Featured 18th century silk dress

Can anyone help me to put a more precise date on this 18th century dress/ fabric? Could it be French or English? Spitalfields? Any advice gratefully received, thank you.

 

I've dealt in vintage clothing for over 20 years but rarely had the opportunity to handle garments as old as this appears to be so I'm not any help.
Could we see a photo of the front?
Beautiful!

 

OH! How absolutely exquisite! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
There is a Facebook group which may be able to help you out: Fashion History: the 1700's/1800th century
Leslie

 

Hi, thanks for your reply. I work in a small general auction house in the UK, and this came in as part of a car boot full of bits and bobs. It was very crumpled- it has been ironed a bit and put on the dummy, which is too big for the dress so we have added some green paper at the front and put pink fabric round to show how it is an over dress. I would like to find out more about the silk so I can do it justice in the description

 

Thanks Leslie, I will look at that x

 

Have you also identified the type of dress it is and the approximate age as a first step?

Debora

 

I think it is an over- dress for evening / promenade. At a guess 1770's but I don't know enough to say for sure

 

It's not difficult to do research on line re 18th century clothing. There are many excellent resources such as The Met, the V&A, the Kyoto Costume Institute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonaise_(clothing)

Debora

 

Here is a good resource (with photographs) identifying the different types of gowns worn in the 18th century.

https://blog.americanduchess.com/2013/03/the-many-types-of-late-18th-century.html

Debora

 

Yours is a humble example. Would have been designed for day.

Debora

 

And what a fun thing to find among "bits and bobs."

Debora

 

Thanks for your help. I am hoping that the elderly lady owner (who dumped it on the pavement from her car boot) will be in for a nice surprise !

 

It could be difficult to differentiate between French or English, since the silk weavers in England at the time were nearly all French Huguenots who settled mostly in Spitalfields, but not just there.
There is a Huguenot Museum where you could ask, they also have silk samples they could compare it with:

https://huguenotmuseum.org/

There is also this site:

http://www.huguenotsofspitalfields.org/

 

A search for 'sprigged silk' turned up this simpler but similar garment:

https://www.jennysargeant.com/en-GB...silk-dress-circa-1780/prod_10108#.YM4Eb0wpCM8

 

Here in the US a garment like this is very rare. You have a treasure. I suggest taking it to a textile historian for appraisal.

 

I love this!
What an amazing find

 

Beautiful!

 

I'd contact the V&A Textiles department. I'd also get on to the Museum of London who hold a great deal about Spitalfields silk weaving. Both have astonishing collections of pattern books and so forth as well as textiles. They may even be interested in buying it.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/ is lovely.