Green flowered and striped silk gown fragment

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Not on view

Date1760-1780

Medium/TechniqueSilk

DimensionsOverall: 11 5/8 in. × 5 3/8 in. (29.53 cm × 13.65 cm)

Credit LinePurchased by the A. Alfred Taubman Acquisition Endowment Fund and partial gift of an anonymous donor, 2004

Object numberW-2784/D

DescriptionThis fabric is plain woven celery green with both stripes and flower motifs. The stripes alternate in width and design. The thin stripes are a ribbed cream; the medium stripes are a ribbed cream flanked by an unribbed cream, then a ribbed purple, and a ribbed brown; the large stripe set is a ribbed purple flanked by unribbed brown, a strip of ground fabric, unribbed cream, ribbed purple, then ribbed brown. The ribbed stripes are done with supplementary warp floats, similar in technique to 1/7 corduroy. In general, the stripes are ordered large, medium, large, small, large.

Between the stripes are colorful bundles of flowers done in discontinuous weft brocade. The bundles are share the same form, but alternate in direction and color: switching between sloping up to the right, then up to the left. Those that slope up the right have a large white rose done in boucle yarn, dark green leaves, and light pink and bright pink flowers. The other groups have the same white rose and dark green leaves, but the remaining flowers are purple and grey-pink.

The fabric also has a subtle, white floral vine motif. This is done with by floating the wefts, which are white through the fabric. Since the floated wefts are structural, the floats appear on the back in the warp.

The both the green warps and the white wefts of the ground weave are unspun filament, or lightly S-spun that has loosened further within the weave. The light pink of the brocade is S-spun. The white boucle yarn of the large flowers in the brocade is 2-ply S with one element spun tighter than the other, causing the yarn to loop around itself and ply unevenly.

This fragment appears to be from the wearer's right of a bodice front.

A seam runs horizontally near the top portion of the fragment that is pressed open and held with back stitched in Z-spun 2-ply S undyed thread. The seam is hidden by aligning the stripes on the front. The right side of the fragment is pressed back and shows evidence of having been secured with running stitches in thin white Z-spun 2-ply S. The left edge, which has a selvedge, shows thick Z-spun 2-ply S thread. The bottom left has a crease with stitch lines on either side: the apparently removed seam is consistent in shape with the bottom of a bodice.

There is a yellow stain near the bottom right that appears to have been caused by some sort of liquid.

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