Embroidered jackets or waistcoats – surviving examples

Detail from the 1610-20 example at Platt Hall, Manchester

The fashion for women to wear embroidered jackets or waistcoats appears at the end of the sixteenth century and goes through to at least the middle of the seventeenth century. From the middle of the seventeenth century and on into the eighteenth the embroidered jacket or waistcoat disappears from portraiture, and the garment itself becomes an under garment worn for warmth and often quilted, though it loses its sleeves. 

The examples I link to below are by no means a complete listing, but I have put them into date order, or at least ordered by the dates the museums that hold them give for them. The dates are pretty fluid and often change depending on who is describing the item. In many cases I indicate printed sources where you can find further information.

The photographs are mine and are therefore usually taken through glass, my apologies for the quality.

1590-1630 Victoria and Albert Museum. Coloured silk embroidery on linen. A coiling deign of flowers and leaves. Melanie Braun,  'Embroidered Linen Jacket', in North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani, eds, Seventeenth-Century Women’s Dress Patterns, vol.2, London: V&A Publishing, 2012, pp.48-57 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80226/jacket-unknown/

1600-1610. Museum of Fashion, Bath.  Coloured silk and metal thread embroidery on linen. A coiling pattern of flowers and leaves. I have found it difficult to find images online as the museum does not have an object search as such. https://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/sites/fashion_museum/files/embroidered-waistcoat-fashion-museum-bath.jpg

1600-25. Victoria and Albert Museum. Coloured silk thread embroidery on ivory silk with a slightly, coiling, slightly interlaced design of roses, honeysuckle and other flowers. John Lea Nevinson, Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Textiles, London: HMSO, 1938, p.79, plate LV. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115772/jacket-unknown/

The back of the Worthing Museum example

1600-25. Victoria and Albert Museum. Coloured silk and silver gilt thread embroidery, with spangles, on a linen fabric. A coiling design with flowers, birds and butterflies.  Avril Hart and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: the 17th and 18th centuries, V&A Publications, 1998, p.148 & 149 John Lea Nevinson, Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Textiles, London: HMSO, 1938, p.78. Avril Hart and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: the 17th and 18th centuries, V&A Publications, 1998, p.148 & 149 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O15345/jacket-unknown/

1600-1615. Worthing Museum. Blackwork silk on linen. Nothing on the Worthing Museum website, though it is mentioned fleetingly here http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/architecture-and-design/art63118

1600-1620. Norwich Museums. Unmade garment. Coloured silk on linen, with a pattern of roses in circles, and borage(?) flowers. See my photograph. 

The Norwich Museums unmade example

1610-1615. Victoria and Albert Museum. The Margaret Layton jacket. Coloured silk and metal thread on linen with spangles. A coiling design of flowers fruit and insects. Thornton, Claire, 'Margaret Layton's Waistcoat', in North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani, eds, Seventeenth-Century Women’s Dress Patterns, vol.1, London: V&A Publishing, 2011, pp.22-33. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O11095/jacket-unknown/

1610-1615. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass. Silver and gilt-silver thread embroidery on linen, with a coiling patterns of daffodils. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/womans-jacket-116779

1610-1620. Burrell Collection, Glasgow. Coloured silk and metal thread embroidery on linen in a coiling design of flowers and insects. Janet Arnold, Patterns of fashion c.1560-1620. Macmillan, 1983. p.51 & 120-121. The link is to a short film on jacket and the Burrell’s recreation of it. http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/burrell-collection/the-collection/Pages/gilt-and-silk.aspx

1610-1620. Platt Hall Gallery, Manchester. Coloured silks on linen with spangles, and an open scrolling design of vines and grapes.   http://manchesterartgallery.org/collections/search/collection/?id=2001.131

1610-20.  Museum of London. A wool thread blackwork embroidered on linen, in a pattern of barberries. Zillah Halls, Women’s costume 1600-1750, Museum of London, HMSO. 1970, p31, Plates 1 & 2.  https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/84662.html

1610-20.  Museum of London. Silk blackwork embroidery on linen with a pattern of strawberries and strawberry leaves. Zillah Halls, Women’s costume 1600-1750, Museum of London, HMSO. 1970, p31. https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/84660.html

1610-1620. Victoria and Albert Museum.  Blue embroidery on pink silk with silver spangles, in a coiling design.  Jenny Tiramani,  'Pink Silk Waistcoat', in North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani, eds, Seventeenth-Century Women’s Dress Patterns, vol.1, London: V&A Publishing, 2011, pp.34-47 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O354860/waistcoat-unknown/

1615-1620. Victoria and Albert Museum. Silk blackwork embroidery on linen fabric. A coiling design of flower, animal and insect motifs. Susan North, "The Falkland Jacket: Sources, Provenance and Interpretation of an Emblematic Artifact", Emblematica, vol 14, 2005, pp.127-151. Avril Hart and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: the 17th and 18th centuries, London: V&A, 1998, p. 148  https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137739/jacket-unknown/

c.1616. Metropolitan Museum, New York. Coloured silk and metal thread embroidery on a linen fabric, with a coiling design on flowers, birds and insects. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/81132

c. 1620. Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery. Red silk embroidery on linen in a design of coiling peapods. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3e/fd/6f/3efd6f2258bad240314403c994161beb.jpg

1620-25. Victoria and Albert Museum. A silk thread blackwork embroidered on linen. A coiling design of flowers interspersed with insects and birds. Luca Costigliolo,, 'Blackwork waistcoat', in North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani, eds, Seventeenth-Century Women’s Dress Patterns, vol.1, London: V&A Publishing, 2011, pp.48-59 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O110094/waistcoat-unknown/

1620-1640. Victoria and Albert Museum. One panel only from a waistcoat.  Coloured silk embroidery on linen. A coiling pattern of strawberries.  John Lea Nevinson, Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Textiles, London: HMSO, 1938, p.78 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115757/jacket-part-unknown/

1620-1625. Platt Hall Gallery of Costume, Manchester.  Black silk, blackwork on linen, with a design of strapwork bands with flower motifs between. http://manchesterartgallery.org/collections/search/collection/?id=2003.66

Detail of the 1625-40 Platt Hall example

1625-1640 Platt Hall Gallery of Costume, Manchester.  Silver thread embroidery and spangles on a  linen ground with an abstract coiling design. http://manchesterartgallery.org/collections/search/collection/?id=1956.64

1630-1640.  Victoria and Albert Museum. Silver thread embroidery and spangles on fustian. The design is a meandering pattern. Tiramani, Jenny, 'Fustian Waistcoat', in North, Susan and Jenny Tiramani, eds, Seventeenth-Century Women’s Dress Patterns, vol.1, London: V&A Publishing, 2011, pp.60-69 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O101730/waistcoat-unknown/

1630-1640.  Victoria and Albert Museum. Drawn-thread-and-pulled-fabric work on linen, decorated with spangles. Hart, Avril and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: the 17th and 18th centuries, London: V&A, 1998, p. 196  https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O130595/waistcoat-unknown/

1630-1640.  Victoria and Albert Museum. Red wool embroidery on linen, with some white linen thread embroidery as well. Large very stylised floral motifs. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115768/waistcoat-unknown/

1640. Victoria and Albert Museum. Red wool embroidery on a linen warf/wool weft fabric [linsey wolsey]. Individual motifs of flowers and birds. Avril Hart and Susan North, Historical Fashion in Detail: the 17th and 18th centuries. London: V&A Publications, 1998, p.150. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O110107/waistcoat-unknown/

Detail of the painted cotton example

1670-1700. JUST TO CONFUSE EVERYONE. Not embroidered. A painted cotton calico jacket in imitation of the embroidered examples. http://manchesterartgallery.org/collections/search/collection/?id=2004.93

 

1680-1720 Platt Hall Gallery of Costume. Yellow silk embroidery on linen with a design of nterlacing circular arabesques enclosing three-leaf sprigs. Museum does not have an image.  http://manchesterartgallery.org/collections/search/collection/?id=1953.64

c. 1700 Philadelphia Museum of Art. A sleeveless waistcoat, quilted with silk embroidery in a vine pattern on a cotton fabric with a linen lining. https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/89987.html?mulR=1844835644|5

c.1700 Museum of Fashion, Bath. Coloured silk embroidery on linen, quilted. A sleeveless waistcoat, with a tree of life type motif and birds resembling cranes. https://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/sites/fashion_museum/files/styles/gallery_item_colorbox/public/HFx100%20ID%206%201700%20Fashion%20Museum%20Bath%20portrait%20shot.jpg?itok=b405q8za

1700s. Victoria and Albert Museum. Coloured silk embroidery on linen, quilted, with a very open design of stylised flowers. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O354306/waistcoat-unknown/

1700s Victoria and Albert Museum. One panel from a woman’s waistcoat. Coloured silk embroidery on linen, in a very open scrolling pattern.  https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O319127/waistcoat-panel-unknown/

1700-1750. Phoenix Museum of Art. A sleeveless waistcoat, coloured silk embroidery on linen with floral motifs.http://egallery.phxart.org/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:9482

1730s Glasgow Museums. A sleeveless waistcoat or underbodice, cotton quilted with white cotton thread and embroidered in coloured silk threads with stylised floral motifs.  http://collections.glasgowmuseums.com/starobject.html?oid=37519