My PhD research ‘Vanished Comforts: Setting the Context for Furniture and Furnishings in Scotland, 1500-1650’, was an AHRC-funded CDP project with the National Museums of Scotland and the University of Dundee, from 2012 to 2016.

The purpose of the research is to imagine and understand the use and purpose of rooms and planning in Scottish homes and castles in this period, and so the lives of those who used these buildings, from the evidence of surviving objects and buildings, archival records, and narratives with a spatial component.

These posts reflect continuing research in early modern material culture attempting to understand activities in early modern homes, furnishings, costume and jewellery, the roles of servants, and networks of patrons and makers.

See my PhD thesis here ‘Vanished Comforts’ at Dundee Discovery

Michael Pearce

Research papers and transcripts here

“‘Maskerye claythis’ for James VI and Anna of Denmark”, Medieval English Theatre, 43 (2022).

taffetye to be ane stand of maskerie clais to his majestie att the mariage of the laird of Tillebarne dochter, National Records of Scotland E35/13.

A transcript of Mary of Guise’s 1553 wardrobe account NRS E34/19 and household roll

Plus audict Estrelin, Je baille a Jehan des filles ung tiers de velours d’Espaigne pour border trois corps de robbes et le bout des manches l’une pour Crespanville, l’autre a Crespy et la Grant Anne, NRS E34/19.

William Kirkcaldy of Grange’s memorandum of Mary’s jewel coffer in Edinburgh Castle, NRS E35/9/3.

… the principall jowell callit the H the quhilk me Lady Murray hes …, NRS E35/9/3

Inventory of the jewel coffer of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Edinburgh Castle, 28 August 1571

Inventory of Mary Queen of Scots’ jewel coffer, NRS E35/9/4.

Memoir of William Douglas of Lochleven, 1559-1585, National Records of Scotland GD150/2234

shortlie thereftir, the quene being in my place did maik demission in fafaris off hir soune the prynce of the croun off Scotland, quhilk I knew nocht quhill the samyn was doune, Memoir of William Douglas of Lochleven.

Friar Mark’s History of the Hamiltons, National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 34.4.5

Friar Mark’s History of the Hamiltons and Robert the Bruce.

And: Textile stock lists in 16th-century Edinburgh merchant’s wills

Articles and research on other sites

Historic Environment Scotland: The 1640 Inventory of Caerlaverock (HES, 2026).

Historic Environment Scotland: The dolls of Mary Queen of Scots (HES, 2019).

Historic Environment Scotland: Painted ceilings from 16th and 17th century properties (HES, 2017).

“A French Furniture Maker and the ‘Courtly Style’ in Sixteenth-Century Scotland”, Regional Furniture, 32 (2018).

“Beds of ‘Chapel’ Form in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Inventories: The Worst Sort of Bed”, Regional Furniture, 27 (2013).

“Approaches to Household Inventories and Household Furnishing, 1500–1650” Architectural Heritage, 26:1 (2015).

 Researchgate

Letters from the Countess of Westmorland to Grace Fane, Countess of Home

A debate on French marriages for James VI of Scotland, c. 1583

“Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland” The Court Historian, 24:2 (August 2019).

The seventeenth-century gardens of Moray House Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle Research: The jewels of Mary Queen of Scots

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