Portraits of Katherine Parr seem to show her hair as being much darker — about an auburn brown color — yet the hair in that frame is almost a platinum blond. Any ideas to account for the discrepancy?
Yeah, we were discussing that on the Tudor Talk list. I’m guessing that the hair has faded,
I was looking around and found an article in the science journal Nature about the examination of a lock of hair of Jane Austen that is on display at her house in England. Apparently the part that is facing up (and therefore exposed to light) has faded to a light straw color (they were having it examined to see if there was a way to halt the fading). And that hair is only 200 years old, so I’m guessing something similar happened to the lock of Katherine’s hair.
If they were to DNA match the hair, who would be the most likely candidate for the testing? I don’t recall that her brother the Marquess had children, but her sister Anne Herbert may have had descendants …?
You wouldn’t necessarily have to test against a living relative, but granted, getting good DNA from both the hair and another 450-500 year old source would be tough. Not to mention getting permission to test the remains of her brother, sister or parents would be a hurdle as well. I guess they could also try to get a sample from Katherine herself, if there were enough remains. Teeth tend to be a good source, and it’s possible that they remain, although I seem to recall that her body deteriorated badly when the coffin was opened before the restoration of the chapel (sorry… can’t remember the exact time frame… 18th century perhaps?)
Kathy just sent in a link to the catalog entry for the hair, which has a larger photo:
http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=3727153&iSaleNo=15704
Portraits of Katherine Parr seem to show her hair as being much darker — about an auburn brown color — yet the hair in that frame is almost a platinum blond. Any ideas to account for the discrepancy?
Yeah, we were discussing that on the Tudor Talk list. I’m guessing that the hair has faded,
I was looking around and found an article in the science journal Nature about the examination of a lock of hair of Jane Austen that is on display at her house in England. Apparently the part that is facing up (and therefore exposed to light) has faded to a light straw color (they were having it examined to see if there was a way to halt the fading). And that hair is only 200 years old, so I’m guessing something similar happened to the lock of Katherine’s hair.
If they were to DNA match the hair, who would be the most likely candidate for the testing? I don’t recall that her brother the Marquess had children, but her sister Anne Herbert may have had descendants …?
You wouldn’t necessarily have to test against a living relative, but granted, getting good DNA from both the hair and another 450-500 year old source would be tough. Not to mention getting permission to test the remains of her brother, sister or parents would be a hurdle as well. I guess they could also try to get a sample from Katherine herself, if there were enough remains. Teeth tend to be a good source, and it’s possible that they remain, although I seem to recall that her body deteriorated badly when the coffin was opened before the restoration of the chapel (sorry… can’t remember the exact time frame… 18th century perhaps?)