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A colorful capuchin

April 06, 2023 10:56 AM | Mary Mangan (Administrator)

I was looking for something else in The Met today, and came across this remarkably colorful piece. 

I don't really have anything else to add, but wanted to capture it before I moved on to what I really wanted.

Capuchin 1725-1750

What I really wanted: American 1820-1829 black silk cloak with a Ipswich-like trim.

Comments

  • April 12, 2023 11:51 AM | Gail MacLean (Administrator)
    That black silk lace certainly looks like Ipswich!
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  • May 02, 2023 12:32 PM | Sue Felshin
    That capuchin (or mantle) is really freaky. Unfortunately the photos aren't very clear.

    I see the body is either Dieppe ground or has even more twists. At first I thought the edging was some basic torchon design of ground plus fans, in two layers, one wide and one narrow (or maybe a single layer with a row of fan-like figures down the center). But then I zoomed in on the reverse side of the lace at the top of the hood and the bottom of the body and I see it's actually pure mesh, cut to shape, with applied elements that merely resemble torchon fans. Then there's a very different piece of torchon along part of the proper right. My guess is the main edging is a later addition of machine-made net with applied designs (too blurry to see what) that replaces the original edging (a garment like this would have had an edging) plus a still-later addition of torchon lace to the proper right as a repair.

    The museum listing says it's silk. I'm tempted to say that's wrong and only the embroidery is silk. But on the other hand, 18th c. blonde often had a 90° ground of CT-pin-CTTT, so I suppose the body of the cloak could be a blonde-style silk ground with patterns run in afterwards, like filet lace (lacis) only different. But I betcha neither the main edging nor the repair(?) edging are silk.

    Further theorizing, on grounds that the cloak style is 1770s or so: Only the embroidery is 1720-50. The body of the capuchin itself is 1760-85 and the embroidery was chopped off some damaged earlier piece and appliquéd.
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