Luxurious hat given to Henry VIII's Wardrobe Clerk to go on display at Hampton Court Palace

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Hat which could have been Henry VIII's heads to Hampton Court Palace

Made of luxurious silver and silk, decorated by an ostrich feather and featuring evenly positioned holes, the 16th or early 17th century hat which has just become Hampton Court Palace’s oldest item of clothing by a century could have been launched into the air by Henry VIII, say curators who traced it back to Nicholas Bristowe, the king’s Clerk of the Wardrobe during his reign.

Bristowe, who served Henry’s children, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, as Clerk of the Jewels before retiring to a country estate given to his family by the monarchy, caught the hat when Henry threw it into the air after the surrender of Boulogne, in 1544.

He could have inherited it from a foreign prisoner at the Tower of London, where he also spent time – the hat’s “unusual design” may indicate an overseas stitcher, although conjecture about its origins and ownership is likely to continue when it goes on show following routine conservation in Hampton Court’s 500th anniversary year.

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//history-and-heritage/royal-history/art513967-luxurious-hat-given-to-henry-eighth-wardrobe-clerk-to-go-on-display-at-hampton-court-palace