Jacobean Types

Royal, Military and Court Costumes 
from the time of James I

The Jacobean era refers to the time period from 1603 to 1625 when King James I ruled both England and Scotland. The name James derives from the Hebrew Jacob; hence, Jacobean: a descriptive term applied to the literature, decorative arts and architecture produced during that first quarter of the 17th century. Most notably, it was the age of Shakespeare.

The charming images below are courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library and the majority have been background spot-cleaned to one extent or another. Mouse-over the last two images for a little surprise, individual browser and operating system configurations allowing!

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To paraphrase the Fashion in Jacobean Times description page - and database entries - from the Folger Shakespeare Library:

Little is known about this anonymous set from the early 17th century, but the watercolour sketches may have been produced by an Italian artist. Some of the styles portrayed are representative of continental, in addition to, English costume designs. The illustration scenes themselves are similar in style to those one might see in a friendship book -- a so-called album amicorum -- that was a fairly popular keepsake record from the period.


The full set of thirty seven watercolour illustrations, entitled: 'Royal, military and court costumes of the time of James I', is accessible via the LUNA web database from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Although you can click through to enlarged images above (spliced together from screencaps as I recall), the hosting site provides high resolution / high magnification sectional image files.

Jacobean *era* links: one, two.

Previously: Alba Amicorum <>~~<> Liber Amicorum <>~~<> Facebook in the 1750s <>~~<> Simon Haendel's Stammbuch.

Via a recent Folger tooltips entry on The Collation and @wynkenhimself.

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