From the seller:
This wonderful antique waistcoat is made from ivory silk taffeta and is hand embroidered with flowers in soft pastels. The covered buttons have embroidered flowers in the center and shallow pockets with embroidered flaps at the bottom. The back is a heavy silk, like a raw silk and it has been expanded in the center back, probably around the time of the gift of the vest. It the pocket is a note looks to been written in a Victorian hand saying it was a gift to her grandfather by a French Count, the name of the grandfather looks to be John Van (can't make it out, maybe Woshand), the lady who wrote it is Mrs. Joseph N Ireland. It has foxing, some spots, minor wear around the armhole seam under the arms, some small scattered holes and a 3 inch tear. It measures 37 inches around the chest and is 27 1/2 inches at the longest point.
From Me:
It reminds me a bit of this one at the Met. I'm trying to figure out why the seller believes the back is raw silk- it looks like cotton to me which would have been pretty expensive still at this point in time.
Oooh, it's lovely! And the embroidery looks like it's mostly done with fine silk ribbons, which is delightful!
ReplyDeleteNo, it's just regular fill embroidery with shading.
DeleteOh, that's too bad. It's so tiny I can't see the stitches, though perhaps it's my crappy computer screen.
Delete