Christening coat
Category
Costume
Date
circa 1760
Materials
Silk
Measurements
780 mm (length)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 658222
Summary
A baby's long quilted christening coat (circa 1760) made of silk with a cotton backing. It opens at the front and is a yellow-brown colour. It is stained in places and the silk is slightly shattered. The sleeves may have been added at a later date and there may have been mittens or a cap with this robe. The quilting is similar to a bearing cloth in the V&A collection that featured in the book 'Dictionary of Children's Clothes, 1700s to Present' (Noreen Marshall) There is a similar coat or mantle in the costume collection in Bath which has no sleeves and this is illustrated in Anne Buck's book 'Clothes and the Child'. The garment has been used as a christening coat for many generations (since 1700s) in the Gardiner family. One member of the family who owned the coat was a Mr Willoughby Gardiner (renowned antiquarian) who donated a large collections of books to the National Museum of Wales and a collection of coins to The Grosvenor Museum in Chester. The coat was loaned to Derbyshire Museum Service - Derby Museum in the 1960s by Mr John Gardiner (grandson of Willoughby Gardiner) and then moved to be stored at Sudbury Hall in 1972 as part of the Derby Museum collection. In 2012 Mr John Gardiner donated the coat to the National Trust.