Design
- Place of origin:
Spitalfields, England (designed)
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
Leman, James, born 1688 - died 1745 (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper
- Credit Line:
Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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The design on the right shows a central architectural feature in yellow and a pavilion, in yellow, beneath. There is a large fruit resembling a pineapple in the top left corner and an outsize flower. There are other smaller flowers superimposed over the architecture. This design is dated September 18th 1707.
James Leman was born in 1688 into a weaving family of Huguenot descent. In 1702 he was apprenticed to his father, Peter, and lived with his family in Stewart Street, Spitalfields in London. Leman's inscription on the design reveals that it was commissioned by Mr Sadler, a mercer who commissioned seven designs between 1706 and 1710.
This design is from an album that contains 97 designs for fine silk cloth. A constant supply of fashionable new designs from which to create new lines was required, so patternmakers and master weavers like Leman supplied a wide range of designs for different weavers. The album contains some of his work from the period 1706-1716.
Physical description
Design with a central architectural feature in yellow and a pavilion, in yellow, beneath. There is a large fruit resembling a pineapple in the top left corner and an outsize flower. There are other smaller flowers superimposed over the architecture.
Place of Origin
Spitalfields, England (designed)
Date
18/09/1707 (designed)
Artist/maker
Leman, James, born 1688 - died 1745 (designer)
Materials and Techniques
Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper
Marks and inscriptions
'London Sep 18th 1707 / Mr Sadler's Orrace Tishue / 400 Cords 8 & 12-120 Dezines /
James Leman' [beneath tape so only faintly legible] in 6 Simples 20 in each simple' [inscription repeated but inaccessible now] / / 'London Sept. 18th 1707 an orrace / tissue brocaded for Mr Sadler. / 400 cords No. 8 & 12-120 Dezines / For my father - / By me James Leman.'
Squared up in ink for cords and dezines, with dezines numbered in ink.
Dimensions
Height: 65.4 cm, Width: 26.7 cm, Height: 25 3/4 in, Width: 10 1/2 in
Object history note
This is a design from the so-called Leman album which 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, 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.
Descriptive line
Design for woven silk from the Leman album
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.
Exhibition History
Flowered Silks (Victoria and Albert Museum 08/08/1990-28/08/1990)
Materials
Pencil; Watercolour; Ink; Bodycolour
Techniques
Drawing; Painting
Collection code
PDP
