Green flowered and striped silk gown fragment

Status

Not on view

Date1760-1780

Medium/TechniqueSilk

DimensionsOverall: 9 5/8 in. × 6 in. (24.45 cm × 15.24 cm)

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

Object numberW-2784/E

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.

The shape of this fabric does not imply construction, so is probably a result of pieces. The removed section, in particular measures 3 3/8 on both sides, so is likely from cutting out a perfectly square souvenir fragment. A piece with those measurements is not present in the MVLA collections.

The left (longest) edge of the fragment consists of selvedge that has been pressed under and basted with long running stitches in thin, white Z-spun 2-ply S thread. The opposite edge is basted under with the same running stitches. Green thread is also present near the selvedge edge.

There is evidence of a knife pleat with 1/4 inch overlap on the right with both creases and stitch lines. (As a pleat, this amounts to 2 creases and 3 stitch lines.)

There is a small orange stain near the corner of the removed square.

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