Spitalfields silk by Anna Maria Garthwaite
English figured silk with botanically accurate flowers, designed by one of the few named women designers of the Rococo.
Anna Maria Garthwaite (1688–1763) designed about a thousand silk patterns in London. Her drawings survive, making her one of the best-documented textile designers of the 18th century. Drawings and silks are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Materials: Brocaded silk
Manufacture: Woven on a drawloom by Huguenot weavers in Spitalfields after Garthwaite’s point-paper designs.
The naturalistic flowers scattered over a light ground, not confined in bands.
The colours shading within a single flower, as in a painting.