Design for woven silk by Anna Maria Garthwaite, Spitalfields, 1726-1727

Design for woven silk

The title 'before I came to London' is written on the original cover for the series numbered 5970 as noted by Natalie Rothstein in her published catalogue Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century. In it she states that it is not entirely clear how the title should be interpreted 'there is no doubt that all the drawings in this series are by Garthwaite and that most of them represent her early efforts, 'before I came to London.' It is certain, however, that not all these drawings are from the year 1726 since there are others in the Series bearing the dates '1727'. '1728', '1729'...Since there are three drawings in this Series dated 1729 it might be surmised that Garthwaite arrived in London in or after that year. However, it is also possible that she came up the year before; on a tracing now numbered 5976.5A is the inscription 'For Mr Le Pine June 1 1728', and the number '1'. Could this be her first commission after her arrival in London? We know that there were several weavers in Spitalfields by the name of Lepine or De Le Pine at about this time. Of course this may be a tracing of a drawing sent up to Lepine from Yorkshire but if that were the case, might she not have written, as she did on 5970.28 (a drawing from about 1727 or 1728 but not later), 'This was sent to London with the rul'd paper before I came up'? Whatever the truth of the matter, we know that she was first working in Yorkshire.'

Natalie Rothstein in her published catalogue Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century notes that the designs in the series numbered 5970 are simpler in nature than those of approximately the same date that are attributed to Christopher Baudouin. She states 'many of the designs in this Series seem to have been influenced by contemporary English embroidery and many of them are not particularly suitable for weaving. This either means that she [Garthwaite] had yet to learn some of the rules of silk-designing or that these designs are, in fact, for embroidery.'

Anna Maria Garthwaite was born in 1690 and became one of the leading pattern drawers in the English silk industry despite the likelihood that she did not receive the formal technical training usually considered necessary to take up such a profession. She produced as many as 80 commissioned designs a year, such as this one, for master weavers and mercers. She lived and worked in Spitalfields, London from about 1730 until her death in 1763. Her interest in natural form--and her talent for depicting it--characterized her designs throughout her professional life.

5970:14