This extraordinary length of embroidered silk documents three important aspects of 18th-century dress: the high quality of French needlework, the sequence of decorating and sewing up waistcoats and the efforts to which the British went to acquire desirable French fashions.

To make an embroidered waistcoat, the needlework was done first on two lengths of fabric, one for the left front and the other for the right front. The lengths, known as waistcoat shapes, were purchased at a silk mercers or haberdashers, then taken to a tailor for making up into a waistcoat.

The stamp seen on the inside of the lower right edge reads ‘Custom House / SEIZED DOVER / GR II’, indicating that this is contraband – a French waistcoat shape apprehended during an attempt to smuggle it into England during the reign of George II (1727–60). For most of the 18th century, imported French silks and laces were taxed heavily, in order to protect British textile industries. Smuggling of these and other taxable goods was rife through all levels of society; customs officials at British ports searched very carefully and seized any contraband items. Articles confiscated in this manner were usually burned, so the survival of this beautiful but forbidden object is indeed remarkable.