page_title: Mantua (Kimberley Hall)
section_title: Materials
hierarchical_section_title: Mantua (Kimberley Hall) / Materials
caption_attribution_description: English: Mantua; British
context_page_description: A mantua from the collection at Kimberley Hall in Norfolk is the earliest complete European women's costume in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also known as the Kimberley Gown, this formal dress is a mantua, a two-piece costume consisting of a draped open robe and a matching underskirt or petticoat, and has been dated to ca. 1690–1700.
context_section_description: Unlike the majority of surviving mantuas, which are made of the rich brocaded silks popular at the turn of the 18th century, the Kimberley mantua is a practical winter costume, made of striped woolen fabric embroidered with silver-gilt yarns. The fabric, sometimes described as broadcloth, is actually a "soft, fine, tabby-woven (over one, under one) woolen fabric that has been given a napped surface though not the dense, felted finish characteristic of broadcloth."  The background color is something between "brownish" and "warm grey". The stripes, woven parallel to the weft (across the width of the fabric), are "ultramarine" blue "bordered by vibrant terracotta"  and "dark mustard yellow" "bordered by a pair of magenta stripes".
  The stripes are embroidered with a pattern of alternating four- and five-petaled blossoms on the blue stripes and leafy vines on the mustard stripes.
  In addition to the striped fabric and its small embroidered motifs, the lower part of the petticoat, to about knee-height, is decorated with an elaborate scrolling design in silver-gilt thread that suggests gold lace. The pattern is similar to lace panels of the period, and is strictly symmetrical, in keeping with the taste of the late Baroque.
  What appear to be original seams are sewn with two sewing silks, "one pale beige, not plied, the other dark brown and plied." The mantua was subsequently altered, possibly to accommodate a taller wearer; many of these alterations are made with a "plied, ocher-colored sewing silk."
caption: Detail of the striped wool and silver-gilt embroidery.
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