See also Will Fisher's article on "That Shakespearean rag: handkerchiefs and femininity" in Materializing Gender in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (also published as “Handkerchiefs and Early Modern Ideologies of Gender” in Shakespeare Studies 28)

Also, see Vulgar Things and A Brief History of the Handkerchief in Europe during the Late Middle Ages through the Renaissance.

While this linkspage does include late medieval illustrations showing handkerchiefs, it is more heavily weighted towards those of the 16th century, demonstrating the wider variety of styles of ornamentation which appear in handkerchiefs of that era. (For now, this page does not include examples from Persian manuscripts, but this may change in a later revision.)

• Lancelot at the tomb of Galehot, Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 119, fol. 344), beginning of the 15th century
• St. Barlaam teaches Josaphat, Speculum historiale (BNF Fr. 51, fol. 173v), 1463
• Council led by Guinevere, Tristan de Léonois (BNF Fr. 104, fol. 314), c. 1470
For eyen and nose the nedethe a mokadour,
Or sudary

"A philosophre" (British Library Harley 372)

• A lady by Sandro Botticelli, 1470-1475
• Mary with other saints in a Viennese altarpiece, c. 1495-1500
• Detail from the Marriage of Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal, by Pinturicchio, 1502
• Felicitas Seiler by Christoph Amberger, 1537
• A man by Francesco Salviati, c. 1540
• A woman, mid-16th century
• Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal by Antonio Mor, c. 1552
• Princess Juana of Portugal by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1557
• Princess Juana of Portugal by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1557
• Isabel de Valois by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1560
• A Venetian lady by Veronese, c. 1570
• Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1570
• Anna of Austria by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1570
• Anna of Austria by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz
• Anna of Austria by Alonso Sanchez Coello, 1571
• Anna of Austria by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1571
• A Venetian noblewoman aged 18 by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, before 1572
• Von Gottes Gnaden Maria Leonora Hertzoginne by Abraham de Bruyn, c. 1572
• Maria de Dochter des Erwelten Romschen Keysers Ferdinandus Hertzogin[n]e zu Gulich, Cleef, un[d] Berch by Abraham de Bruyn, 1572
• An unknown lady, possibly Elenora de Toledo by Alessandro Allori, c. 1572
• Mary, Queen of Scots, c. 1575
• The Infantas Isabela Clara Eugenia and Catalina Michaela by Alonso Sanchez Coello, c. 1575
• Sigismund Beck, Maria of Portugal, Queen Anna of Spain, Regina Streun, a young woman, The Portrait-Book of Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf, c. 1575-1585
• A widow and a Paduan widow in Mores Italiae, 1575
• A Florentine lady in the Album Amicorum of Paul van Dale (Douce d. 11, fol. 22r), 1578
• Livia Colonna by Veronese, 1580
• Karin Månsdotter, c. 1580
• Mathys Cock, c. 1580-1590
• Jacobine Welser by Nicolas Juvend the Elder, 1583
• Lucas Pollio, c. 1583
• Portrait of a woman by Johannes Wierix, 1584
• A boy in the foreground of The Burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco, 1586-1588
• An unknown lady by Allesandro Allori
• Clara Eugenia and her dwarf by Franz Pourbus the Younger, c. 1599
• A noblewoman, late 16th century
• An unknown noblewoman in a black dress, 1595
• Truijke Verbeeck by Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1597
• Eleanore de Bourbon, Princess of Orange by Johannes Wierix, 1600
• V&A 288-1906, a linen handkerchief with cutwork, needle lace and embroidery, made in Italy c. 1600
• V&A T.133-1956, a linen handkerchief with scarletwork embroidery and metal thread bobbin lace, made in England c. 1600
• V&A 484-1903, a linen handkerchief with cutwork decoration, made in Flanders c. 1600-1620
• Burrell Collection 29.148, a linen handkerchief with a blackwork border, c. 1600-1625
• V&A T.99-1954, a linen handkerchief embroidered with silks and edged in silver and silver-gilt bobbin lace, ande in England c. 1600-1630
• Lady Diana Cecil by William Larkin, c. 1614-18