The secret of the doll’s dress

During the conservation condition assessment in 2006 of a Victorian doll’s dress, c. 1865, it was noted that damage had caused two small sections of paper containing text (one handwritten, one printed) to become visible, indicating the existence of paper templates beneath the silk. The location of this text was recorded, the area photographed and the paper templates subsequently hidden by conservation repairs. Years later in 2014, analysis was carried out by textile conservators at the National Gallery of Victoria to determine if it was possible to ‘read’ what was written on these hidden paper templates.

The maker of the doll’s dress used the traditional quilting method of English paper piecing when hand-stitching the dress. This method involved folding and basting a variety of silk fabrics around tiny diamond-shaped paper templates. The silk patches were then sewn together using fine whipstitches. Quilts made using this method often have the paper templates left in place, leading scholars to believe they were an intrinsic part of the quilts’ layering used to provide strength and warmth.¹Joanne Hackett, ‘X-radiography as a tool to examine the making and remaking of historic quilts’, V&A,
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-03/x-radiography-as-a-tool-to-examine-the-making-and-remaking-of-historic-quilts/, accessed 1 March 2014. In support of this, analysis of historic quilts shows that when paper piecing wore out, it was sometimes replaced.²Sue Pritchford (ed.), Quilts 1700–1945, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2013, p. 134.

The maker of the doll’s dress used the tumbling block quilt pattern, which was extremely popular in Britain at this time not only for making quilts, but also for producing small decorative items.³Jenny Manning, Australia’s Quilts: A Directory of Patchwork Treasures, AQD Press, Sydney, p. 198. Another example of Victorian quilting in the NGV Collection is Patchwork cover c.1890, which was also made using tumbling block and paper piecing. Unlike the doll’s dress, which is fully lined, this quilt no longer has a lining and almost all of its templates are missing. Some small paper fragments, however, remain in seams, as well as one complete template with handwritten script.

In the nineteenth century, paper was an expensive commodity, and it was common practice for even the wealthiest households to re-use it. Because of the paper’s previous use, paper templates remaining within examples of patchwork can provide information regarding the work’s geographical origin and date of creation. Papers found in other English quilts from this period have been recycled from ephemeral materials, such as school exercise books, ledgers, advertisements, newspapers and receipts.⁴Pritchford, p. 134.

With the help of the NGV’s Photographic Services department, it was suggested that perhaps the best chance of ‘reading’ the paper was to transmit light through the doll’s dress, in the hope that this would show any dark areas of ink beneath the silk. The dress was carefully suspended so that light could shine through one side at a time. A photographic flash was positioned on one side of the dress and the camera on the other to record the light shining through. The flash was set so that it was powerful enough to penetrate through the multiple layers of fabric, as well as the paper in between.

This technique was also trialed in infra-red to see if it improved the readability of the text. An infra-red sensitive camera was used with an infra-red pass filter over the lens to block visible light. This particularly enhanced the readability of the typeset words, but not the handwriting. The transmitted light was strong enough to show a faint glow through the silk patches, and a few dark smudges became visible on the monitor. The camera focus was painstakingly adjusted through the various layers until the camera was focused on the paper layer. A number of eerie-looking printed and handwritten words became visible, clearly showing that a large number of the paper templates had been recycled from printed material.

The printed characters are likely to be letterpress, a relief printing technique commonly used in the nineteenth century that may leave indentations on paper. The characters are clearly defined, and perhaps a slight impression can be discerned from the initial photograph. The type is serif, with pronounced contrast between its thick and thin lines. Unfortunately, the typeface could not be identified from the images. Some of the printed words are clearly discernible, such as the words ‘guild’ and ‘presence’. Other words are only partially readable. However, with uncanny convenience, the date ‘1859’ can be clearly read on one of the printed paper templates. The typematter does not seem dense enough to be a newspaper column – but this is a subjective assumption. The printed characters are more likely to be from another ephemeral source, such as an advertising flyer that might include a current date.

Many of the handwritten words could only be partially read: the text is quite large, often fragmented, and the ink is less dense than that of the printed words. The style is clearly copperplate, a neat round handwriting meticulously learnt by children in Victorian times, which is slanted and looped with thick and thin strokes created by differing pressures produced by the flexible metal pointed nib of a dip pen.

Although it was not expected that X-raying would differentiate between the carbon of the printing ink and the other materials in the dress, it was hoped that the differences in paper thickness created from the impression of the letterpress would reveal the text. This was not the case, but the X-ray does provide valuable information about the structure of the dress, including its basting stitches, folds of silk patches and the condition of the paper patches beneath. The X-ray indicates that the paper shows signs of wear but, after approximately 150 years, has not broken down as much as would be expected of groundwood newsprint, indicating that the paper was of good quality, which is typical of paper from the middle part of the nineteenth century.

Transmitted light and infra-red analysis revealed that many of the paper templates inside the doll’s dress contained printed words produced by both letterpress and copperplate techniques. We were fortunate to find the printed date of 1859 among a collection of words, which supports the catalogue dating of the work as c.1865 and shows that the dress is unlikely to have been made before that year. It is unknown, however, how long the dress took to make or how long the paper was stored before it was cut into templates. This research has added a valuable layer of information
about hidden components of the doll’s dress.

Thank you: John Payne, Senior Conservator, Painting, NGV (x-radiography); Narelle Wilson, Photographer, NGV (infra-red photography); David Harris, Paper Conservator, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (advice on paper and typeface).

Kate Douglas is Conservator of Textiles at NGV.

Notes