Sackback dress, back

This sack-back style dress is made from light cotton muslin fabric, with silver embroidery. The muslin fabric is probably Jamandani or Dhaka muslin from Bengal (current Bangladesh and West Bengal in India). The fabric was probably made and embroidered in Bengal, and made up into a dress in Britain.

Foreign silks, printed cottons and other textiles including muslin were often banned from court in the 18th century in order to protect the British textiles industry. The ban on muslin was enforced by the East India Company, meaning the skills to make jamandani muslin had almost disappeared by the end of the 1800s. In 2013, UNESCO declared jamandani muslin an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

This dress was possibly worn by Mary Watson-Wentworth (1735-1804), 2nd Marchioness of Rockingham. Her husband, Charles Watson-Wentworth (1730-1782) the 2nd Marquis of Rockingham was Prime Minster from 1765 to 1766, and again in 1772. Lady Mary Rockingham was an important political figure in her own right. She helped to organise a faction headed by her husband that was set up specifically to oppose Lord Bute (John Stuart 3rd Earl of Bute 1773-1792) known as the Rockingham Whigs. She was a power broker in many political deals and her husband called he 'my Minerva [Goddess of wisdom] at my elbow'.