Dress
The silk used to make this formal gown was produced in China for the European market. The floral pattern was chosen to reflect Western tastes and hand-painted onto the silk. Similar examples survive in museum collections elsewhere, and mostly seem to date from the 1760s and 1770s when these designs were popular.
Hand-painted Chinese silks seem to have been a fashionable alternative to woven silk brocades and embroidered materials, suitable for a formal gown such as this one with its loose sack back and wide skirt intended to be worn over a hoop. Donated to the museum by Mrs Royd of Sidmouth in 1968, the gown had been altered for a child’s fancy dress costume.
Hand-painted Chinese silks seem to have been a fashionable alternative to woven silk brocades and embroidered materials, suitable for a formal gown such as this one with its loose sack back and wide skirt intended to be worn over a hoop. Donated to the museum by Mrs Royd of Sidmouth in 1968, the gown had been altered for a child’s fancy dress costume.
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 226/1968/1
- Collection Class
- Clothing and accessories
- Material
- silk, handpainted
- Common Name
- dress
- Simple Name
- dress
- Period Classification
- George II (1727-1760); George III (1760-1811)
- Production Date
- c 1760
