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Design for a woven silk

Design
1748 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a design for a woven silk by Anna Maria Garthwaite. Garthwaite was the daughter of a clergyman, born in 1690. She is unlikely to have received the formal technical training usually considered necessary to take up such a profession, but in her later adult life she became a successful freelance textile designer who lived and worked in Spitalfields from about 1730 until her death in 1763. She was one of the leading pattern drawers in the English silk industry, producing as many as eighty designs a year to commissions from master weavers and mercers. Her interest in natural form and talent for depicting it characterised her designs throughout her working life.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleDesign for a woven silk (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on paper
Brief description
Design for a woven silk made by Anna Maria Garthwaite, Spitalfields, 1748.
Physical description
Design for a woven silk
Dimensions
  • Of design height: 67cm
  • Of design width: 27.3cm
Marks and inscriptions
'Mr Vauteir June the 28:1748:'
Subject depicted
Summary
This is a design for a woven silk by Anna Maria Garthwaite. Garthwaite was the daughter of a clergyman, born in 1690. She is unlikely to have received the formal technical training usually considered necessary to take up such a profession, but in her later adult life she became a successful freelance textile designer who lived and worked in Spitalfields from about 1730 until her death in 1763. She was one of the leading pattern drawers in the English silk industry, producing as many as eighty designs a year to commissions from master weavers and mercers. Her interest in natural form and talent for depicting it characterised her designs throughout her working life.
Bibliographic reference
Rothstein, Natalie. Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1990. P351,. Ill. ISBN 0500235899.
Collection
Accession number
5986:6

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Record createdFebruary 11, 2004
Record URL
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