Dress fabric

Object Type
This fabric is a brocaded silk and was intended for ladies' gowns. The technique of brocading allowed different colours or types of thread to be introduced into the pattern of a fabric in specific, sometimes very small areas. This was of particular importance in silks woven with metal thread, like this, where the gold or silver was too precious to waste on the back of the fabric where it would not be seen.

People
The freelance silk designer Anna Maria Garthwaite was commissioned to design this silk by Captain Peter Lekeux, one of most prominent master weavers in the English silk industry. He bought at least 18 designs from her, a number of which were to be brocaded exclusively in metal thread, like this one.

Place
The prosperity enjoyed by some of the most successsful master weavers in the English silk industry, like Peter Lekeux, enabled them to buy large houses in the new quarter of Spitalfields, the Old Artillery Ground. The master weaver Giles Bigot's house on the South side of Spital Square was described as having four storeys with a colonade and being 'finished in a Grand Manner'.