Unidentified Maker, from fabric designed by Anna Maria Garthwaite (1690-1763) and woven by Mr. Pulley.
Fabric from London, Spitalfields, England
Brocaded silk taffeta, 1742 (remade c. 1840)
AIHA Collection: Gift of Harriet Van Rensselaer Elmendorf Gould [Mrs. John Woodworth Gould] through Catherine Bogart Putman Rankin [Mrs. Edward W. Rankin]

The silk brocaded taffeta fabric of this dress was designed by Anna Maria Garthwaite, who sold her design to the master weaver "Mr. Pulley" in 1742. Only four pieces of fabric were usually woven of any one pattern; two pieces of fabric with this particular pattern exist. Two other dresses with this fabric pattern are known: one, with an Irish provenance, in the National Museum of Ireland; another, with a pink background, thought to have an English provenance, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is quite exceptional for three fabrics of the same design to survive for over 250 years. 

This dress was probably made for Christina Ten Broeck Livingston (1718-1801) of Albany and New York City, wife of Philip Livingston (1716-1778) a farmer, merchant, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, whom she married in 1740. The dress remained in the family and was remade into a day dress in about 1840 when 18th century silks were fashionable once again. It was donated to AIHA by a direct family descendant. 
Anna Maria Garthwaite showed artistic promise from a young age, although how she acquired technical design expertise remains unknown. In Postlthwayt's Dictionary, Garthwaite is listed as on of the three designers who "introduced the Principles of Painting into the loom." Nearly all her designs, except those of 1746 and 1750, have survived. 

Faience