Mente (overcoat) from the wardrobe of István Esterházy

The collar is cut along the grain, the sleeve is “Turkish”. The distinctive feature of the sleeves, which are waist-length, is the curve in the inner side. Such a design is very common in Turkish costume. On the front of the pelisse are twelve tablet-woven “frogging” fasteners. The silver-wire (skófium) rosettes are woven into a light green ground and the large pear-shaped buttons are also woven in green-silver-red colours. The separately-stored lining is faded pink moiré silk, on which is written in ink the item number 271 from the 1923 Descriptive List. The pelisse may be dated from its mode of manufacture to the first half of the seventeenth century. Originally lined with lynx fur, the pelisse is first mentioned in the inventory taken on the death of István Esterházy in 1641, and it can be traced in subsequent inventories.