Gown Skirt Panel, Silk Damask

Date1734-1740

Attributed to Anna Maria Garthwaite

Worn by Martha Custis Dandridge Washington (1731 - 1802)

OriginEngland, London, Spitalfields; worn in America, Virginia

MediumSilk damask, bound at hem and pocket slits with silk woven ribbon

DimensionsOW: 20 1/4" (full selvage width) X OL: 40 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Mrs. R. Keith Kane & daughters: Mrs. James H. Scott, Jr., Mrs. Timothy Childs, Mrs. N., Beverly Tucker, Jr., and Mrs. Lockhart B. McGuire

Object number1975-342,1

DescriptionThis is one of four panels of beige silk damask in a large-scale pattern of asymmetrical scrolling leaves and flowers, once part of a woman's disassembled gown skirt, or petticoat. This panel is shaped with green-striped selvages on both sides with remnants of original stitching threads, a narrow beige silk plain-woven tape finishing the straight bottom hem, and angled raw cut edges at the top with evidence of original pleat marks. A bound slit at the top was once an opening to reach a pocket worn underneath. The pocket slit binding is the same plain-woven tape as that used for the hem. Holes from old stitches form a faint pattern of deep undulations about twelve inches up from the hem where now-lost trimming was once stitched in place.
Label TextWoven at Spitalfields, the silk-weaving district near London, this textile has a characteristically bold pattern over the full width of the 20 1/4-inch-wide fabric. According to family tradition, this is one of several surviving panels that came from a gown worn by Martha Washington (1731-1802). Skirt pleat marks and a pocket slit are visible at the top. Because the textile dates to Martha Washington's childhood, the gown must have been passed down from a family member.

The silk's design is attributed to the London silk textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite by comparison with her watercolor designs held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

ProvenanceFamily tradition in the Dandridge/Henley/Kane family states that the textile came from a gown owned by Martha Washington (Dandridge/Custis.) Fragments of the same material with Washington histories are in collection at Mount Vernon, confirming the family tradition. However, Martha's birth date of 1732 suggests that her gown was remade from an earlier one.