Description:
Man's waistcoat featuring motifs embroidered in multi-color silk floss on a shimmering off-white satin-weave silk ground. The colorful, embroidered designs, featuring flora, fauna, familiar objects like a quiver and arrows and western-style hat, as well as sailing ships. Together, these motifs evoke the familiar and exotic; their presence on this garment spoke to a wide range of interests for its wearer, who would have purchased this as a pre-embroidered length of silk to be made up by a tailor into the waistcoat. The waistcoat was probably first made in the 1780s; later it was altered and updated to reflect a fashionable 1790s man's waistcoat.

Label Text:
Late eighteenth-century men’s waistcoats and vests increasingly featured pictorial motifs. The embroidered designs seen on this example include landscapes and animals unfamiliar to many Westerners at the time. The ship motif further underscores the idea of travel. These designs, probably copied from printed sources, provided novelty and sparked conversation.

Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Cotton; Embroidery; polychrome; Silk

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.631

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