Pair of waistcoat shapes
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
Silk, embroidered with silk
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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This extraordinary length of embroidered silk documents three important aspects of 18th-century dress: the high quality of French needlework, the sequence of decorating and sewing up waistcoats and the efforts to which the British went to acquire desirable French fashions.
To make an embroidered waistcoat, the needlework was done first on two lengths of fabric, one for the left front and the other for the right front. The lengths, known as waistcoat shapes, were purchased at a silk mercers or haberdashers, then taken to a tailor for making up into a waistcoat.
The stamp seen on the inside of the lower right edge reads ‘Custom House / SEIZED DOVER / GR II’, indicating that this is contraband – a French waistcoat shape apprehended during an attempt to smuggle it into England during the reign of George II (1727–60). For most of the 18th century, imported French silks and laces were taxed heavily, in order to protect British textile industries. Smuggling of these and other taxable goods was rife through all levels of society; customs officials at British ports searched very carefully and seized any contraband items. Articles confiscated in this manner were usually burned, so the survival of this beautiful but forbidden object is indeed remarkable.
Physical description
Pair of matching panels embroidered to shape to be made into a waistcoat. Each is a loom width, with pink striped selvedges, and roughly cut top and bottom edges.
On each the pattern for the waistcoat front is worked, with pocket flap. One panel has 12 worked buttonholes, uncut. The panels are of ivory ribbed silk, tamboured with silk in a pattern of rose buds in 3 shades of pink, with leaves and stems in shades of green and brown. There is also a twining outline to the edges of the decoration with pale blue and pink detailing.
Each panel has a customs stamp on the reverse.
Place of Origin
France (made)
Date
1750-1759 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Silk, embroidered with silk
Marks and inscriptions
'Customs House / SEIZED DOVER / GR II'
Dimensions
Length: 860 mm, Width: 555 mm
Historical context note
Waistcoat panels worked like this were known as shapes in the 18th century. The areas of undecorated silk allowed the waistcoat to be cut and fitted to whatever size was required for the customer.
Descriptive line
Pair of waistcoat shapes of embroidered ribbed silk, France, 1750-1759
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
North, Susan. 'The Physical Manifestation of an Abstraction: A Pair of 1750s Waistcoat Shapes', Textile History, 39:1, May 2008, pp. 92-104
The abstract reads: A pair of tamboured French waistcoat shapes in the V&A's collection bears Customs stamps from the reign of George II. Examination of both the garment and Customs records held by the National Archives reveals the illegal commerce in textiles in eighteenth-century Britain, and the reasons why such goods were taxed or banned. The political, social, administrative and fashion contexts of textile smuggling are discussed, as well as its numerous methods of execution, allowing speculation on the exact progress of the waistcoat shapes from embroiderer's workshop to museum storeroom.
Hart, Avril and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: The 17th and 18th Centuries, London: V&A Publications, 1998, p. 106
Materials
Silk
Techniques
Hand embroidery; Hand weaving
Subjects depicted
Flowers; Flowers, roses
Categories
Textiles; Clothing; Embroidery
Collection code
T&F
