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 |
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| Production type | Unique |
| 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 created | April 17, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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