Woman's ensemble, embroidered cotton, wool, metal threads, Romania, 1875-1899.

The full back skirt opens down the front and is worn over the narrow front apron. The belt is wound three or four times around the waist.

T.214- Blouse. Hand-woven cotton, embroidered on the front, back, shoulders and sleeves with geometric patterns in red cotton and metal threads. Cross and stem stitches, the seams joined with Roumanian stitch. Metal thread worked in chain stitch. Bodice and full sleeves are gathered to a high neck band. Sleeves gathered to a frill at the wrist, overcast at the edge in red cotton.

T.214-A Skirt (petticoat) - Hand-woven cotton, gathered at the waist with a draw-string. EMbroidered at the hem to match in red cotton and metal threads. Seams joined for some inches above the hem with Romanian stitch. Metal thread worked in chain stitch. Bodice and full sleeves are gathered to a high neck band. Sleeves gathered to a frill at the wrist, overcast at the edge in red cotton.

T.214-B Apron (Catrinta) - Hand-woven, black wool brocaded with metal threads and loom embroidered with small amounts of red, mauve and pale blue wool. There is a deep border of silver brocading at the lower edge. Pleated to a tape at the waist. The bottom half lined with red satin. Lower edge finished with a narrow needle-made lace in metal threads.

T.214-C Back skirt - hand-woven in black wool and metal threads as the apron, with deep borders at hem and the two front edges, both of which are finished with lace to match the hem of the apron. Pleated to a tape at the waist. The lower half lined with red satin.

T.214-D Belt - black wool brocaded with metal threads and loom embroidered with coloured wools to match apron and skirt. Finished at the ends with tassels in metal threads and coloured wools with beads and spangles.

Given by Mr Paul Telco of London.

A note in the register says: 'this costume is said to have been worn at the court of Queen Marie of Roumania, 1895-1900. (There was a fashion for wearing national costume at the Romanian court at this period. Marie was Crown Princess at the time.)

A 1971 note in the register from V&A curator Pauline Johnstone says ' I showed this costume to Mme Muzicescu of the Institute of the History of Art, Bucharest. She says it is not a genuine peasant costume. The pattern of the wide border of the skirt belongs to Muscel near Arges, whereas the type of skirt in this districtr was the narrow wrap-around (see above). The pattern shoiuld not be aligned to the catrinta. The skirt is too long, since the genuine costume has a shorter overskirt, showing several inches of petticoat underneath. The petticoat and the blouse should not be seperate, but one shift. The belt is wrong, and should not have tassels. She says that in the 1920's there were societies of upper class ladies in Bucharest devoted to the preservation of peasant costume, who had costumes made up, but unfortunately while the techniques were good, they had no real knowledge of the old costumes and the resulting products were a somewhat romantic and sentimental composition drawn from the costumes of various regions. She considers that this is one of these. The same remarks also apply to T.93 to D-1926.'

Obtained alongside T.155 to 189-1968, a selection of Hungarian/Romanian embroidereis.

The donor of the collection came to England from Budapest in the 1920s. The embroideries were family possessions but the donor did not know from which area of Hungary his family came from. However, the bulk come from Kalotaszeg, Transylvania (now part of Romania), with some examples from the neighboring areas of Szekeley, Torocko and Banat (all in Romania).

T.214-1968