Loading

Silver Lamé Sack-back Gown - Robe à la française

Unknown1760 - 1765

Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Berlin, Germany

At official occasions English society ladies dressed, according to the latest French fashion, in the robe à la française. This sack-back gown displays a loose back fold and laterally swinging, oval skirt, and is made from precious silver lamé woven in England’s Spitalfields. The manteau edges are adorned from the shoulder to hem with pleated ribbons that wind around each other in S-forms from the waist downward. A richly decorated stomacher adorns the low neckline. The skirt displays a curved valance trim with huge tassels of flattened metal wire and the medium length sleeves end in a double valance. All edging of the gown and decorations are outlined with ornamental silver lace trimming. In spite of the generous use of the precious metal and the prodigious decorations, the gown does not look overly florid and is a dignified expression of the elegant gown art of the Rococo period. As interwoven silver materials have been documented numerous times in English weddings that have taken place in the highest noble circles, it is entirely possible that the gown, along the also preserved shoes, was worn as a wedding gown (Ribeiro 1984).

Show lessRead more
  • Title: Silver Lamé Sack-back Gown - Robe à la française
  • Creator: Unknown
  • Date: 1760 - 1765
  • Stylistic point of origin: England
  • Rights: Photo © bpk - Photo Agency / Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Stephan Klonk │ Text © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Christine Waidenschlager
  • Provenance: 2003 Kamer/Ruf collection, 1986 Sotheby’s, London, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
  • Length: Manteau: fl./bl. 151 cm, skirt: fl./bl. 100 cm; stomacher: l. 35 cm, fabric w.: 49 cm
  • ISIL no.: DE-MUS-018417
  • Type: Dress
  • External Link: http://www.smb.museum/museen-und-einrichtungen/kunstgewerbemuseum/home.html
  • Medium: Ivory coloured silk fabric, Gros de Tours, brocaded with flattened silver wire, white silk core wrapped in silver-plated metal wire; trim: metal lace, braided ribbon and tassels of silver flattened wire wrapped around silk core; lining: natural coloured linen
Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Additional Items

Get the app

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites