I
recently acquired a small piece of very early 18th century raw silk bourette in
really nice 18th century yellow, about the size of half a mans handkerchief so
quite a small piece. I loved the fabric and its such an amazing piece in person
as its so soft and the patina is so nice so handling it, it feels like its been
handled for almost 300 years so worn out but really strong.....I made this doll
specifically to try to use this very small piece of fabric to dress her in and I
could not be happier with the result as she turned out to be one of my finest
and indistinguishable from a antique of the period. There is just something
magical about this doll in my opinion. The piece of fabric was about 16 inches
long by 8 or 9 inches wide, that’s all I had....
I knew
it would have to be a very simple dress and I would be hard pressed to get a
skirt, bodice/stomacher and sleeves out of it but I managed to do it and with
only 5 or 6 tiny scraps of fabric left that are like 1/3 inch wide by maybe a
inch long.
She just looks
so much like a antique and the dress in person looks like its been on her
forever.....Her lip colour was inspired and is an exact match to a wonderful and
extremely rare, one of a kind example of a early 18th century English wooden
dating from 1720 that I did some minor restoration on a while back with original
cerise pink lips. One of the only early 18th century antique English woodens I
have ever seen including my antique, with pink lips.....
I am so pleased with her that I think I actually could not be more
happy with a antique than I am with this one. I just wish the patina on the
dress showed as amazing in photos as it is in person but it just does not for
some reason on this early 18th century yellow silk bourette....
Here she is complete....
She is quite hard to photograph,
well, I should say her dress is hard to photograph and do it justice, as it just
does not show the patina in photos like in person. Her face photographs lovely
though.
Hope everyone enjoys her
photos.
David
