Dress fabric

Anna Maria Garthwaite was an independent textile designer who lived and worked in Spitalfields from about 1730 until her death in 1763. She was one of the leading pattern drawers for the English silk industry, producing as many as eighty designs a year to commissions from master weavers and mercers. Her interest in natural form and talent for depicting it characterised her designs throughout her working life.

The Mr Vautier who commissioned the design for this silk and is named on it in Anna Maria Garthwaite's inscription is probably Daniel Vautier, one of at least three generations of Huguenot weavers of the same name, who lived in Steward Street, Spitalfields. The Vautier family originally came from Luneray in Normandy, France, and many were involved in the English silk industry in both London and Canterbury. The Daniel Vautier probably responsible for this silk was a master weaver with a number of journeyman weavers in his employment.