{{Short description|Stiffened support for a ruff or collar}} [[File:Follower of Robert Peake the Elder Portrait of a Lady in a lace collar.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|A red supportasse is visible beneath this stiffened lace collar. Follower of Robert Peake the Elder, ''Portrait of a Lady''.]]
A '''supportasse''' or '''underpropper''' is a stiffened support for a ruff or collar.<ref name="ICOM">{{cite book | title=Vocabulary of Basic Terms for Cataloguing Costume|url=http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/assets/thesaurus_icombts/vbt00e.htm|author=International Council of Museums|oclc=66084355|authorlink=International Council of Museums|publisher=International Council of Museums|year=1982}}</ref><ref name="Arnold">{{cite book | last = Arnold | first = Janet | authorlink = Janet Arnold | title = Patterns of fashion 4: The cut and construction of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories for men and women c.1540-1660 | publisher = Quite Specific Media Group | location = Hollywood, CA | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0896762626 |pages=32–38}}</ref><ref name="Cumming1">{{cite book | last = Cumming | first = Valerie | title = The dictionary of fashion history | publisher = Berg | location = Oxford New York | year = 2010 | isbn = 9781847885333 |page = 199}}</ref> Essential items of courtly fashion in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, supportasses are sometimes called '''piccadills (picadils, pickadills), whisks,''' '''rebatos''', or '''portefraise,''' terms used at different times for both the supporters and the various lace or linen collar styles to which they were attached.<ref name="Arnold" /><ref name="Cumming2">{{cite book | last = Cumming | first = Valerie | title = The dictionary of fashion history | publisher = Berg | location = Oxford New York | year = 2010 | isbn = 9781847885333 |pages = 156, 170, 199}}</ref>
{{quotation|text=I pray you, sir, what say you to these great ruffs, which are borne up with supporters and rebatoes, as it were with post and rail?|author=Arthur Dent|source=''The Plain Man's Pathway To Heaven'' (1631)<ref name="Dent">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/plainmanspathway00dentuoft/plainmanspathway00dentuoft_djvu.txt|last=Dent|first=Arthur|title=The Plain Man's Pathway To Heaven|chapter=Pride of Dress|page=34|accessdate=17 October 2014}}</ref>}}
Decorative supportasses were often made of wire fashioned in loops and scallops, covered over with colored silk, gold, or silver thread. Supporters stiffened with cardboard or pasteboard and covered in silk or linen were also popular.<ref name="Arnold" /> They were held in place with ties or points fastened through worked holes at the back of the collar.<ref name="Cumming1"/> Examples of both types of supportasse survive in the costume collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Musée national du Moyen Âge (formerly Musée de Cluny).<ref name="Arnold" />
==Gallery==
{{gallery |mode=packed |height=200 |File:William Larkin Grey Brydges 5th Baron Chandos.jpg|A fabric-covered supportasse is visible below the lace collar or rebato in this portrait of Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos by William Larkin, {{circa|1615}} |File:Cornelis de Vos Girl at a Virginal.jpg|A gold-wrapped wire supportasse is visible through the sheer linen of this girl's collar. Cornelis de Vos, ''Young Girl at a Virginal'', {{circa|1624–25|lk=no}} }}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links== '''Extant supportasses''': * [https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137824/supportasse-unknown/ Supportasse, England, 1600-1620. Cardboard, linen, silk, silk and linen thread, Victoria and Albert Museum T.32-1938] * [https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O110596/picadil-unknown/ Picadil, England, 1600-1615. Silk, pasteboard, silk thread. Victoria and Albert Museum 192-1900] * [http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/222480?rpp=20&pg=16&rndkey=20121122&ft=*&img=2&imgNo=0&tabName=object-information Collar, Italy, 16th century. Bobbin lace with visible wire supporter. Metropolitan Museum of Art 30.135.156]
{{Historical clothing}}
Category:16th-century fashion Category:17th-century fashion Category:Neckwear