16050.19.19.0.0.0.0.192.838.18j1.19.0.chm_lang...0...1.1.62.img..10.9.342.ccPcsCdLHA0

[ferlew]

Many thanks Prudie, quite a few pictures of the type of braiding I saw, would you believe I saw the same group of girls tonight, including 'that' horse - if there hadn't been so much traffic, I was going to ask the young lady. Cheers Prudie. :)

[Mamyalynne]

Re the jewellery, I think you mean this type of thing


http://tinyurl.com/ngpyg32


Some discussion here, but not really aresolution


http://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2009/01/question-from-joan-necklace-wearing.html

[ferlew]

Mamyalynn, almost like that, the ones I saw were a loop round the neck and the longer loop seemed to pass either side of her breasts, and that is the bit I wonder about.

[Mamyalynne]

Maybe it was simply the fashion rather than symbolic, stil it was linteresting to search for the information.

[ferlew]

I agree, love being able to google stuff. :)

I think a day is wasted if I don't learn something new.