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Dress
Unknown - Enlarge image
Dress
- Place of origin:
Turkey (made)
- Date:
1830-1870 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Woven silk, embroidered with silk
- Credit Line:
Given by Mr and Mrs John Makower
- Museum number:
T.197-1964
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The side seams of this robe barely extend below the hips. From that point downwards the back and the front panels are separate, revealing the trousers that would have been worn underneath. They also show their own lining, which in this case is an imported European furnishing fabric of blue silk damask.
The silk used for the robe was woven with a fine black floral stripe at wide intervals, and a meandering floral stem has been embroidered in the intervening spaces. This pattern was first printed on the ground fabric with dark ink, which can be seen clearly in several places, and was then embroidered using a tambour hook. The completed length of woven and embroidered silk was then cut into the appropriate pieces for the robe. It has been edged with a metal braid.
Tambour work is only possible if the fabric is held very tightly in a frame. It takes it name from the French word for a drum, because many of the early tambour frames were drum-shaped, and is a quick method of covering the ground with a fine chain-stitch.
