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Petticoat

ca. 1725 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Coromandel Coast (made)

The design of this chintz petticoat is of two alternating flowering plants against a white background. Unlike petticoats of the same date with arcaded borders and floral fields, the space above the tall flowering plants is here empty, suggesting that it would be covered with a jacket.

Object details

Categories
Textiles
Clothing
Object type
Petticoat
Materials and techniques
Painted and dyed cotton chintz
Cotton
Painted
Dyed
Brief description
Petticoat of painted and dyed cotton chintz, Coromandel Coast, ca. 1725
Physical description
Floor-length petticoat of painted and dyed cotton chintz. With a design of large flowers in blue and red against a white ground. The upper part of the skirt is undecorated, as it would have been covered by a jacket.

The design consists of two alternating plants each bearing flowers and foliage. Pleated into a narrow waistband with openings at the sides. The join occurs to the right of the box pleat at the centre front. About eight and a half inches, with a selvage edge, have been turned under at the top.
Dimensions
  • Length: 111.7cm
  • Hem circumference: 297cm
  • Length: 44in
  • Hem circumference: 117in
  • Repeat length: 37in
  • Repeat length: 94cm
  • Waist measured inside garment circumference: 67cm (Note: Measured by Conservation)
  • Waist to hem length: 90.5cm (Note: Measured by Conservation)
Gallery label
(03/10/2015-10/01/2016)
CHINTZ JACKET AND PETTICOAT

Clothing made of chintz - brightly patterned, dyed cotton - became popular in Britain and the Netherlands from the 1660s. The fashion reached its peak in the early 18th century. The relative cheapness of Indian fabrics meant that ordinary men and women could afford to wear chintz. The situation upset some who complained they could no longer tell a servant from her mistress.

Jacket and petticoat
Cotton, hand-drawn and dyed
Coromandel Coast, 1720-50
Given by G.P. Baker
V&A: IS.12,14-1950

Fichu
Cotton
England, 1730-69
Given by Mrs s.Walton
V&A: T.333·1980
Credit line
Given by G.P. Baker
Production
Made for the Western market; probably worn in Holland.
Subject depicted
Flowers
Summary
The design of this chintz petticoat is of two alternating flowering plants against a white background. Unlike petticoats of the same date with arcaded borders and floral fields, the space above the tall flowering plants is here empty, suggesting that it would be covered with a jacket.
Bibliographic references
  • Crill, Rosemary, Chintz: Indian Textiles for the West, London, 2008. Plate 78, p. 128
  • Irwin, John and Katherine Brett, Origins of Chintz, London, 1970. With a catalogue of Indo-European cotton-paintings in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. ISBN 112900534. p. 110, cat. no. 110, pl. 101
  • Crill, Rosemary, Arts of Asia, vol. 45, no. 5, September - October 2015, p.71, no. 23.
Collection
South & South East Asia Collection
Accession number
IS.14-1950

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Record createdNovember 28, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O141148/petticoat-unknown/
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