Can you tell me please what is it?

[vintageboutique]

Hello!
I have found this piece and I have no idea what is it. It is entirely hand sewn. On the back it is cotton, and between the front and the back it is a rigid fabric (I don't know what kind of fabric because I don't want to disassemble it).
It measures aprox. 12 X 9 inches.
Thank you very much.

 

[lkranieri]

Your item appears to be a stomacher:

http://www.vintagetextile.com/new_page_230.htm

but the textile and embellishment appear to be much newer than the late 18th century, which is, I believe, about when they stopped using stomachers, so I am at a loss to explain the discrepancy.
Lynne

 

[lkranieri]

Here is a link to an online blurb about making a stomacher for a costume. If you click on the picture from Costume in Detail you will see a stomacher with a similar shape and ruffle along the top. My first thought was that this might have been made later for a costume, but the handwork that was involved in applying the gold embellishment seems to be way too intricate for something like a costume, so I don't have a definitive answer.

http://ladyjaneswardrobe.blogspot.com/2007/05/stomacher-project-or-how-to-make-quick.html

Lynne

 

[pastperfect2]

With out handling it, which is the only sure way to tell, my best guess is it is a costume stomacher made in the late 19th C/earlier 20th C for stage when handstitching for stage was still very much in vogue.

But I agree the trim , color range or quality of the stitching are not 18th C., more 1880s - 90s.

I have handled some stage costumes from the 1890s - 1910s that were as well made as any fashion dress, so it's quite possible.

Hollis

 

[Jonathan]

It may also be from a folk costume - perhaps a German region?

 

[The Vintage Merchant]

the stitching actually looks like Thai, Indian (India Indian, that is) or Indonesian (which gets major influences from the first two)

costume (partial front) is my guess, too, they were/wore aLOT of dance performance costumes in Indonesia, particularly in Bali