Rare surviving piece of dress once worn by Elizabeth I currently on display at Hampton Court Palace alongside world-famous Rainbow PortraitFollowing a three-year conservation project by Historic Royal Palaces, the spectacular Bacton Altar Cloth is on display at Elizabeth I’s former home this autumn, united for the first time with the iconic portrait in which it may once have featured

An elegantly embroidered altar cloth which may once have been part of a dress worn by Queen Elizabeth I will is on display for the first time at Hampton Court Palace this October in an exhibition entitled The Lost Dress of Elizabeth I. The ‘Bacton Altar Cloth’, discovered in a church in rural Herefordshire, is now considered to be one of the rarest survivals of Elizabethan dress in existence. After undergoing extensive conservation work at Hampton Court Palace for the past two years, it is exhibited alongside a…