In addition, the Bowes Museum has a large collection of garments, lace and textiles, some of which are on display in the permanent Fashion and Textile Gallery. There is also a Textile Study Centre (open by appointment), that houses carpets, garments, quilts and tapestries from the late eighteenth century to the 1960's.
The Gallery also houses the international Blackborne Collection of lace, given to the Museum in 2006 by descendants of the Victorian lace dealers, A. Blackborne and Company of London. The Blackborne collection consists of over 7,000 pieces of lace, dating from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries. It includes a seventeenth century needle lace collar for a cloak that may have belonged to King Charles 1 (1600-1649).
In 2007 the Museum was given a collection of Catholic ecclesiastical vestments and textiles from the St. Clares Abbey in Darlington. The order of Poor Clares had brought the garments and textiles with them from Rouen (France), when they were forced to leave France following to the Revolution that started in 1789. A number of the items given to the Bowes Museum by the Clares date from between 1644 and 1793.
The Museum has organized exhibitions on Monet, William Morris and Yves Saint Laurent, among others.
Address: The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co, Durham DL12 8NP, UK. Tel. +44 (0) 1833 690606.
Digital sources:
- http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk (retrieved 16th April 2016).
- http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/collections/explorethecollection/bycollection/fashionandtextiles.aspx (retrieved 16th April 2016).
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 25th May 2016).
SA