Description:
Silk brocade gown consisting of a robe with closed bodice and open skirt, plus a modified panel to fill in the open skirt front. The gown is made from a pink/peach plain weave silk (taffeta) ground, with a supplementary polychrome brocaded threads. The designs formed by the brocaded designs include warp-patterned stripes in white, purple and two shades of blue; meandering red flushing or background pattern with laddice work and floral vine; and a blue and white warp patterned stripe. The dress has a fitted bodice with long points at the center front and back waist, a wide scoop neck, and elbow-length fitted sleeves. A waist seam completely bisects the bodice and skirt, possible suggesting a French interpretation of English-back (robe a l'Anglaise, or en fourreau) construction. Although the center back of the bodice is constructed using seams, there is evidence (earlier fold lines) that the farbic was once arranged in stitched down pleats, following earlier robe a l'angliase construction. Modern construction methods have reattached the skirt ot the bodice. Bodice is lined. The open skirt edges are rounded. Pink silk fabric (modern?) has been pinked and pleated, and stiched to the ends of the sleeves. The attached skirt is cartridge-pleated at the waist and bound in pink silk fabric or tape. The skirt ends at the side fronts leaving a 10" opeining. The "apron" is a piece of the same fabric, lightly pleated at the waist and bound with yellow silk fabric or tape. Five yellow silk tapes are stitched to each side of the apron; most of these have synthetic magenta tape extensions stitched to them and the same magenta tape if used for waist ties. The dress and apron are unlined and stiched by hand with tan silk thread. Patterned silks were one of the most expensive textiles available during the 17th and 18th centuries since the time and effort to draft the design and weave the pattern added significantly to their cost. In this brocaded silk example, supplementary weft threads add color and design to the ground fabric. The pattern dates the fabric to the 1770s, and it is probably English, woven in London’s Spitalfield’s area, the center of the British silk weaving industry. Because of the cost, gowns made from this expensive fabric were rarities. They infrequently appear in Connecticut Valley probate records; those families who could afford the cloth to make up a gown handed them down to subsequent generations, who in turn altered them to accommodate changes in size or fashion. This gown was altered about 10 years after its initial creation to reflect a date of the mid-1780s, with a narrower skirt and straight sleeves ending in a box-pleated cuff. With the extra fabric from the alteration, the open skirt was filled in to imitate the more fashionable round gown at this time.bust: 35"; waist 27 1/2"; front length: 48 1/2 in.; apron: 35" long x 25 1/2" wide
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.078 |
