Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Website: CostumeAndConservation.com
Social Media: @CostumeAndConservation
Artist Statement
Curtains, slipcovers, and other soft furnishings at Winterthur were often made from antique fabric. The firm of Ernest LoNano—a renowned Italian immigrant upholsterer for many museums and collectors in the mid 1900s—created the flowered silk cover for this settee from dress fabric that would never have been used for furniture in the 1700s. When Winterthur was created, finding the right look was just as important as historical “accuracy.”
Conservation graduate student (now alum) Margaret O’Neil studied stitches and measurements to recreate what the dress likely appeared before it was reimagined as upholstery.
Learn more about this project in the video Piecing Together the Past: Reconstructing a 1770’s Closed Front Sacque Gown.