Description:
Woman's once-piece, round gown made from a block-printed cotton. The gown features a drawstring tie closure at center front, high waist, overly-long sleeves slightly gathered at the heads, and straight hem with no train. The garment is an important example of women's fashionable, but affordable, daywear at the turn of the 19th century. The bodice back features a transitional construction detail of a squared seamed back with center pleat or gather, a hybrid method between 18th- and early 19th-century dressmaking. The gown has a history of ownership to the Cordes/Dowart family in Pennsylvania, but a definitive connection cannot be made. The textile's design was probably printed in England using a three-step process; first the resist paste was applied and the fabric dyed in indigo; then the paste was removed the fabric was dyed in indigo a second time; finally, top dyeing in a yellow dye produced the green flowers (where the resist had been). The cotton is woven with a tighter-spun, Z-twist warp yarn, and a looser, S-twist weft yarn.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2019.6 |
