Open robe
Category
Costume
Date
1785 - 1795
Materials
Cotton and silk
Measurements
710 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Snowshill Wade Costume Collection, Gloucestershire
NT 1348736
Caption
Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, features on the back of this copper-plate-printed cotton dress, attended by her maidens as she receives Telemachus. It is one of several illustrated scenes taken from The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses , a novel by François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai (1651–1715), published in 1699. Written to accompany Homer’s Odyssey , Fénelon’s story reveals that Telemachus’s tutor, Mentor, is Minerva in disguise. Printed cottons transformed fashion in the 18th century. Cotton was cheap and easy to clean, while printing offered a fast and cost-effective way of mass-producing decorative patterns. Although printing from engraved copper plates limited designs to a single colour, it transformed the finished quality, providing more intricate detail than block prints. This dress, made between 1795 and 1800, is printed on cotton that contains three blue threads in its selvedge, indicating that it was manufactured in Britain. The raw cotton would have been grown by enslaved people in North America or the West Indies, before being shipped to factories in Lancashire. Emma Slocombe
Summary
Dress; Open robe - Copper plate printed cotton. Brown on white, scenes from the Odyssey. 3 blue threads in selvedge. Bodice and sleeves lined with unbleached cotton. Bodice - low, curved neckline, edge-to-edge opening. No underarm seam. Back - one large panel to show printed scene. Pointed waist centre back. Shoulder piece widens towards back. Sleeves - 3 tucks at head. Straight to shaped elbow (one sleeve has wide, shaped cuff). Remains of cream silk ribbon edging trim to remaining cuff. No fastenings. Cf Victoria and Albert Museum 'English Printed Textiles' refers to Florence Montgomery 'Printed Textiles - English and American Cottons and Linens Fig. 289. Wade Catalogue number E.22 "Cotton gown, printed with figure groups, ships, trees etc - an example of Toile de Jouy, or cloth printed from engraved copper plates at the works of Oberkampf at Jouy in the Valley of Bivere near Versailles. The cloths of Oberkampfare nearly always printed in red or blue and later in mauve, but the rarest of his colours is buff. c.1770" Bought from F.W. Phillips for £4.15.0
Provenance
bought from F W Phillips, The Manor House, Hitchin, Hertfordshire for £4.15.0. Bill dated Jan 1913. CW E22
References
Jane Ashleford, The Art of Dress. Clothes and Society 1500-1914, The National Trust, 1996, pp.169-170. Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, pp. 90-91.