Description:
Black silk stocking with an embroidery decoration described by the donor as "Clock of the Govr stocking." The donor, Eileen Lousie Palmer Belcher, was the wife (married 1927) of Edward Brymer Belcher (1887-1961) who gave the portrait of Frederick William Geyer (HD 58.039) to Historic Deerfield in 1957. Edward Belcher was a direct descendent (9th generation) from this families' first Belcher in the colonies, Andrew Belcher who married Elizabeth Danforth. Their descendents included Andrew Belcher (1647/48-1717) who was a wealthy merchant in Boston and member of the Council in Boston from 1702 to 1717; Jonathan Belcher (1682-1757), Governor of Massachusetts from 1729/30 to 1741 and New Jersey from 1747-1757; Jonathan Belcher, Jr. (1710-1776), the first Chief Justice and a Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (1760-1764); Andrew Belcher (1761-1841), a wealthy merchant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who married Marianne Geyer (1773-1839), daughter of Frederick (d. 1821) and Susannah Geyer of Boston, in 1792; and Admiral Sir Edward Belcher (1799-1877) of the British Royal Navy. See HD 70.181, 70, 182, HD 58.039, HD 58.040, and HD 58.041 for portraits of Marianna Geyer Belcher, Andrew Belcher, and Frederick William Geyer, and HD 1057 for a print of Governor Jonathan Belcher.
Label Text:
Celebrating the Fiber Arts 2008: Elaborate decoration, called ‘clocks’ were part of high fashion in the period when men wore knee breeches in order to display their shapely legs. This stocking fragment was, by family tradition, worn by Jonathan Belcher, Governor of Massachusetts from 1729/30 to 1741 and Governor of
New Jersey, from 1747 to 57. Metallic embroidery was used throughout the century on elegant garments
to reflect light and in this case to draw attention to the man’s calves. It has been stitched onto a generic late-18th-century man’s silk stocking to illustrate where it would have been seen on the original.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Silk Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.735 |
