Stomacher
1730-1750 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A stomacher is a decorative panel of fabric, usually triangular in shape, worn to fill the space between the front edges of a woman’s open gown. The stomacher formed part of the ensemble of fashionable women’s dress from the 1680s to the 1780s. This example incorporates whitework embroidery, quilting and cording. In the latter technique, parallel lines of stitching have been filled with short lengths of linen cord, inserted from the back of the fabric. The bold design includes flowers, leaves, pomegranates and shells. As quilting and cording were popular techniques for petticoats and informal jackets, this stomacher may well have been part of a matching ensemble.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Linen; hand-sewn and hand embroidered |
| Brief description | Woman's stomacher of linen whitework, 1730-50, British; embroidered, corded, drawn-thread work |
| Physical description | Woman’s stomacher of fine bleached linen, lined with coarse linen dimity. It is corded and embroidered with linen thread in back and half-back stitches, French knots and drawn-thread work in a pattern of large flowers, fern leaves, pomegranates and shells. It is triangular, with a large rounded end at the bottom. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Mrs Lewis Day |
| Object history | Registered File no. 9901/1926. |
| Summary | A stomacher is a decorative panel of fabric, usually triangular in shape, worn to fill the space between the front edges of a woman’s open gown. The stomacher formed part of the ensemble of fashionable women’s dress from the 1680s to the 1780s. This example incorporates whitework embroidery, quilting and cording. In the latter technique, parallel lines of stitching have been filled with short lengths of linen cord, inserted from the back of the fabric. The bold design includes flowers, leaves, pomegranates and shells. As quilting and cording were popular techniques for petticoats and informal jackets, this stomacher may well have been part of a matching ensemble. |
| Bibliographic reference | Avril Hart and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: the 17th and 18th centuries, London: V&A, 1998, p. 200
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.209-1929 |
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| Record created | July 23, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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