{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O65210"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O65210/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL2099/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL2099/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AL2099","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AL2098","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O65210/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O65210","accessionNumber":"E.1861:85-1991","objectType":"Design","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This design is from an album that contains 104 designs for fine woven silk cloth and is dated January 1st 1734. A constant supply of fashionable new designs from which to create new lines was required, so patternmakers and master weavers like James Leman supplied a wide range of designs for different weavers. The album contains some of his work from the period 1706-1716, as well as five designs from the 1730s, including this one which is from about 1734.\n\nThis design may be English but there are several drawings for very similar patterns in the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris. Moreover in the Richelieu Collection of samples, also now the property of the Cabinet des Estampes, are fragments of a silk that reproduces this design exactly. The silk is presumably French. How this design came to be inserted in this volume is somewhat of a mystery. It is either French or a copy of a French design. It may have belonged to Leman and been pasted into the album after his death when he bequeathed his drawings to his children.\n\nJames Leman was born in 1688 into a weaving family of Huguenot descent. In 1702 he was apprenticed to his father, Peter, and lived with his family in Stewart Street, Spitalfields in London.","physicalDescription":"Design for woven silk from the 'Leman Album', in pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour, depicting an outsize plant with enormous pink flowers growing by a small pool bordered by stones.\n\nSquared up in ink for cords and dezines.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Leman, James","id":"A5979"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":"possibly"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"Ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"Watercolour","id":"x33202"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"Drawing","id":"x32498"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper","categories":[{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AL2099","2006AL2098"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"MB2E","shelf":"DR76","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"designs","id":"AAT102051"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":"possibly"},{"place":{"text":"Spitalfields","id":"x29420"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":"possibly"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1734","earliest":"1734-01-01","latest":"1734-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":"probably"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with Art Fund support and the National Heritage Memorial Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"69.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"27.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"27.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from Rothstein, Natalie. <u>Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London with a Complete Catalogue with 473 Illustrations, 371 in Colour</u>. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'450 No. 8 & 9. / Black / yellow / 2 runings - throughout'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"Ink","method":"Handwriting","position":"On the bottom of the front of the design.","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Makers's and designer's marks","note":"Handwritten makers' and designer's marks in ink, on the bottom of the front of the design."},{"content":"'4 Simples'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"Pencil","method":"Handwriting","position":"Bottom left corner of fold.  This inscription is difficult to see because it is on the crease.","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Makers's and designer's marks","note":"Handwritten makers' and designer's marks in pencil, on the bottom left corner of the fold of the design. This inscription is difficult to see because it is on the crease."},{"content":"Squared up in ink for cords and dezines.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"Ink","method":"Handwriting","position":"On the front of the design.","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Makers's and designer's marks","note":"Handwritten makers' and designer's marks in ink, on the front of the design."}],"objectHistory":"This is a design from the so-called 'Leman album' which was bought from Vanners Silks Ltd. in 1991. Natalie Rothstein catalogued the designs before the album was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum. She gave each design a VS number (for Vanners Silks) in her catalogue <u>Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century</u>. The designs have been subsequently numbered by the Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department, however, a concordance exists.\n\nHistorical significance: The designs collected in the album are, with the exception of some fragmentary medieval examples in Italian collections, the earliest silk designs known to exist.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design for woven silk from the 'Leman Album', pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper, possibly by James Leman, 1734","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Rothstein, Natalie. <u>Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London with a Complete Catalogue with 473 Illustrations, 371 in Colour</u>. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990. 351p., ill. ISBN 0500235899.","id":"AUTH324304"},"details":"p. 107, pl. 106","free":"Full text of the entry is as follows:\n\n'450 No. 8 &amp; 9. Black Yellow} 2 runings - throughout\nSquared up in ink for cords and dezines. The inscription is apparently in a handwriting which may be James Leman's.\nLarge tree-like flowers growing from a patch of rocks, sometimes with a small pond, as here, formed a common motif about 1734. The fact that 'contour modelling' is used suggests a date before 1735 when the <i>points rentrés</i> technique was already being used by Garthwaite. The drawing may be English but there are several drawings for very similar patterns (one of which is dated 1733) in the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris. Moreover, in the Richelieu Collection of samples, also now the property of the Cabinet des Estampes, are fragments of a silk that reproduces this design exactly. The silk is presumably French and appears under the date '1736'.\n27 1/2\" (69.9) x 10 3/4\" (27.3) [pl. 106]\nCT.18280   VS76'\n"}],"production":"The following information is taken from Natalie Rothstein, <u>Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century</u>. Please see the bibliographic reference under 'References' for more details.\n\r\n'The inscription is apparently in a handwriting which may be James Leman's. Large tree-like flowers growing from a patch of rocks, sometimes with a small pond, as here, formed a common motif about 1734. The fact that 'contour modelling' is used suggests a date before 1735 when the <i>points rentrés</i> technique was already being used by [Anna Maria] Garthwaite. The drawing may be English but there are several drawings for very similar patterns (one of which is dated 1733) in the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris. Moreover, in the Richelieu Collection of samples, also now the property of the Cabinet des Estampes, are fragments of a silk that reproduces this design exactly. The silk is presumably French and appears under the date '1736'.'\n\nRothstein also stated that this drawing is one of five (E.1861.2-1991 (VS.1), E.1861.55-1991 (VS.97), E.1861.85-1991 (VS.76), E.1861.101-1991 (VS.92), E.1861.105-1991 (VS.96)) 'which fall outside the main body of the Vanners Silks Set. They are all of much later date. This can be seen by comparing them with dated designs in the Garthwaite Set [in the Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department at the V&amp;A] and with dated French designs in Paris and Lyon. The choice of motifs, the much greater degree of naturalism and the use in all but VS.76 [E.1861.85-1991] of <i>points rentrés</i>indicate for all of them a date in the 1730s.\r\n\r\nIt is conceivable that some of these drawings are by James Leman who was still alive in the 1730s. The short English inscription on VS.76 [E.1861.85-1991] may be in his hand and the inscription itself, together with the fact that three of the drawings have been squared off for drafting, does seem to indicate that these patterns were woven in England.\r\n\r\nBut the superb design VS.96 [E.1861.105-1991] and to a lesser extent VS.96 [E.1861.85-1991] and VS.92 [E.1861.101-1991], so resemble French designs of the period that they must either be actual French drawings or close copies of them. There can be no doubt that VS.96 [E.1861.105-1991] is French and possibly by Jean Revel himself. It would have been perfectly in accordance with the practice at Spitalfields for Leman to have been in possession of French designs for woven silks: among the group of designs belonging to Garthwaite is a whole series labelled 'French Patterns'. The present five designs [E.1861.2-1991 (VS.1), E.1861.55-1991 (VS.97), E.1861.85-1991 (VS.76), E.1861.101-1991 (VS.92), E.1861.105-1991 (VS.96)] may represent some of Leman's 'French Patterns'.'","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.1861:85-1991"],"accessionNumberNum":"1861","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1991,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Vanners Silks number","id":"THES55481"},"number":"VS.76"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-07","recordCreationDate":"2002-05-07","availableToBook":false}}