Historic Deerfield

[robinsnest]

Rob and I went up to visit my sister in Northampon MA this weekend. Rob actually had a shooting job up there, it's with a company he regularly works for, and it's way out of his normal shooting range, but they basically paid us to go visit my family and we'll never turn that down.

So while Rob was gone all day Saturday, and my Brother-in-Law was at a track meet the cross-country team he coaches, Molly took me to Historic Deerfield. HD is a group of historic houses and accompanying museum. Mostly the houses are shown by tours, where an ancient woman talks to you for an hour about things that sound just a bit off.  Molly isn't nearly as snarky as some of my other friends so we quickly found the house tours boring and only did one. 

HD does have a museum they built to house some of their collections, and they have an on-going exhibit of textiles, which they even allowed non-flash photography in. And I've been playing with my BIL's DSLR and let me tell you it takes WAY better pictures in low lighting!!! I took over 200 so I'll just include a few of my favorites here.



I don't have any great need for Regency stays, but boy this makes me want a pair! 


It was very elegant, I especially liked how they had to piece the train.





They describe it as being almost identical to one in the collection of Colonial Williamsburgh and donated by the same collector. 




What I found especially interesting about it was sleeve flounces and shirred trim  were made out of a totally different-but very similar fabric. So similar that it took me a bit to realize they weren't self fabric.





The oldest piece they had was this sweet bag dated 1590-1610, but they also had several beautiful embroidered pictures, samplers, and accessories.

  


In total I took almost 200 pictures so if you want more details of an item or to see some lovely shoes you can go to the whole album on photobucket. 

Comments

[fiofiorina.livejournal.com]

Wow!!! thank you for sharing!
I love the muslin gown!

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

Isn't it elegant? I was amusing myself pondering the piece on the end of the train, perhaps someone not as graceful stepped on it and ripped off the previous point?

[fiofiorina.livejournal.com]

or it got caught in a slamming door, or a spark too close at the fire?
I love dresses with a story. And it's so elegant!

[jennylafleur.livejournal.com]

Oh very yummy! I love the pics of the Robe Battante - they are so rare! Thanks somuch for sharing!

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

I just wish they'd had it displayed so I could have gotten better pictures of the front AND the back.

[the-aristocat.livejournal.com]

Great pictures! Thank you!

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

I love feeling like I have something good to share :-)

[sstormwatch.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing your photos. These are lovely. And I recognize a few that I've only seen in black & white.

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

You were one of two I was thinking of when I took all the embroidery pictures :-) The old bitty kept calling anything sewn needlepoint...

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

Owwww gorgeous ! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing !

[curiouschilde.livejournal.com]

Soo pretty!!! A good little vacation for you. You needed it. Those stays are gorgeous!!

[myownsatellite.livejournal.com]

I loved that green dress! I've always loved that look!

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

When I visited Deerfield back in March, I took a ton of photos of that exhibit. I love that set of quilted regency stays!

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

oh yeah you live up there! We should meet up sometime when I'm visiting her :-)

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

We totally should!

[jennil.livejournal.com]

How is it that I LIVE in Mass and I've never been to this museum?!?!? *clears calendar immediately!*

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

well it's a big state...it's in Deerfield which is near my sister's (Northampton) which is somewhere in the middle of the state...