Chinese Silk Damask Jacket
Chinese Silk Damask Jacket
Chinese Silk Damask Jacket
Chinese Silk Damask Jacket
Chinese Silk Damask Jacket

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Chinese Silk Damask Jacket
Silk 1720-40

Holland like Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries was one of the world's major seapowers.   The Dutch East India Company or Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC was set up in 1602 originally for acquiring spices in the East.. A network of trading ports were established and ships returned home with spices as well unusual and exotic goods including textiles. This garment shows the evidence of such world trade at this time. The original silk damask would have probably been woven in France rather than Britain, taken to China where it was copied. The Chinese copy was then exported back to Holland where it was cut and made into this jacket.
 
Originally this simple sleeved jacket called a hemdrok was worn by sailors and farm workers, tucked into their voluminous breeches for practical reasons. Often two or three jackets were worn .The garment was hip length , fitted and the button opening ended at the waist.
By the 18 th century the hemdrok evolved into a decorative jacket worn by high ranking seamen using rich fabrics and decorative buttons. At home the ordinary sailor would wear the jacket for Sunday best. Small ball buttons in close rows decorated the front and sleeves, held together by a connecting cord. Depending on one's wealth they might be made of gold, silver or tin.
 
The provence of Friesland with trading ports on the Inner sea had a large seafaring community who called the jacket borstrok, baeitje or busje.
Due to Holland's fame as a sea faring nation Peter the Great spent a year around 1700 in Holland learning seafaring and shipbuilding skills. The portrait shows him dressed in typical dutch sailors clothing of the time. A set of original items of clothing of this date including a hemrok are in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

We have unpicked the lower front of the jacket by 5 in; 13 cm to show the selvage where there is a repeat of four small holes . This can only be found on Chinese woven textiles. In Linda Baumgarten's book she says that Chinese silks were woven about 29 inches wide, wider than European silks. To keep the wide silk from drawing in at the sides on the loom, Chinese weavers inserted sticks, or temple bars, with forked ends between the selvedges, which created the pattern of repeated holes.

Description

The bronze brown silk damask woven with a large repeat of large flowers and leaves, the front with a high round neck, buttonholes starting at collar bone level with round embroidered buttonholes to the left side, elongated butonholes to the right, the sides each with a horizontal dart, to shape the waist, the hem with side slits, the shaped sleeves with similar buttonhole detail, under the sleeves is a purpose made opening, to allow for movement, a small embroidered strip at the top, to prevent tearing, lined with coarse cotton.

Pattern repeat. Length 23 1/2 in; 60 cm.  Width 9 1/4 in; 23.5 cm. This means there would be three repeats in the width of the fabric, which was usual with Chinese silk.

Shoulder to hem 26 in; 66 cm

Underarm 36 in;90 cm.

Condition

Very very good. There are a few medium blue marks. To the lower left front there is a 1/2 inch long mark; Front right, little group of a few; Back right 2 small blue marks and on the right sleeve one small mark.  Ask for photos if you cannot see them. Otherwise in remarkable conditiion. The back right hand sleeve needs a few stitches where the seam has come undone.

Comments

What Clothes Reveal , Baumgarten, Linda p 49-50.

The Silk Trade: Chinese Silks and the British East India Company. Lee-Whitman, Leanna

p 26.

For similar style but in a wool damask:  http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/NOMA01:HM4293/&p=1&i=8&t=129&st=hemdrok&sc=%28hemdrok%29/&wst=hemdrok

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