Physical description

Cravat carved from limewood with raised and openwork carving, 24.1 x 20.9 x 5.1 cm. Carved in imitation of Venetian needle lace fashionable in the late seventeenth century and similar to those used in other schemes of carved decoration associated with Gibbons.

The lace represented would be a piece measuring 32 x 16.5 cm if it were laid flat.

Place of Origin

London (made)

Date

ca. 1690 (made)

Artist/maker

Gibbons, Grinling, born 1648 - died 1721 (maker)

Materials and Techniques

Limewood, with raised and openwork carving

Dimensions

Height: 24.1 cm, Width: 20.9 cm, Depth: 5.1 cm

Object history note

Made in London by Grinling Gibbons (born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1648, died in London, 1721)
In the Description of Strawberry Hill, 1774, the cravat was in the Tribune and was identified as by Gibbons. In the 1784 edition it is described as 'a present from Mr. Grosvenor Bedford', who had given the cravat to Walpole by 1769.

Sold in the Strawberry Hill sale, 1842, day 15, lot 99, when it was bought by Miss Burdett Coutts for 9 guineas. Sold from the collection of the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts on 11 May 1922 by Christies (lot 345a). Bought by Read for £26.5. Given to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1928 by the Hon. Mrs Walter Levy.

Descriptive line

Cravat, made of limewood with raised and openwork carving, by Grinling Gibbons, ca. 1690

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Baker, Malcolm and Richardson, Brenda, eds. A Grand Design : The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 1997. p. 305. ISBN 1851773088.
Snodin, Michael, ed., with the assistance of Cynthia Roman. Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill. New Have and London: The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, Yale Center for British Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in association with Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12574-0. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the The Yale Center for British Art, 2009 and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010, cat.167, fig. 116, pp. 316
Snodin, Michael, ed., with the assistance of Cynthia Roman. Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill. New Have and London: The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, Yale Center for British Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in association with Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12574-0. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the The Yale Center for British Art, 2009 and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010, cat. 167, p.86.
This object features in 'Out on Display: A selection of LGBTQ-related objects on display in the V&A', a booklet created by the V&A's LGBTQ Working Group. First developed and distributed to coincide with the 2014 Pride in London Parade, the guide was then expanded for the Queer and Now Friday Late that took place in February 2015.
Victoria & Albert Museum: Fifty Masterpieces of Woodwork (London, 1955), no. 30.

The Grinling Gibbons Cravat

Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), was born in Rotterdam, of English extraction. At the age of fifteen years he came to England and attracted the attention of John Evelyn, who introduced him to Charles ll. He made a great reputation as a woodcarver, and was employed also to carry out extensive schemes of wall decoration, in which highly naturalistic ornament is carved and modelled with great dexterity and in extraordinary detail. No mere illusionist craftsman, he was gifted with a remarkable feeling for composition and arrangement. Gibbons was also a sculptor of distinction and this aspect of his activities has only lately been explored.
This model of a point-lace cravat in limewood is highly characteristic of a style in part derived from his Dutch antecedents in painting, carving and the other arts. It was formerly in the possession of Horace Walpole, and hung in the room at his house at Strawberry Hill, known as the ‘Tribune’. On 11th May, 1769, Walpole described to George Montagu how at a frolic of several days before he had received a number of distinguished foreign guests wearing the Grinling Gibbons cravat, in which ‘the art arrives even to deception', as well as a pair of embroidered gloves which had belonged to James I. Walpole added that ‘the French Servants stared and firmly believed this was the dress of an English Country gentleman.
When Walpole’s collection was dispersed in 1842 the carved cravat was bought by Miss Burdett-Coutts (later Baroness Burdett-Coutts) for a small sum. It remained in her house at No. 1 Stratton Street, until her death in 1906, when it was acquired by the late Hercules Read of the British Museum. At the sale of his collection in 1928 the cravat was purchased by the Hon. Mrs. Walter Levy (Mrs. Ionides), who gave it to the Museum.

English; late seventeenth century.
H. 9 ½ in., W. 8 ¼ in.

Labels and date

Such cravats, carved in imitation of Venetian needle-point lace, appear in several architectural schemes of carved decoration associated with Gibbons, notably at Petworth and Hackwood, but the virtuosity of this example makes it a unique survival. It belonged to Horace Walpole and was normally kept in the Tribune Room at Strawberry Hill. On 11 May 1769, he received some distinguished foreign visitors wearing the cravat and a pair of gloves which had belonged to James I: 'the French servants stared and firmly believed that this was the dress of an English country gentleman'. [pre May 2001]
British Galleries:
Walpole greatly admired the skilled carving of this cravat as a fine example of the work of the 17th century wood carver Grinling Gibbons. However, he was not above using it for a joke. In 1769 he described how he had received some distinguished foreign guests while wearing it: 'The French servants stared and firmly believed that this was the dress of an English country gentleman.' [27/03/2003]

Subjects depicted

Cravat; Lace

Categories

Fashion; Clothing; Woodwork; British Galleries

Collection

Furniture and Woodwork Collection