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Detail

   

Ivory Spitalfields Damask Open Robe
Unknown maker, possibly from England.
Textile from Spitalfields, eastern London, England, ca. 1740s.
Gown last altered ca. 1770s-1780s.
Silverman/Rodgers Collection
Gown: KSUM 1983.1.11
Non-original lace at the neckline, reproduction neck band,
engageantes (sleeve-ruffles), petticoat and shoes.

Worn with:
Prussian Blue Embroidered Stomacher
Unknown maker and place of origin, ca. 1723-1750.
Silverman/Rodgers Collection
KSUM 1983.1.1511

Carved Ivory Fan/Lorgnette Combination
Unknown maker, England.
Late eighteenth-early nineteenth century.
Gift of the Luanna Stahlecker Estate
No number

 

An interchangeable clothing part, the stomacher was used to cover the part of the front bodice left exposed by the open robe. Stomachers were often highly decorated and prized, and survive in great number without the gowns with which they were worn. Above a Prussian blue ground, the one presented here is embroidered in a raised technique with tarnished silver thread in a Baroque floral pattern. The gown of undyed silk was last altered in the style of a robe à l'Anglaise with its pleated and sewn center back pleats.