Waistcoat Front
1785-1795 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This delicate fabric is decorated witha technique known as punching. Accessories made using the technique became fashionable during the late eighteenth century. Fine fabric, either linen, muslin or silk, was stiffened by starch so the threads would stick together. Then the fabric was punched using fine rounded metal teeth to push the threads aside rather than severing them, creating a lace-like pattern.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Cotton, silk, silver; hand-woven, hand-embroidered, punched, hand sewn |
| Brief description | Left front of a man's waistcoat, 1785-95, British; muslin embroidered and punched, lined with pink silk |
| Physical description | Left front of a man’s waistcoat made of bleached muslin embroidered with coloured silks and silver spangles and punched in bands of leaves and single abstract motifs. It is lined with pink silk sarsenet to show through the punching and has 12 worked buttonholes along the front edge. It has a revers, welted pocket and reaches to the hip. |
| Dimensions |
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| Summary | This delicate fabric is decorated witha technique known as punching. Accessories made using the technique became fashionable during the late eighteenth century. Fine fabric, either linen, muslin or silk, was stiffened by starch so the threads would stick together. Then the fabric was punched using fine rounded metal teeth to push the threads aside rather than severing them, creating a lace-like pattern. |
| Bibliographic reference | Levey, S. M.: ‘Lace – A History’, W. S. Maney & Son ltd., Leeds, 1983, page: 75
Hart, A. & North, S.: 'Historical Fashion in Detail - The 17th and 18th Centuries', V&A Publications, London, 1998, page: 180 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.110-1916 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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