unknown - Design for the Embroidery of a Man's Waistcoat, Unfinished - 1780–1800 - T-Shirt

This is a watercolour pattern for the lower front of a man's waistcoat, drawn as a model for embroiderers to transfer onto fabric.

Visual Elements & Composition

Warm grey paper fills most of the sheet, with violet, pale blue, forest green and brown providing the colour. A scalloped band of small violet and blue rosettes crosses the top of the front, and a dotted blue-and-green border runs along the sides and base. Beneath it, a garland of full-blown roses in violet, blue and pink rises from the lower corner, with oak-shaped leaves in green and brown twining through. The upper field carries only faint pencil traces of foliage, and the handwritten label at the top, with its numeral 103, remains part of the record.

Meaning & Symbolism

Roses, oak-type leaves and geometric edging were combined on embroidered waistcoats of the late eighteenth century, when the front of a garment was the chief field for decorative silk work. The regular rhythm of rosettes and dots frames the naturalistic flowers, so the botanical elements read as ornament placed with intent. The sheet belongs to a wider group of late eighteenth-century fashion and embroidery designs that circulated among tailors, embroiderers and clients.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

The garland is weighted toward the lower corner, the position that falls across the wearer's front. On a tee, that placement lands across the lower chest, where the roses and their colour carry the eye along the bottom edge. The rosettes and dotted borders keep the composition in a single, orderly field, so the design reads clearly from across a room as well as up close.