Category
Costume
Date
1775 - 1800
Materials
Linen, Cotton, Wool, Silk
Measurements
40 x 26 cm
Order this imageCollection
Snowshill Wade Costume Collection, Gloucestershire
NT 1350100
Caption
Integrated pockets are so commonplace that this useful feature of clothing often goes unremarked. However, while men’s tailoring of the late 17th and 18th centuries incorporated pockets, girls and women of all classes wore detachable pockets. Teardrop-shaped, with a front opening and ties for the waist, these pockets were worn singly or in pairs and were reached through side openings in gowns and petticoats. Although designed to be hidden under layers of clothing, tie-on pockets were often decorated. The design on this pocket, embroidered in wool onto a cotton dimity fabric, features a vase, flowers and trailing stems, and is influenced by textiles from China and South Asia, which were fashionable in the 18th century. Pockets were useful for carrying personal and practical items such as coins, keys, sewing kits and gloves. The memory of this once essential item of clothing is captured in the well-known children’s nursery rhyme: Lucy Locket lost her pocket / Kitty Fisher found it / Not a penny was there in it / Only ribbon round it.
Summary
A teardrop-shaped cotton pocket with a vertical opening, with a band of narrow linen tape to create ties and applied to finish the opening. The front of the pocket is made from one piece of ribbed cotton or linen-cotton known as dimity and lined with one piece of plain weave linen. The front panel is embroidered in chain stitch with stemmed flowers rising from a small vase with handles surrounded by curving stems, leaves and flowers in coloured wools. The back is made from one piece of plain weave linen.
Full description
In the late 17th and 18th centuries girls and women of all classes wore detachable pockets under layers of skirts and petticoats rather than wearing clothes with integrated pockets that were a feature of men’s tailoring at the time. Teardrop-shaped, with a front opening and ties for the waist, these pockets were worn singly or in pairs and were reached through side openings in gowns and petticoats. Although designed to be hidden under layers of clothing, tie-on pockets were often decorated. The design on this pocket, embroidered in wool onto a cotton dimity fabric, features a vase, flowers and trailing stems and is influenced by textiles from China and South Asia, which were fashionable in the 18th century. Pockets were useful for carrying personal and practical items such as coins, keys, sewing kits and gloves. The memory of this once essential item of clothing is captured in the well-known children’s nursery rhyme: Lucy Locket lost her pocket, / Kitty Fisher found it; / Not a penny was there in it, / Only ribbon round it. This pocket was collected by architect Charles Paget Wade (1883–1956) whose interests spanned the Arts and Crafts movement and folk tradition. He amassed an extraordinary collection of 18th- and 19th-century dress, motivated by historic interest and the romance of clothing from the past, and inspired by the historical costume and staging of period drama (Howard, p.36). Wade’s eye for the unusual and quirky ensured the survival of everyday workwear as well as items of quality and high fashion, which he not only displayed but on occasion wore to gatherings with his friends. Emma Slocombe
Provenance
Given to National Trust with Snowshill Manor in 1951 by Charles Paget Wade
References
Bradfield, 1968: Nancy Bradfield, Costume in Detail, 1730-1930, Harrop, London, 1968, p.34. Burman and Fennetaux 2019: Barbara Burman and Ariane Fennetaux, The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives, New Haven and London 2019, p.72, fig.60c Howard 2016: Jonathan Howard, A Thousand Fancies: The Collection of Charles Wade of Snowshill Manor, The History Press 2016, p. 36. Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, p. 86.