Looking at the Augsburger Monatsbilder ( a series of seasonal murals from 1520's Augsburg)
I'm seeing blue outer upper garments on a nicely dressed mounted gentleman, a couple of street merchants, a servant and a swineherd, just in the November/December section so far.
There's two peasant guys in a group of dancing folks who are wearing faded blue or bluish-grey (looks like old jeans, but the whole painting is a bit faded too) in February...

In Fete at Bermondsey or Marriage Feast at Bermondsey (Joris Hoefnagel) blue doublets are shown in the lower left on a dog walker, a coat holder and a groom (one might guess these are servants), as well as a mounted man, a man chatting up a nursing woman, and a dude either dancing with or chatting up some lower-class women (these may or may not be servants, but not rich men).

An unknown man by Jan Gossaert (c.1525-30)has blue sleeves and collar showing from under his coat...
Raleigh's young son has on a blue doublet, breeches and hose in a pic of him with dad.

This would be enough reason for me to doublet a working class or serving man in blue.
I've also heard of some monarch or other when preparing to engage in diplomacy with another head of state mention, "We shall attire ourselves in blue so as to appear humble." but that's hearsay, and may be Eleanor of Aquitaine (I think?) which is a bit earlier.

It's a start. Anybody else?

Servants livery is often in blue. Here are a couple of period quotes I've got.

"Livery of a shade lighter than the midnight-sky-blue, but near the sky-blue of a clear October day, was the mark of servitude in the sixteenth century."

" 'Seruingman wears broadcloth . . . and for his colours, they are according to the season; in the summer he is apparelled like the heauens in blew, in the winter, like the earth in freese', i.e. in russet. ".

Info on blue from Costume in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, by M.C. Linthicum. Pg 27, and note #3 on same page.

Nobles, when they wear blue (not often), tended to wear dark blue, at least in the few images I've found for nobles. I don't know specifics on which livery clothing items were done in blue.

As to specific images, here are a couple I've collected, Simon Bening for both:
www.kimiko1.com/research-1...vember.html (see the guy cranking the crossbow)
www.kimiko1.com/research-1...Bening.html

I've yet to wander through Brueghel but check wikimedia commons for really good large images of many of his paintings.

Dan,

Interesting question.

Overall, the vast majority of contemporary sources do not support blue doublets. Breeches, coats, jerkins, outerwear, yes, but not doublets. This is significant, it shows the basic trends of the time.

The Fete and Embarkation paintings show a few examples of blue outerwear - not doublets - and the blue clad men at Fete painting are indeed very likely servants in specific livery.

There are some tinted engravings showing blue doublets among urban atrocities in the 1580s, but tinted engravings are very suspect and should not be considered reliable sources. The tinting is often done later, sometimes by 19th and 20th century art dealers.

The Raleigh and Son painting is a smart catch. But notice - its a suit of apparel, not a separate blue doublet, and worn by a ten year old boy as well, which may have significance, and the silver gilt trim readily precludes any notion of poverty or indenture. Another blue suit of apparel, trimmed in white, was worn by a musician on the ship Primrose in the 1560s, a ceremonial job requiring some degree of finery.

So all these sources, and others as well, show that blue was used for outerwear and at times, suits of apparel, but not for doublets made up and worn independently. We find such doublets in white, tawny, black, etc., but not blue.

But you are persistent and found the John White image, which is very good work on your part. Here you have an image right from your time period, on a working class man, and from an artist whose depictions - of Englishmen at least - can be considered very reliable.

There is a chance that the man depicted is wearing a blue cassock, which would conform with the information above. But looking at it, it does appear to be a doublet. Artistic license should be considered, as White may have felt it was helpful for the artistic composition. But he may also have considered it accurate for the men he was depicting.

Using a single source for a reconstruction is problematic, but the White drawing does have respectable provenance, which does make it worth considering.

But if you do choose to use it, consider duplicating the entire set of clothes he's wearing, so you can represent an actual, late 16th century image of a working class man - the tawny venetians, blue hose, and red knitted cap, and one in the New World, to boot. But wait - I think you are already on it . .

Jim