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Not currently on display at the V&A

Design

1712 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Design for woven silk from the 'Leman Album', in pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on laid paper, in purple/brown, depicting a vase of flowers. The design is on a small hexagonal piece of paper.

This design is one of five extra motifs, of irregular shape and size, pasted on at the foot of the page of the main design (E.1861.8-1991). These motifs are apparently alternative designs for the scattered motifs on the main design. Ink strokes on these motifs correspond to markings on the main design and thus perhaps indicate where they should be positioned.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on laid paper
Brief description
Design for woven silk from the 'Leman Album', pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on laid paper, by James Leman, Spitalfields, 1712
Physical description
Design for woven silk from the 'Leman Album', in pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on laid paper, in purple/brown, depicting a vase of flowers. The design is on a small hexagonal piece of paper.

This design is one of five extra motifs, of irregular shape and size, pasted on at the foot of the page of the main design (E.1861.8-1991). These motifs are apparently alternative designs for the scattered motifs on the main design. Ink strokes on these motifs correspond to markings on the main design and thus perhaps indicate where they should be positioned.
Dimensions
  • Height: 6.4cm
  • Across the widest part width: 5.9cm
  • Height: 2.5in
  • Across the widest part width: 2.3125in
Credit line
Purchased with Art Fund support and the National Heritage Memorial Fund
Object history
This is a design from the so-called 'Leman album' which was bought from Vanners Silks Ltd. 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, however, a concordance exists.

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.
Production
Attribution note: This design is one of five extra motifs of irregular shape and size, which were apparently alternative designs for the scattered motifs of the main design - E.1861.8-1991 (VS.7). This motif is pasted on at the foot of the page, along with the other four extra motifs. Ink strokes on these motifs correspond to markings on the main design and thus perhaps indicate where they should be positioned. This information is taken from Natalie Rothstein's publication, Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century. See the 'References' section for more bibliographic details.

Each of the five extra motifs has its own museum number and is catalogued separately - E.1861.9-1991, E.1861.10-1991, E.1861.11-1991, E.1861.12-1991 and E.1861.13-1991. However, originally they were all assigned the number VS.7.
Bibliographic reference
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. 351p., ill. ISBN 0500235899. p. 106
Other number
VS.7 - 'VS' stands for Vanners Silks which owned the album when Natalie Rothstein catalogued it for her publication <u>Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century</u>.
Collection
Accession number
E.1861:11-1991

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Record createdMay 3, 2002
Record URL
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