Embroidered Petticoat, ca. 1700
England
Silk embroidery on linen ground
Lent by Historic Deerfield, Inc.

This skillfully embroidered petticoat is adorned with a remarkable range of Chinoiserie motifs: fantastical foliage, pagoda-roofed buildings, and colorfully-dressed figures riding on elephants and dragons. A rainbow-colored stripe that meanders over the entire surface provides an alluring background and probably depicts a "scholar’s rock," an unusually shaped geological formation that Chinese thinkers used to contemplate the power of nature. Scholar’s rocks were commonly depicted on Chinese porcelain and also widely copied by European designers who were unaware of its symbolic importance.

Petticoats in the period not worn under a gown but were fully visible and often richly decorated.