Anna Maria Garthwaite
1690-1763

She was the daughter of a wealthy rector in Lincolnshire (UK). Anna Maria Garthwaite was a leading designer of the early English silk industry. She created over 1000 designs. Many of her designs in water color have survived and are in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Her work is based on botanical forms and her designs change to become closer to real nature from 1742 to a point it's often easy to recognize the flower variety. The favorites are auriculas, honeysuckle, daisies, tulips,Convolvulus tricolor, lilies and aloe leaves.


Brocaded Silk, 1748 Spitafileds Weaver: Thomas Brant The Metropomitan Museum of Art	Compared to the French designs of the same period the English style is closer to nature. Flowers are smaller and less stylized than in France.	Typical design of English dress silk. A similar pattern can be seen at the Art Institute of Chicago The Albany Institute of Art shows a dress in silk brocaded taffeta fabric witha very similar design b

A source of inspiration for Anna Maria Garthwaite could have been the nursery gardens of experimental horticulturists near Spitalfields.	1740 Original design at V&A museum

Woven Silk 1757 The largest collection of designs by Anna Maria Garthwaite is at V&A Museum. Most of those drawing were found at Huddersfied in 1971 and acquired by the V&A Museum, London