Man’s Waistcoat, 1705–20
date: label: Date made
content: 1705 - 1720
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: Despite its long sleeves, this luxurious waistcoat would have been worn under an elaborate coat, much as a modern man would wear a close-fitting vest as a part of a suit. While most waistcoats were made without sleeves, men of all social and economic levels might opt for a jacket-like version. However, the fabric, and even the function, changed according to the wealth and activities of the wearer.
label: Description
content: The waistcoat pictured here allowed its wealthy wearer to stay comfortably warm under an equally elegant outer coat with much fuller skirts and sleeves. The gentleman who wore this garment would never have removed his coat in public, so he would not have cared that his waistcoat was made from two completely different fabrics. Only his waistcoat fronts, lower sleeves, and skirt tails had any chance of being seen under an open-fronted coat with vented, circular skirt and loose, barrel-shaped cuffs. Because they would be visible, these parts of the waistcoat were made of the more expensive fabric, allowing him to show a splendid front to the world.
label: Description
content: But a man at the other end of the social scale might not have owned a coat at all. Its complicated tailoring and lavish use of fabric would have made it much too expensive for him to buy. Instead, he might have had one or two jackets that he would have worn singly, or layered together for warmth. Furthermore, a common man’s jacket would have been made of a relatively cheap fabric such as linen, wool, or coarse cotton.
label: Description
content: This opulent, sleeved waistcoat features a type of silk brocade known as bizarre because of its extreme scale and jarring mix of unrelated and abstract design elements. Produced in English and French workshops, bizarre silks were extremely fashionable during the first twenty years of the eighteenth century.
label: Description
content: The primary fabric of this waistcoat (seen on its fronts, lower back, back neck, neck binding, and lower sleeves) is yellow-green bizarre silk, brocaded with salmon pink silk threads and threads of silk wrapped with flat strips of real gold. The resulting pattern is a huge, nonrepeating jumble of exotic stylized flowers, leaf fronds, buds, and wheat sheaves, interspersed with an urn, fountain, and several geometric grids filled with small four-leafed florets.
label: Description
content: The secondary fabric, which is used for the upper back and upper sleeves, is pink and beige silk damask with a large, symmetrical, connected repeat of geometric shapes and abstract flowers. The entire waistcoat is lined to the edge with bright green silk woven in very fine herringbone twill, which is also used for the pocket flap linings and the visible pocket facings. The hidden parts of the pocket interior are of dark green twilled wool.
label: Description
content: The waistcoat is cut with a long torso and a full skirt that is vented between the waist and the straight, knee-length hem at both sides and the center back. Twenty-two buttons mark the right center front, with corresponding buttonholes at left center front, but the lowest seven buttonholes can't be used because they were never cut open.
label: Description
content: A three-lobed, serpentine-edged pocket flap with three false buttonholes is set at each side of the front skirt; three decorative buttons under each pocket flap hold it out from the skirt. Each wrist closes at the base of a vent with a buttonhole and a button set on the back of the sleeve.
label: Description
content: All of the buttons are half balls, embroidered in metallic gold with satin-stitched segments separated by bullion knots, and each buttonhole is surrounded by gold braid that is couched down with gold thread. The center back length is 35.75 in. (90.8 cm).
label: Description
content: To see a similar sleeved waistcoat as it would have been worn, link to the portrait of <a href=" http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?LinkID=mp01080&rNo=0&role=sit "><I>James Craggs the Elder</I></a>, about 1710, attributed to John Closterman at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
label: Description
content: This Web entry was made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Association of Men’s Sportswear Buyers, in memory of Joseph S. Klein.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: From Cora Ginsburg
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CS.299889.001
label: catalog number
content: not defined
label: accession number
content: 299889
objectType: label: Object Name
content: jacket
label: Other Terms
content: jacket; Waistcoat; Upper Body; Main Dress; Male
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silk (primary fabric material)
label: Physical Description
content: gold (primary fabric material)
label: Physical Description
content: silver (primary fabric material)
label: Physical Description
content: silk (lining fabric material)
label: Physical Description
content: wool (lining fabric material)
label: Measurements
content: overall length (sh seam/cf base): 35 1/2 in; 90.17 cm
label: Measurements
content: cf opening, length: 33 in; 83.82 cm
label: Measurements
content: shoulder straps: 4 1/2 in; x 11.43 cm
label: Measurements
content: neck opening (sh seam/top button): 4 in; 10.16 cm
label: Measurements
content: outside facing, back neck: 1 1/2 in; 3.81 cm
label: Measurements
content: binding around neck: 1/4 in; x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: buttons, cf: 3/4 in; x 1.905 cm
label: Measurements
content: buttons, pocket and wrist: 1/2 in; x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: button span, cf: 30 1/4 in; 76.835 cm
label: Measurements
content: lowest button, above base: 1 3/4 in; 4.445 cm
label: Measurements
content: buttonholes, cf, length: 2 1/4 in; x 5.715 cm
label: Measurements
content: sleeves, length along outside edge: 24 1/2 in; 62.23 cm
label: Measurements
content: wrist opening (unbuttoned): 8 1/2 in; x 21.59 cm
label: Measurements
content: elbow circumference: 13 in; x 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: pocket flaps, width across top: 6 1/4 in; x 15.875 cm
label: Measurements
content: pocket flaps, width across lower edge: 9 in; x 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: pocket flaps, height at center: 4 in; 10.16 cm
label: Measurements
content: mock buttonholes on pocket flaps: 5.461 cm; 2 1/8 in
label: Measurements
content: pockets, inside depth: 7 in; 17.78 cm
label: Measurements
content: pocket flaps, upper edge, above base: 10 in; 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: skirt forepart, width at hem: 16 1/2 in; x 41.91 cm
label: Measurements
content: center back: 35 3/4 in; 90.805 cm
label: Measurements
content: lower back skirt, height of primary fabric: 19 in; 48.26 cm
label: Measurements
content: cb vent, height: 13 1/4 in; 33.655 cm
label: Measurements
content: cf buttonhole, length of braid: 2 in; x 5.08 cm
label: Measurements
content: cf buttonhole, length of opening: 1 1/4 in; x 3.175 cm
label: Measurements
content: wrist, length of vent opening: 7 in; 17.78 cm