Overview: This tail coat is heavily embroidered and is embellished with gold buttons
Construction: This tail coat is made of French broadcloth and lined with cotton. It has a standing band collar. It closes down the front with 9 gold buttons. The coat is 20" long with bifurcated tails that are 21" long. The coat is decorated with bullion embroidery on the collar, both sides of the front opening, the bifurcated tails, and the cuffs. The sleeves are about 24" long with a 4" folded cuffs. The bifurcated tails have 3 1/2" flaps and 3 gold buttons below each flap.
The embroidery on the coat consists of a leaf program. The leaves are mostly sewn with a silver thread, but are streaked with gold, orange, and yellow. Silver sequins emboss the embroidery. The buttons are decorated with twp patterns: a double headed eagle on the top five and bottom two and a harp pattern on the middle buttons. Gold thread surrounds the button holes on the left side of the jacket.
Stitching is visible on the interior of the coat. A large central seam runs from the collar to the beginning of the tails, and the stitching is small but irregular which suggests hand sewing. On the left and right of this seam are two folds where the arms meet the torso, which fold over the stitching and hide it from view. The lining of the interior ends at the sections of fabric that holds the buttons, the collar, and the bottom. The stitching here joins the broadcloth with the cotton, and the lines are much smaller and regular. There are running stitches under each arm that suggest quick repairs, as well as at the section of fabric joining the central panel with the left tail.
Provenance: A white label on the collar of the coat is stitched with black thread and reads "NORTHWESTERN/ COSTUME HOUSE INC/ Minneapolis." Underneath is handwritten "C 1/2 W 35 L 34". The garment was given to Triffin Morris by someone who had been involved with conservation which explains the small repairs and reconstruction that had been made prior to including it in the Costar archive.
Damage: It is missing a gold button in the front. There are are several holes along the embroidery where you can see into the lining, and parts of the embroidery have fallen off to reveal the base on which it was created. A large hole underneath the right interior armpit reveals the threads. The bullion embroidery is tarnished.
