My Favorite Silk Designers from the 18th Century
The V&A owns by far the most important and extensive collection of eighteenth-century silk designs in the world. Some are bound, some loose, and some are actual fabric samples in pattern books.
Most of these were produced for the European fashion market and for export to the American colonies. It was not only the women who wanted flowered silks for their dresses; the most elaborate and brocaded designs were often intended for the men’s jackets and waistcoats, using gold and silver thread on top of fabulous colored silks.
I recall seeing a highly detailed silk design (dated 1707) which was conceived by Christopher Baudonin, who supplied designs to the Leman weaving workshop. My friend who is a curator at the V&A, describes his work as “delicate, accomplished and, of course, absolutely fashionable.”
Presented below is part of a silk weaving design by James Leman (1710).
Most of these were produced for the European fashion market and for export to the American colonies. It was not only the women who wanted flowered silks for their dresses; the most elaborate and brocaded designs were often intended for the men’s jackets and waistcoats, using gold and silver thread on top of fabulous colored silks.
I recall seeing a highly detailed silk design (dated 1707) which was conceived by Christopher Baudonin, who supplied designs to the Leman weaving workshop. My friend who is a curator at the V&A, describes his work as “delicate, accomplished and, of course, absolutely fashionable.”
Presented below is part of a silk weaving design by James Leman (1710).
The V&A around a couple of decades ago acquired a volume of his glorious designs, which draw on exotic architectural and floral references. The early Leman designs were rich and fantastic and were intended for weaving that included real gold and silver thread.
A major exhibition of these collections was mounted at the V&A in 1990, and was called 'Flowered Silks: A Nobel Manufacture of the Eighteenth Century'. The whole exhibition made a lasting impression on me, and two designers remained strongly in my mind — James Leman, whose colors and clearly defined floral motifs have an extraordinary freshness and could have ‘been designed today, and Anna Maria Garthwaite, the master of invented flowers.
Her shapes are from fantasy land and great fun to stitch, while her colors are soft and rich. When I started work on this floral pattern bolster, I immediately went in search of examples of their work from which I might draw some ideas for needlepoint. To my delight, further research revealed that both were rather unusual people.
James Leman was a manufacturer as well as a designer, which was uncommon. His family originally came from Amsterdam, but his father settled in Canterbury, England, after they had suffered persecution as Huguenots.
Anna Maria Garthwaite was a freelance designer, apparently untrained but with an amazing grasp of the design requirements for working with silk looms. She was prolific, producing up to 80 designs in a single year. Silk weaving was an important industry in England at this time, much of it undertaken in workshops scattered around Spitalfields in London, and also in Canterbury.
A major exhibition of these collections was mounted at the V&A in 1990, and was called 'Flowered Silks: A Nobel Manufacture of the Eighteenth Century'. The whole exhibition made a lasting impression on me, and two designers remained strongly in my mind — James Leman, whose colors and clearly defined floral motifs have an extraordinary freshness and could have ‘been designed today, and Anna Maria Garthwaite, the master of invented flowers.
Her shapes are from fantasy land and great fun to stitch, while her colors are soft and rich. When I started work on this floral pattern bolster, I immediately went in search of examples of their work from which I might draw some ideas for needlepoint. To my delight, further research revealed that both were rather unusual people.
James Leman was a manufacturer as well as a designer, which was uncommon. His family originally came from Amsterdam, but his father settled in Canterbury, England, after they had suffered persecution as Huguenots.
Anna Maria Garthwaite was a freelance designer, apparently untrained but with an amazing grasp of the design requirements for working with silk looms. She was prolific, producing up to 80 designs in a single year. Silk weaving was an important industry in England at this time, much of it undertaken in workshops scattered around Spitalfields in London, and also in Canterbury.