1-217-422 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The butterfly headdress, 15th century, (1910). A woman from the time of Edward IV-Richard III, wearing a headdress showing the frontlet, composed of a piece of rigid wire netting covered with black material which passed over the head and allowed a small loop to appear on the forehead - this was designed to ease the strain on the hair caused by wearing the headdress at an angle 45 degrees from the perpendicular. Illustration from British Costume during 19 Centuries by Mrs Charles H Ashdown, (London, 1910).