ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with Elizabeth Philip, a 'silkwoman' who was skilled in the production and styling of silk and other fabrics for garments, and who supplied materials and made costumes for the household of Henry VIII. The records associated with the various departments of the royal household which were involved with the storage and production of apparel and costume, such as the Wardrobe, give a fascinating glimpse into the involvement of otherwise unrecorded individuals, in the construction of the identity of this most excessive and sumptuous Tudor court. Silk work in England has already received the attention of scholars studying the work of women in fifteenth- and sixteenth- century England; this is partly because, in this period, silk work was primarily an occupation for women. Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries there were other ways to learn about the craft of silk work than through apprenticeship.
