Tuesday, November 24, 2015

18th Century Stays and Jacket












From the seller:

Circa late 18THC, a rare matching European silk corset or stays and bodice ensemble. In mainly very good condition, some scattered fraying and loss on light blue silk ribbon,some wear on underam jacket and under arms on stays, Overall MINOR….as this ensemble is in quite amazing condition for it’s age.Silk Damask is good and strong.Part of a museum deaccession.

From Me:

This was originally sold by Whitaker. You can see that auction here. Below are the photos and the details from that one.

LOT 497 BODICE and CORSET ENSEMBLE, EUROPEAN, LATE 18th - EARLY 19th C.
Cranberry silk faille with polychrome floral brocade, the square-neck bodice having folded front collar, narrow double breast and short sleeve with pleated and pointed cuff, peplum back. Corset front pieced with cranberry brocade and a tan dotted sawtooth stripe, the back in a similar dotted stripe. Both pieces trimmed in aqua ribbon and lined in linen. Bodice B-36, W-26, front L-17. (Losses to ribbon, some edge wear) very good. MMA. $720





I love the stays so much. I've seen a few examples of stays with only the front decorated - particularly in French museums (I tried to search but the search engine was being finicky and despite putting in 18e siècle, it insisted on showing me 20th century items.). Given the shape of the jacket, just a little bit of a tail but perfectly straight across the front and that flappy collar thing, this is either late 1780's or early 1790's.  It's probably why it survived so beautifully - it was created right before the big transition into Regency.

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