Chasuble
1707-1708 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Chasuble made from two woven silks. The outer silk is a lampas with a green damask ground and a pattern in gold and silver thread and coloured silks with two large vases, an archway, a bird, a fountain in a park and a small building in red and yellow silks. A vase in one repeat is brocaded in red and yellow silk. Bizarre garden grounded green, and orphrey pale blue.
The silk forming the orphrey of the chasuble is a sky blue damask brocaded in silver gilt thread with a more abstract and, possibly earlier, Bizarre silk design. The most obvious features are three superimposed square panels with 'trees' growing from them and some bulbous and geometric shapes linked by a floral stem.
Repeat: Green ground silk: height 34.375 inches and width 9.5 inches visible. This silk is at least 19 inches wide.
Repeat: Blue ground silk: height 28.75 inches and width only 6.375 inches visible.
There is a silver braid round the chasuble and a different one used to edge the orphrey and delineate the 'hood'.
Both silks have a complex structure using very high quality gold and silver thread.
The green silk: lampas with a damask ground brocaded in silver and silver-gilt thread (file and frise) and coloured silks. The pattern is bound in 3/1 twill with a binding warp. The metal threads are used in paired shoots.
The blue silk: damask brocaded in silver-gilt thread used in paired shoots, file and frise. Only a very small amount of pink silk is used for a few details. The pattern is bound in 3/1 twill.
The chasuble has retained its original glazed linen lining and buckram interlining.
The silk forming the orphrey of the chasuble is a sky blue damask brocaded in silver gilt thread with a more abstract and, possibly earlier, Bizarre silk design. The most obvious features are three superimposed square panels with 'trees' growing from them and some bulbous and geometric shapes linked by a floral stem.
Repeat: Green ground silk: height 34.375 inches and width 9.5 inches visible. This silk is at least 19 inches wide.
Repeat: Blue ground silk: height 28.75 inches and width only 6.375 inches visible.
There is a silver braid round the chasuble and a different one used to edge the orphrey and delineate the 'hood'.
Both silks have a complex structure using very high quality gold and silver thread.
The green silk: lampas with a damask ground brocaded in silver and silver-gilt thread (file and frise) and coloured silks. The pattern is bound in 3/1 twill with a binding warp. The metal threads are used in paired shoots.
The blue silk: damask brocaded in silver-gilt thread used in paired shoots, file and frise. Only a very small amount of pink silk is used for a few details. The pattern is bound in 3/1 twill.
The chasuble has retained its original glazed linen lining and buckram interlining.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Brocaded silk damask with silks and metal threads, and glazed linen lining and buckram interlining |
| Brief description | Chasuble of brocaded silk damask with silks and metal threads, France, 1707-1708 |
| Physical description | Chasuble made from two woven silks. The outer silk is a lampas with a green damask ground and a pattern in gold and silver thread and coloured silks with two large vases, an archway, a bird, a fountain in a park and a small building in red and yellow silks. A vase in one repeat is brocaded in red and yellow silk. Bizarre garden grounded green, and orphrey pale blue. The silk forming the orphrey of the chasuble is a sky blue damask brocaded in silver gilt thread with a more abstract and, possibly earlier, Bizarre silk design. The most obvious features are three superimposed square panels with 'trees' growing from them and some bulbous and geometric shapes linked by a floral stem. Repeat: Green ground silk: height 34.375 inches and width 9.5 inches visible. This silk is at least 19 inches wide. Repeat: Blue ground silk: height 28.75 inches and width only 6.375 inches visible. There is a silver braid round the chasuble and a different one used to edge the orphrey and delineate the 'hood'. Both silks have a complex structure using very high quality gold and silver thread. The green silk: lampas with a damask ground brocaded in silver and silver-gilt thread (file and frise) and coloured silks. The pattern is bound in 3/1 twill with a binding warp. The metal threads are used in paired shoots. The blue silk: damask brocaded in silver-gilt thread used in paired shoots, file and frise. Only a very small amount of pink silk is used for a few details. The pattern is bound in 3/1 twill. The chasuble has retained its original glazed linen lining and buckram interlining. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Bought for £2,000 from the Antique Textile Co., London. Its relationship to a Leman design was noted in the accession records by the curator, who was a specialist in the 18th-century English silk industry. Registered File number 1987/1629. The orphrey is earlier in style than the James Leman designs but the outer green silk provides a model for the type of silk being designed by Leman in 1707 and 1708. The comparable designs from 1707 are VS. 5, 13 (both 'flowered satins'), 35 ('drawn from one of Mr Baudewine's') and 40 (with the name 'M. Baudewine'), 41 an 'orrace tissue' and 29 ca. 1707. In 1708 the most comparable designed are 38 an 'orrace tissue', 45, 54, 19 (all 'orrace tissues' with 'gold and silk brocade' or 'flush and brocade' - or stuck down and difficult to read) and 77, a damask with 'flush and brocade'. There are thus eleven designs similar both in style and in their technique. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | Rothstein, Nathalie. Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Pl. 8. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.221-1987 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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