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Bizarre Waistcoat
1700 - 1712

Wonderful quality fabric which would have been made for the richest clients. During the eighteenth century dress fabric styles changed with the season with textile designs leading the fashion. Bizarre refers to the period during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Europeans were fascinated by the Near and Far Eastwith huge quantities of imports influencing taste. Many silk designs of this short period c 1695-1720 show the influence. Many Bizarre silks show Chinese , Japanese and Turkish inspiration. Designers drew any design that appealed These silks were woven in France, Italy, Spain and England where many designs were drawn by James Leman. Blue and gold with touches of red were popular in the period 1690-1710 so one might assume that blue with silver and touches of red fabrics were from the same period. King, Monique and Donald European Textiles in the Keir Collection Rothstein, Natalie Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century Thornton, Peter Baroque and Rococo Silks

Cataloguing

the light blue silk ground woven with a damask design of stylised architectural elongated archways, woven with a wide trailing silver band and with shaded pink and white silk flowers and leaves, Chinese style pots and motifs with crimson ribbons are woven, round neck, thirteen domed buttons and buttonholes, shaped pockets with three false buttholes, long skirts, the deep cuffs with two buttons and buttonholes,the back lined with natural linen and a inner lining of mid blue worsted wool, the inner revers and skirt lined with ice blue silk, 2 ft or 60 cm pattern repeat; shoulder to hem 35 in or 89 cm.

Condition

Some of the silver metal thread is coming away on the waistcoat's top right shoulder front. One worn button to front opening and one missing. The cuff buttons have all been renewed. The linings I have mentioned above are original. The actual Bizarre fabric: the right hand side skirt (left looking at it) has a slight discolouration and a little wear (photo available).