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Waistcoat Shape

1785-1795 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Embroidered design for both sides of a man’s waistcoat on 1 length of ivory silk satin. It is tamboured with silk floss in shades of pink, green and brown in mirror-imaged design of a gardener pushing a wheelbarrow filled with turnips and other gardening implements (barrels, ladders, watering cans, rakes), a bird perched on a post. Small floral sprigs over main body of waistcoat. The shape is worked with a 2-inch (5 cm) collar, revers, welted pockets and no skirts. The pocket welts have been cut out and sewn in place. Eleven rectangles have been worked along each front marking the buttonholes on the left. Thirteen circular button covers are worked above the fronts.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silk; hand-woven satin, tamboured
Brief description
Embroidered shape for a man's waistcoat, 1785-95, French; ivory silk satin, embroidered coloured silks, gardener
Physical description
Embroidered design for both sides of a man’s waistcoat on 1 length of ivory silk satin. It is tamboured with silk floss in shades of pink, green and brown in mirror-imaged design of a gardener pushing a wheelbarrow filled with turnips and other gardening implements (barrels, ladders, watering cans, rakes), a bird perched on a post. Small floral sprigs over main body of waistcoat. The shape is worked with a 2-inch (5 cm) collar, revers, welted pockets and no skirts. The pocket welts have been cut out and sewn in place. Eleven rectangles have been worked along each front marking the buttonholes on the left. Thirteen circular button covers are worked above the fronts.
Dimensions
  • Length: 77.5cm (approx)
  • Selvedge to selvedge width: 55.0cm (approx)
Production typeUnique
Historical context
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.
Subjects depicted
Collection
Accession number
878-1891

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Record createdApril 17, 2009
Record URL
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