Design

Physical description

There are pencil sketches at the top of the sheet of paper. The design depicts a house among trees with outsize fruit. This design is pasted to another paper possibly with a design on it E.1861.3-1991 (VS.2). Only the edge of this lower sheet of paper can be seen and the number of the dezines is visible on this lower sheet.

Place of Origin

Spitalfields, England (possibly, designed)

Date

1733 (designed)

Artist/maker

Leman, James, born 1688 - died 1745 (designer)

Materials and Techniques

Pencil, water and bodycolour on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 47 cm, Width: 28 cm, Height: 18 1/2 in, Width: 11 in

Object history note

The album, from which this is a design was bought from Vanners & Co. In 1991 Natalie Rothstein catalogued the designs before the album was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum. She gave each design a VS number (for Vanners Silks) in her catalogue 'Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century'. The designs have been subsequently numbered by the Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department.

Historical significance: The designs collected in the album are, with the exception of some fragmentary medieval examples in Italian collections, the earliest silk designs known to exist.

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

Rothstein, Natalie 'Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London with a Complete Catalogue with 473 Illustrations, 371 in Colour'. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990. pp.96-107.

Production Note

The following information is taken from Natalie Rothstein 'Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century'. Please see the bibliographic reference under 'References'.
'This kind of design, with a house among trees with outsize fruit is typical of the years 1733-1735. The use of 'points rentrés' modelling suggests that this drawing cannot anyway have been executed before 1733.'

This drawing is one of five which fall outside the main body of the Vanners Silks group. It is of a much later date. This can be seen by comparing both it and the others with dated designs by Anna Maria Garthwaite in the Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Comparison can also be made with dated French designs in Paris and Lyon. The choice of motifs, the much greater degree of naturalism and the use in all but E.1861.85-1991 (VS.76) of 'points rentrés' indicate for all of them a date in the 1730s.

It is conceivable that some of these drawings are by James Leman who was still alive in the 1730s. The short English inscription on E.1861.85-1991 (VS.76) may be in his hand and the inscription itself, together with the fact that three of the drawings have been squared off for drafting, does seem to indicate that these patterns were woven in England.

But the superb design E.1861.105-1991 (VS.96) and to a lesser extent E.1861.85-1991 (VS.76) and E.1861.101-1991 (VS.92), so resemble French designs of the period that they must either be actual French drawings or close copies of them. There can be no doubt that E.1861.105-1991 (VS.96) is French and possibly by Jean Revel himself. It would have been perfectly in accordance with the practice at Spitalfields for Leman to have been in possession of French designs for woven silks: among the group of designs belonging to Garthwaite is a whole series labelled 'French Patterns'. The following designs may represent some of Leman's 'French Patterns'.
E.1861.2-1991 (VS.1), E.1861.55-1991 (VS.97), E.1861.85-1991 (VS.76), E.1861.101-1991 (VS.92), E.1861.105-1991 (VS.96).

Materials

Pencil; Watercolour; Bodycolour; Laid paper

Techniques

Drawing; Painting

Collection code

PDP