Postcard of the 1960s showing a Protestant woman from Zuid-Beveland, Zeeland, wearing regional costume (TRC 2018.0409).Willem and I have just been to the southern Dutch city of Goes in Zuid-Beveland, in the province of Zeeland. This former island was until recently relatively cut off from the rest of the country as it was one of many islands in the delta region of several large rivers entering the North Sea.

The city of Goes dates back to the 10th century and was long involved in the textile industry of the region. Some of the street names in the centre of the city are reminders of its textile past – Vlasmarkt (flax market), Bleekveld (bleaching field), and Bleekerstraat (Bleacher’s Street).

The local museum in Goes, the Historisch Museum de Bevelanden (see its website) is home to a well-displayed series of regional dress from Zuid-Beveland which clearly explains the characteristics of this dress and the difference with traditional dress from other parts of Zeeland. There is extra information in the form of a lovely film and many text boards, but just being able to see the complete costumes with the accessories such as necklaces and, in the case of men’s costumes, the elaborate buttons, made it well worth the visit.

Late 19th century postcard showing two women from Zuid-Beveland wearing regional costume (TRC 2018.0404).There is also a temporary exhibition (until the 27th November 2021) called Europa is hier: Zo zagen zij Zeeuws Meisje ('Europe is here: This how they saw the Zeeland girl'; see the website, in Dutch) about various 19th century painters who came to Zuid-Beveland and painted men and women in regional dress.

The painters included Cecil Jay (1883-1954), an Anglo-American painter, and Adolphe-Alexandre Dillens (1821-1877) from Belgium. These paintings provide invaluable information about the material and colour combinations of the period, something that is lost in the contemporary black and white, and sepia images of the period. One element that fascinated the painters is the local variations of lace caps that were popular in many parts of the Netherlands, as well as Belgium and northern France.

Zuid-Beveland is particularly known for the lace caps worn by both Protestant and Catholic women on a daily basis until comparatively recently. Their headdress consists of an under-cap, a middle cap and then on Sundays and festive days, the elaborate and embroidered lace caps that were worn with a series of oorijzers and spelden, some of which have large balls in gold-coloured metal at the end.

Festive cap for a Catholic woman from Zuid-Beveland, 20th cenury (TRC 2008.0483).Another feature of the Zuid-Beveland dress is the use of a bodice called a beuk, together with a shawl. The beuk is often decorated around the front neck opening with embroidered and beaded panels.

By the end of the 20th century "burger" (of the burgers, or middle class citizens) clothing had become the normal dress of the community and the regional forms (called "boers", 'of farmers') had entered the twilight world of folklore.

We actually came to the Museum to see an exhibition of samplers called Nieuwe Oude Lappen ('new old cloths'; see website, in Dutch). For many years the Steven family ran the Museum voor Naaldkunst ('Museum for Needlework') in Winschoten, in Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. The needlework museum closed a few years ago and the Historisch Museum de Bevelanden was fortunate in acquiring an extensive collection of samplers.

Bodice ('beuk') for a woman from Zuid-Beveland, Zeeland, the Netherlands, 1960s (TRC 2018.2753).The exhibition emphasises the 18th-19th century examples and includes both darning forms, school samplers with alphabets, as well as elaborately worked examples depicting Adam and Eve in 18th century dress (but complete with snake), the Canaanite spies with their large bunch of grapes (see a blog of 1 September 2020), as well as stylised flowers, trees, animals and birds. One particular example from 1803 includes a wide range of motifs, including an elaborately embroidered house. There are also examples of late 19th century samplers worked with aniline dyes.

The exhibition includes c. 50 examples of samplers and a very good display of circa 200 years of this particular type of embroidery. The exhibition runs until the 29th January 2022.

Gillian Vogelsang, Director TRC, 24 July 2021