17th Century Nightcaps
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of five embroidered seventeenth-century nightcaps dating from 1600 to 1680. The majority were collected by Sir William Burrell (1861–1958). As well as Jacobean examples from the early 1600s there are two nightcaps from the mid-1600s, one of which is associated with Charles II (1630–85), when Prince of Wales, and the other with Major Hugh Buntine.
During the 1600s headwear was worn indoors as well as outdoors not only as a matter of propriety, but also for the practical factor of warmth. In addition many people believed that wearing some form of head covering would protect them from various ailments such as colds and headaches. By the end of the 1500s and into the early 1600s embroidered nightcaps became popular. The name of these embellished caps is a misnomer as these nightcaps were not worn in bed, but were a type of informal, relaxed undress wear known as déshabillé (undress). According to etiquette déshabillé should be worn only in private at home. However, Orazio Busino (fl.1617–21), the chaplain to the new Venetian ambassador to England wrote in 1618, that in the King’s presence chamber ‘occasionally some of the chief lords and the favourite wear on their heads richly embroidered caps there under the pretence of having some imaginary indisposition’.
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