A very similar caraco jacket is in the Open Air Museum collection in Arnhem, Holland, described as a Frisian jacket. It too is made from a changeable silk and has the linen check lining.The provenance we have is that its from the Gabriellson family of the village Bambrugge in the province of North Holland,but no doubt the owner was originally from Friesland
the green/yellow changeable silk three quarter length gown with square neck, front fastening with original metal hook and eye fastenings, elbow length sleeves, extended cuffs, lined with sea green and soft brown linen check, linen tape ties, 34 1/2 in or 88 cm long.
Overall this is in very good condition. The silk is a little worn to front lower bodice, to back neck and left hand back sleeve and to hem. The back you should be clearly able to see the damage and darns. Photos available. The lining in very good conditon and would look wonderful worn inside out!
Gieneke Arnolli, Curator Fashion and Textiles of the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Holland kindly gave the following information:
In my opinion the lining is checked linen, woven in the Netherlands. Most 18th century jackets in Friesland are lined with similar linen. The colors are white, blue, beige and sometimes green, always rather faded, never bright. These linens must have been woven in Harlingen, but unfortunately there are no sample books of the mills to prove this statement. She goes on to say However I’ve seen some 18th century samples of Harlinger bont, which was to be send to Suriname, to dress the slaves. Simply rather coarse checked linens.
The word bont has a number of meanings in Dutch including fur and colourfu but the word is used mainly for fabrics with checks. In Harlingen in the 17th and 18 th Centuries a wonderful linen woven fabric was manufactured.The weavers were kept busy with the production of Harlinger bont, a sort of bombazine, a fabric with a linen warp and cotton weft, woven with colour, check, stripes and blocks.This fabric had a good name due to its cost,strength and fine appearance.
The production of Harlinger bont was done in the weavers and dyers own homes.The blue linen threads were dyed before weaving, the dyed thread rinsed in clean water to remove surplus dye.The rinsing took place in a large tub where the dyers in barefeet stamped on the thread removing the excess dye.From then on the people of Harlingen were known as tobbedansers tubdancers.
In a tax register of 1749 it states that there were also female tubdancers .
Gouke Sybrand Hingst (1716 - 1788 ) was the founder of the firm Gouke Sybrands Hingst & Son producers of bont and trouser stripes
In 1740 of the 7,000 inhabitants of Harlingen of which almost 900 were weavers.
A caraco in the Snowshill collection has almost identical lining.
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