Carving
ca. 1690 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Object Type
This wooden cravat is carved in imitation of Venetian needlepoint lace and is life size. It was made to demonstrate the carver's skill. Similar cravats appear in architectural decorative schemes associated with Gibbons. This piece was probably made to show and impress potential patrons.
People
The cravat belonged to Horace Walpole (1717-1797) who thought highly of Gibbons' work as a woodcarver. His family home, Houghton, Norfolk, included a room decorated with Gibbons' carving. Walpole thought that one of the ivory reliefs on his cabinet (W.52:1-1925) - that representing Judith with the head of Holofernes - was also carved by Gibbons although this attribution is not accepted today.
Place
Gibbons' cravat was displayed in the Tribune Room at Strawberry Hill with the Walpole Cabinet. It formed part of Horace Walpole's collection of special small objects. In 1769 Walpole wore the cravat to receive some distinguished French, Spanish and Portuguese visitors at his Twickenham home, Strawberry Hill.
This wooden cravat is carved in imitation of Venetian needlepoint lace and is life size. It was made to demonstrate the carver's skill. Similar cravats appear in architectural decorative schemes associated with Gibbons. This piece was probably made to show and impress potential patrons.
People
The cravat belonged to Horace Walpole (1717-1797) who thought highly of Gibbons' work as a woodcarver. His family home, Houghton, Norfolk, included a room decorated with Gibbons' carving. Walpole thought that one of the ivory reliefs on his cabinet (W.52:1-1925) - that representing Judith with the head of Holofernes - was also carved by Gibbons although this attribution is not accepted today.
Place
Gibbons' cravat was displayed in the Tribune Room at Strawberry Hill with the Walpole Cabinet. It formed part of Horace Walpole's collection of special small objects. In 1769 Walpole wore the cravat to receive some distinguished French, Spanish and Portuguese visitors at his Twickenham home, Strawberry Hill.
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How was it made? Grinling Gibbons' carved cravat
Grinling Gibbons' limewood cravat was carved over 300 years ago. Celebrated for its amazing realism and the exquisite detailing of lace, it is a landmark work by Britain's most famous carver.

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Grinling Gibbons' limewood cravat
The limewood cravat carved by Grinling Gibbons (1648 – 1721) is one of the museum's most celebrated pieces. Its virtuoso delicacy and the charming illusion of lace carved from wood have inspired wonder for over three centuries, and still do today. No documented mention of the cravat surviv...
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Limewood, with raised and openwork carving |
Brief description | Cravat, made of limewood with raised and openwork carving, by Grinling Gibbons, ca. 1690 |
Physical description | Carving with raised and openwork in the form of a tied lace cravat tied using contemporary Venetian needle lace with a bow of plain linen. The reverse is unfinished. Supplied with the carving is an early 20th century wooden box (HWD: 9.3 x 27.4 x 24.2cm) with hinged and locking glazed lid (without the key), lined with red velvet which has faded to the outline of the carving, contains a paper with handwriting, probably 19th century (black ink): 'From Horace Walpole, Lord Orford's/ collection, sold at Strawberry Hill / 1842 / Carved Bow in Oak / by the famous Gibbon |
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Gallery label |
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Credit line | Given by The Hon. Mrs Walter Levy |
Object history | Given to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1928 by the Hon. Mrs Walter Levy who had bid successfully (£100) at the Sotheby's auction of Sir Hercules Read's collection, November 1928. Attribution: Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), late 17th century. Condition: 'Portions of lace frill at bottom broken'. Some small damage seems to have occurred between the photograph of the cravat as it appears in Tipping, 1914 pl.73 (see below) and its photography at the museum. Provenance Sold in the Strawberry Hill sale, 1842, day 15, lot 99, when it was bought by Miss Angela Georgina Burdett Coutts for 9 guineas. Sold from the collection of the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts (d.1906) on 11 May 1922 by Christies (lot 345a). Bought by Hercules Read (1857-1929), Keeper of the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography at the British Museum, for £26.5. as a personal purchase. In the Description of Strawberry Hill, 1774, the cravat was in the Tribune and was identified as by Gibbons. It was in one of two glazed cabinets containing Walpole's 'principal curiosities' which flanked the altar. In the 1784 edition the cravat is described as 'a present from Mr. Grosvenor Bedford' (Walpole's deputy at the Exchequer), who had given the cravat to Walpole by 1769. Display History Room 56, probably from soon after acquisition Room 54 by April 1972 Room 55, by 1989 until 1997 October 1997-September 1999 A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum temporary exhibition (Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, MFA Houston, Fine Arts Musuem, San Francisco, V&A London) 2000-1 Gallery 62 'Best of British' From 2001: Displayed in gallery 118a (British Galleries) in the display 'Walpole the Collector' 2013: Featured in the BBC TV series Handmade in Britain (2013), 'CARVED WITH LOVE: The glorious Grinling Gibbons' 2018: Lent to the exhibition 'The Genius of Grinling Gibbons - From Journeyman to King's Carver' at Fairfax House, York, April 14th - 14th September 2018. 2018: Shown at Strawberry Hill for the exhibition 'Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill: Masterpieces from Horace Walpole's Collection', 20 October 2018 - 24 February 2019. See below for reference to catalogue. 2021-2 (August 2021-Feb 2022) Grinling Gibbons Society Anniversary Exhibition at Bonhams and Compton Verney Conservation History c. 1985-86 the cravat was treated by Paul Wilson of the restoration firm Griss and Butler (Hoddesdon, Herts.). Comparable carvings The cravat is comparable to those representations of lace in other schemes of carved decoration by or associated with Gibbons such as the Cosimo Panel, 1682 given by Charles II to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de' Medici 1642-1723), for which Gibbons was paid £150, his highest payment for a woodcarvng (Esterly, p.131-3) Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, Panel of small carvings with a point lace cravat, songbird, a medallion and foliage (possibly by Gibbons or Samuel Watson (1662–1715), who worked in Gibbons's style at Chatsworth between 1691 and 1711 (See Esterly, p.104); Design An example of the type of gros point de Venise lace Gibbons has depicted is V&A T.41-1947. The lace represented would be a piece measuring 32 x 16.5 cm if it were laid flat. |
Historical context | Further Reading David Esterly, Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving, (London, V & A Publications, 1998) Tony Webb, Master Carver, St Paul's Cathedral; '50 Years of Following In Grinling Gibbons' Tool Cuts' in V&A Conservation Journal, October 1998 Issue 29 |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | Object Type This wooden cravat is carved in imitation of Venetian needlepoint lace and is life size. It was made to demonstrate the carver's skill. Similar cravats appear in architectural decorative schemes associated with Gibbons. This piece was probably made to show and impress potential patrons. People The cravat belonged to Horace Walpole (1717-1797) who thought highly of Gibbons' work as a woodcarver. His family home, Houghton, Norfolk, included a room decorated with Gibbons' carving. Walpole thought that one of the ivory reliefs on his cabinet (W.52:1-1925) - that representing Judith with the head of Holofernes - was also carved by Gibbons although this attribution is not accepted today. Place Gibbons' cravat was displayed in the Tribune Room at Strawberry Hill with the Walpole Cabinet. It formed part of Horace Walpole's collection of special small objects. In 1769 Walpole wore the cravat to receive some distinguished French, Spanish and Portuguese visitors at his Twickenham home, Strawberry Hill. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | W.181:1-1928 |
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Record created | May 31, 2001 |
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