A Gentleman’s Gold-Laced Suit of Green Superfine, C. 1760 (3 items)

A Gentleman’s Gold-Laced Suit of Green Superfine, C. 1760 (3 items)
An extremely rare, suit of superfine wool for an English gentleman of the mid-18th century, with matching coat, waistcoat, and breeches of popinjay green, all trimmed with gold edging lace and gold-worked buttons. The coat is single-breasted, with its front and skirt hems edged with 1 3/8 inch-wide, figured gold lace, the pocket flaps edged and framed with the same. The single-breasted waistcoat is similarly trimmed. The coat is fully lined with a pale buff silk, while the waistcoat is lined with the same on the breast innerfacings and skirts, the rest of the body with a plain-weave, medium weight linen. The waistband gusset and the fall lining of the breeches are of buff silk, but otherwise fully lined in the same linen as the waistcoat. A one inch-wide piece of lace is applied to the bottom of the legs to serve as kneebands, reinforced with chamois on the buckle-keep end. The knee buttons of the breeches are worked with gold wire and tinsel similar to that on coat and waistcoat, but the waistband and fall buttons are self-covered in green superfine. There are four “deadeye” horn suspender buttons applied to the tops of the waistband, of much later date. In cut and trim, this suit would appear to be of the period 1755-1765. Its original owner-wearer was a man of some size for the age—at least 6 feet 1 inches in height, with a breast measure of 41 and waist of 36. The suit is in overall good-very good condition, marred only by a few spots of soiling—notably on the front of the coat and breeches and some loss and shattering to the silk lining of the coat. The latter has been conserved by Dr. Karin Bohleke, PhD., who applied netting to stabilize worn and shattered areas of the silk—mostly near the front neck and front edges and replaced one area of the left skirt with silk in-kind.