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.
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, England (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. 431 p., ill. ISBN 1851773088.
When this astonishing carving was given to the Museum in 1928 by Mrs. Basil Ionides, Grinling Gibbons was already established as the archetypal English craftsman genius. He is perhaps best known for his work for Sir Christopher Wren at St. Paul's Cathedral and for his royal commissions. Another example of his work - a relief of the stoning of Saint Stephen - had for some time been prominently displayed in the Museum. Not surprisingly, this trompe l'oeil "cravat," carved in imitation of Venetian needlepoint lace fashionable in the late seventeenth century and similar to those used in other schemes of carved decoration associated with Gibbons, was described then as a virtuoso example by a craftsman "so highly gifted that he transformed existing practice and originated a style." Making Gibbons a canonical figure was largely due to connoisseur and collector Horace Walpole, who included an account of Gibbons in his Anecdotes of Painting. As well as attributing one of the ivories on his cabinet (cat. 134) to Gibbons, Walpole also owned this cravat, "the art of which arrives even to deception," and displayed it near the cabinet at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. In a letter of 11 May 1769, Walpole described receiving a number of distinguished foreign visitors, for which occasion he dressed in the Gibbons cravat and wore a pair of embroidered gloves that had belonged to King James I, reporting that "the French servants stared and firmly believed that this was the dress of English Country Gentlemen."
In 1874 Gibbons's life was celebrated in Austin Clare's popular historical novel, The Carved Cartoon, and his work was promoted by those interested in English art and design. Although not among the artists represented in the Museum's so-called Kensington Valhalla created from 1862 to 1871, his statue appeared on the façade of the Aston Webb building in 1909, five years before a monograph about him was published by H. Avray Tipping, editor of Country Life (and the donor of Thomas Carter's Chaloner Chute [cat. 136], with its Walpole associations). However, as a woodcarver his work occupied an ambiguous position between woodwork and sculpture, allowing the Saint Stephen relief to be displayed with English furniture in 1923 and then alongside English sculpture in 1930. With the formation of the English Primary Galleries in 1950, both the relief and this cravat were shown together as part of a narrative about English art.
Lit. Avray Tipping, 1914, pp. 82-3; Edwards, 1929; V&A, 1955, no. 30; Green, 1964, p. 52; Oughton, 1979, pp. 136-7; Beard, 1989, p. 44
TESSA MURDOCH
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.
Exhibition History
Precious: Objects and Changing Values (The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield 02/04/2001-24/06/2001)
Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/06/2003-04/07/2010)
Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill (Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven 15/10/2009-03/01/2010)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 14/10/1999-16/01/2000)
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
Lace; Cravat
Categories
Woodwork; British Galleries; Clothing; Fashion
Collection code
FWK
