In the 18th century, women’s pockets were not sewn into their gowns. Instead they were attached to a tape and tied around the waist as separate garments. Worn under the hoops and petticoats, they were accessed through openings in the gown and petticoat seams.
Quilting was a popular form of decoration for a variety of garments including pockets. However, hand-quilting was a time-consuming method of decoration. The increased demand for quilted petticoats, waistcoats and pockets led to the invention of woven quilting. In this technique, an extra weft of thick thread was added to the fabric to give the raised effect of the handmade version. Robert Elsden is credited as the inventor of woven quilting, known by the French term, matelassé. He received a prize from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, in 1745, although the perfection and commercial exploitation of this technique of machine quilting appears to have taken place in the 1760s.

This is an example of matelassé cotton, which has been clearly woven into a pocket shape and could not be sewn into any other object. It may represent a ‘ready-made’ pocket, one sewn up and sold as a finished accessory, rather than made at home.