Probably Spitalfields designed by Anna Maria Garthwaite. Originally a sack back gown but altered in the twentieth century. It looks very good, displayed from the back with a large fichu covering the neck area. Until the second half of the 18th century the metal threads contained a high proportion of precious metal, which has preserved their sparkle.
From the collection of the late Mrs June Jeffreys (1928 – 2016) who married George William Eyre Jeffreys (1931 - 2019) in 1960. The house Newhouse, Redlynch, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, has been in the family for 400 years and many of the dress collection was inherited through Mr Jeffrey’s family. Mrs Jeffreys also added to the collection.
Fabric: Each panel of ivory taffeta silk brocaded with a central stripe woven with horizontal stripes and edged in flat gilt metal strip plate, flanked by two panels containing gilt carnation type flower stems, woven with flat gilt metal strip wound round with a gilt spun round a silk core filé and a leaf design with gilt metal small slanting leaves, between a triple stripe, the centre with fine horizontal stripes and slanting gilt leaves.
Fabric width 19 1/2 in; 50 cm selvedge to selvedge. A total of 6 widths s to s in the skirt.
Plus there is also a length of silk removed from the original gown. 52 x 19 3/4 in; 1.32 x 50 cm. If you do not require this I can sell it seperately.
Gown: The front with turned in panels 3 3/4 in; 9.5 cm. A waist seam to the front bodice, with a pleat either side to the skirt. the sleeves each made up from three horizontal pieces. The back with a deep low square neckline, with wide pleats falling from a neck border. The sleeve ruffles are of 19th century needlerun lace.
The skirt hem including the folded back silk at front of the gown 9ft 10 in; 3 m. Made up of 6 widths of silk.
The fabric is fresh and in very good condition. There are a couple of 6 in; 15 cm horizontal splits near the hem, but these have been very well supported on the underside and cannot be noticed from the front of the fabric.
The front panels could easily be unpicked and folded out. The sleeves are not right at all.The back neckline is clearly not correct, but the pleating falling from the neckline border is correct.
Do ask for more photos, particularly of the inside.
* Silk Designs of the Eighteeenth Century by Natalie Rothstein. Not unlike p 214, no 264 design.
All images and text © meg-andrews.com 2021
