A few years ago I was able to have a day examining some 17th century baby clothes held at Colchester Museum. This garment had been identified as 'possibly an apron'. i took some quick measurements and then concentrated on a baby's coif/biggin. For some reason the 'apron' reminded me of a couple of pictures by La Tour, 'The newborn' and 'The adoration of the Shepherds. I took a rectangle of fabric roughly the same size as the 'apron' and put it on my baby doll's head. Apart from sticking out in a point in the front I thought 'ah ha, this is a head-rail, not an apron'. Going back to the pictures taken on the day I noticed that there was a small shallow curve cut out of the centre front. I quickly cut a similar curve from the test fabric, wrapped it on the doll and this time it layed flat across the forehead.
The paintings by La Tour do not look as if the babies portrayed are wearing head rails, rather they look like rectangles or squares of fabric. In the 'Newborn' one can clearly see the pin holding the head cloth onto the swaddling.
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