Dress fabric

Object Type
This fabric, intended for ladies' gowns, is a brocaded silk tobine. The technique of brocading allowed different colours to be introduced into the pattern of a fabric in specific, sometimes very small areas. It was a more laborious process for the weaver than using patterning wefts running from selvedge to selvedge, but the resulting effect could be much more varied and lively. The additional effect which makes this silk a tobine is the pattern in the ground, created with an extra warp which in some fabrics is of contrasting colour but in this case is the same colour as the ground.

People
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.