Dress

Dress (1750-55); white silk brocaded with floral sprays in shades of pink, blue and green. The dress is not the usual open robe; the skirt is in one piece with a falling front, a type that occasionally makes its appearance in the middle years of C18 but was not to become usual until the later years of the century. The bodice is the usual open type with robings. The fabric of 1744-5 is a type and pattern which appears English, but the very narrow width (15 1/2 ins) suggest a Dutch origin. There is a comparable design in the V&A Museum by Anna Maria Garthwaite dated 1744 (5982.25).
White lustring (?) brocaded in coloured silks with a self-coloured trail of daisy heads in the ground with a drop reverse repeat. Tabby ground découpure 6, warp count: 224 to inch. cords in design 578.6 = 580?. The self-coloured trail is made by interrupting the weave of the ground. The weft floats on the surface, the warp on the back. The silk braid along the lower edge is original. Material width: 14 3/4 ins incl. selvages; Selvage: 1/8 in. 2 green or brown stripes with a white one between; repeat height: 32 3/4 ins; width: single comber. cf Silk Designs, p 198, no 2. 215, 216 dated 1744 but there may be a closer one, not illustrated in 1743 in T.391 or T.392-1971, V&A Museum. Because it is "half yard" wide it could be T.391-1971, pp 43, 47 or T.393-1971 pp 11 or 15 [18 also 'half yard' is illustrated]. Also 5982.15 1744 many similar details and 14 same year.
Condition: dirty.