17th Century Collar Tassels

17th Century Falling Band Collar TasselsWell, I thought the crocheted pangolin was going to be my most ‘niche’ commission of the year, but I may have been wrong!

Update: See here for my most recent improved historical collar tassels.

An eagle-eyed resident of Virginia in the United States who is involved in historical reenactments, noticed that my pine cones bear a striking resemblance to the collar tassels worn by men in the 17th Century.

You can see where this is going…

Here are a couple of examples in paintings of the period. This type of collar is known as a falling band collar, and was often accompanied by knotted tassels like this.

Here are some original historical examples:

Now, I don’t want to take anything from lace or knotting experts – I’m sure there are talented people out there making these tassels using the original methods and materials. The originals are much more intricate and have a more ‘open’ structure than my pinecones. But for a quick approximation, the pinecone pattern with slight adjustments was a good match.

My customer asked for them to be 5cm long, and for one pair to be more cone shaped, and the other pair more round.

I have made these in fine cotton rather than the glossy bamboo that I use for my pinecones, to make them smaller and to better match the white linen collars used by my customer. I have also changed the shape of the pinecone’s scales to have more of a bobble at the end of each scale. My customer may also add beads on top of the tassels before attaching them to his collars.

This was such fun to do, as I do love a bit of historical costume!


Little Conkers Hanging Pinecone Decorations
Pine cone ornaments, hand-crocheted in soft, glossy bamboo yarn

The original pattern for the pine cones was by PlanetJune.