Hi all, I just got back from a trip to New York City. I have a little
goodie for you. I was able to get an appointment with the curator of the
Arms and Armor division of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the extant
military bases often talked about in Blanche Paynes History of Costume. I
have posted one of the pictures here to give you a peek-itll only be up for
a few days - I have to get permission from the museum for them, so please
dont spread them around.
http://www.saragrace.us/images/MilBaseFullOnOutside2.JPG
Thats the good news. The bad news is that they are under suspicion of not
being from the 16th Century.
The museum was very happy to accommodate me. Unfortunately the staff of the
costume institute was on vacation the entire week I was there so I didnt
get to see anything that wasnt already on display. I was still able to get
an appointment with the curator of the Arms and Armor, Stuart Pyhrr
division to see these bases.
He says because there have been several inquiries in the last few months
about the skirt (it has been in storage for almost 30 years), it will be
handed over shortly to the Textile department for further analysis. Mr.
Pyrre says he will let me know what their final analysis is, but the
preliminary thoughts are this:
The textile folks at the MET suspect the skirt is actually from the 19th
century. They are saying that the way the fabric is woven is too complex to
have been from the 16th century and that the pattern on the brocade looks
Russian. (The bases came from Saxony). They also think that the pristine
condition indicates it is from a later time. They think they may have been
made up for a display of tournament armor.
Ill have a few questions for the textile folks. These are some of my
initial thoughts.
The bases are described in Paynes book, but since I dont have it in front
of me, I will describe it. It is a pleated military base made from gold and
blue brocade. It is lined with a matching blue linen or cotton. The lining
looks to be coarsely woven, medium weight, linen or cotton. There are few
slubs in it like you see in similar weight linen today. (Payne says the
lining is cotton.)
It has approximately 20 organ pipe pleats centered in the garment; the side
pieces for the opening are not pleated. It has been cut out of a circle of
material. The lining is quilted in a diamond pattern. The quilting thread
sometimes shows. The piecing of the lining is done in such a way that the
sewing thread is not discernable. (I didnt try to pull the seams apart,
but it looked very uniform. This may be part of the reason they thought it
was made in the 19th century maybe it was sewn by machine?) The quilting
thread is white.
There are two (approximately 8 inch) bands made from the same fabric as
the lining which are attached on either side of the opening. These look
more worn than the rest of the lining, so if it was just for display I
wonder how they got so worn. The bands are placed about 3 or 4 inches up
from the hem on the inside about 2 inches from the side edge. They run
vertically and are attached at either end. They look as if they were used
to secure the bases closed or perhaps to the leg some how. The long
distance between the two attachment points may have allowed for some
movement while on horseback. I find it hard to believe they would have
bothered with such a practical attachment for a display piece. (These bands
are shown in the pattern at the back of Paynes book.)
Also, there is a stamp on the inside of the bases which looks like some sort
of ownership insignia. Again, if it were only for display I wonder what
reasons they may have had to stamp it.
Both the lining and the outside fabric are pieced, though not in the same
places. In general little attempt has been made to match the pattern on the
brocade. The lining is pieced in large chunks while the brocade is only
pieced near the bottom edges where the width of the fabric was not wide
enough to cut the entire circle.
The outer fabric is sewn in place on the quilted lining. The bottom edge of
the lining is turned up. The edges of the brocade are raw at the bottom and
the selvedge edge is used to run up along at least one side of the opening.
They (the MET folks) think that this wouldnt have been done for a real
military base. (I think it is sort of odd for a display piece, especially
in the 19th century. Maybe I am wrong, but I would have thought by then
that people had pretty much decided raw edges were not appropriate for any
finished garment)
There are running stitches in several places which appear to either be part
of the quilting or perhaps for stabilizing the brocade to the quilted
lining. The stitching of the tapes on the top are rather crude, as is the
attachment of the bands.
The pleating is what I would call organ pipe pleating. It never occurred to
me until looking at this garment that perhaps the reason they are called
organ pipe pleats is that the attachment to the band makes an oval shape at
the top, just like the pipes on an organ are sliced at an angle.
The narrow tapes which hold the pleats in place are coarsely woven. Their
attachment on the pleat goes much further down in the pleat than I would
have expected. Payne describes these as sharp...I would not.
I wonder if the lining in particular hadnt come from a previous garment.
Perhaps they even cut up a previously quilted piece. The blue lining
matches the blue in the brocade very well. If the outer and inner fabrics
were used together in an original piece, I wonder why they are pieced so
differently and why the brocade wasnt at least as wide as the lining.
The pattern on the brocade is a simple flower against an abstract sort of
shield. I am not sure what about this would indicate it was Russian in
origin. I hope the museum is able to run carbon dating analysis on the
fabrics. Even if the bases were put together at a later date, Id love to
know how old the actual fabrics are.
The brocade was originally a soft gold. It has bleached out to almost
silver. I am not sure if real gold would do this....and not being a
historic textile expert, I have no idea whether the way the gold is spun
into the threads (you can actually see this in the pictures because I took
them at such high resolution) is 16th century. Also, the brocade pattern
doesnt look complex to me, but that may not have been what the textile
folks were talking about..
Sorry to just give you a teaser picture. I hope to have permission to put
them all up soon.
Saragrace
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