Casgliadau Arlein

Fuchsia pink satin waistcoat, about 1760-70. Applied with undulating net bands over paper florets, with shaded green chenille foliage, blue blooms and mauve ribbon-worked rosette flowerheads. Possibly Italian or Spanish. Worn by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet.

The waistcoat has deep hip pockets on both sides of the front, covered with a flap. They are lined with a cream silk fabric which has a weaving pattern resulting in a diagonal stripe.There are 13 buttons down the front which are covered in embroidered pink satin. Front neck, front opening, bottom edge and button holes have a red chenille thread edging. he ribbon/chenille embroidery is worked in a 10cm wide strip down both sides of the centre front, covers the pocket flap and across a 21cm wide section along the bottom edge. The locations where the six-lobed paper florets have been stitch-secured have been marked out with a dark pen. The florets have then been secured in place with small stitches. The white ribbon of net which has been applied across the front is made from silk fibres, bundles of which have been coated with a substance which serves to stiffen the material. The ribbon-worked rosettes have a small pearlescent bead in the centre.

The pink silk on the front is made up of a large main section, with a separate piece added on for the pocket flap, two separate sections at both shoulders and an additional piece under the left arm. There is a long seam from shoulder down to waist level and another, shorter dart from the side seam towards the pocket. On the back of the waistcoat, beyond the shoulder seams, are further small fragments of pink silk, but these are covered over by the back section of the cotton fabric lining.

There are stitch holes that suggest that something was stitched to the extant back panel. The seam allowances of the centre back seam are facing outwards, suggesting that the waistcoat would have had an outer back panel which now appears to have become missing, possibly during the course of an alteration.

There are small undyed linen patches (with raw edges) underneath the pink silk at both sides, at hip level, which have been stitched in place with large tacking stitches using red silk thread. The patches 'disappear' under the vertical seam but continue in-between the pink silk on the front and the inner cotton lining.

Main section of the lining is made from cotton tabby fabric: back is made from two pieces, joined with a centre back seam, and each side of the front is made from one piece. The bottom section of the lining is made from wide pieces of the same cream silk used for the pocket lining. The same cream silk has been used as an inner facing on either side of the centre front opening. On the proper left side (where the button holes are) the facing has been applied in two sections: one in line with the buttonholes themselves and another, wider, section further in. The latter overlaps the former by about 1.5cm and thereby partly covers the buttonholes. Side seams and shoulders are stitched together with pink silk thread. On the proper right side seam, only fragments of those stitches remain and have been replaced with stitches using dark purple thread. The centre back seam is stitched using white thread.

The number '26' is hand written in brown ink on the inner rear right shoulder. On the opposite side are further inkmarks, though these are illegible. On the inner front left shoulder is a cross inscribed with the same ink.