Night Gown
1650-1700 (weaving), 1720-50 (sewing)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The loosely cut style of this man's informal robe is based on that of the Japanese kimono. Robes like this became popular in Europe from the mid-17th century, brought back by members of the East India Company, and by the 1670s European tailors were making them. The exact geographic and cultural source of the style was not generally well known in England, where they were called 'Indian gowns' when made of any non-European fabric, for example, Indian cottons, Chinese or Indian silks.
This nightgown is a striking and rare example, in very good condition for its age, made from blue silk damask woven in China for import into Europe. Such silks were primarily intended for furnishing, and appear in merchants' records as 'bed damasks'; the length of their pattern repeat was displayed to best advantage in the long drop of bed curtains. A silk damask of closely similar design to this was used to furnish a room in the summer palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Schlosshof, in 1725 (now in MAK in Vienna).
This nightgown is a striking and rare example, in very good condition for its age, made from blue silk damask woven in China for import into Europe. Such silks were primarily intended for furnishing, and appear in merchants' records as 'bed damasks'; the length of their pattern repeat was displayed to best advantage in the long drop of bed curtains. A silk damask of closely similar design to this was used to furnish a room in the summer palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Schlosshof, in 1725 (now in MAK in Vienna).
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Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Silk; hand woven in a damask weave, hand-sewn |
Brief description | A man's night gown, 1720-50, Dutch or British; of Chinese blue silk damask, 1650-1700 |
Physical description | The night gown is made up using a blue silk damask with a large repeating design of a Chinese incense burner among acanthus-like foliage. It is lined with blue silk taffeta. It is of simple T-shape construction with no fastenings. There are no shoulder seams, so the design of the silk is in the correct orientation at the back, but appears upside down as it comes over the shoulders and down the front. The loom width of the damask is 71 cm (28 inches). This width is consistent with it having been woven on a Chinese rather than European loom, as the design suggests. |
Dimensions |
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Gallery label |
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Historical context | The loosely cut style of the night gown is based on that of the Dutch japonse rock, the imported Japanese kosode (kimono) or Dutch version of it. |
Summary | The loosely cut style of this man's informal robe is based on that of the Japanese kimono. Robes like this became popular in Europe from the mid-17th century, brought back by members of the East India Company, and by the 1670s European tailors were making them. The exact geographic and cultural source of the style was not generally well known in England, where they were called 'Indian gowns' when made of any non-European fabric, for example, Indian cottons, Chinese or Indian silks. This nightgown is a striking and rare example, in very good condition for its age, made from blue silk damask woven in China for import into Europe. Such silks were primarily intended for furnishing, and appear in merchants' records as 'bed damasks'; the length of their pattern repeat was displayed to best advantage in the long drop of bed curtains. A silk damask of closely similar design to this was used to furnish a room in the summer palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Schlosshof, in 1725 (now in MAK in Vienna). |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | T.31-2012 |
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Record created | March 19, 2012 |
Record URL |
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