The Clare Chasuble

The chasuble is the principal vestment worn by the priest when celebrating Mass. This example has been drastically cut down from its original voluminous shape to suit changing fashions in church ritual. It is made of luxurious materials, with a silk satin ground and rich embroidery, and is known to have belonged to an illustrious family. The embroidery is carried worked in underside couching, split stitch and laid and couched work.

It was made at some time during the marriage of Margaret de Clare and Edmund Plantaganet, Duke of Cornwall. Before being cut down, it is said to have included the coats of arms of Clare, Cornwall, Lacy and England. These stand for Margaret de Clare who married Edmund Plantaganet in 1272. They were divorced in 1294.

Stylistically the embroidered motifs can be seen as a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic. The scroll work and figures of griffins look back to the earlier style, while the quatrefoils enclosing Christian scenes belong to a decorative scheme with repeating geometric motifs which were standard in English medieval embroidery (known as opus anglicanum, the Latin for English work) from the mid 13th to the early 14th century.