In the nineteenth century waistcoats tended to be one of the more elaborate and colourful pieces of the male wardrobe, which is partly why they survive in relatively large numbers. They might also have been kept for their decorative quality or for sentimental reasons when they went out of fashion.
This richly patterned velvet waistcoat would have complemented the darker colours of a coat. Different styles of waistcoat were worn according to the cut of the coat, season, time of day and occasion. They could be single or double-breasted and were often made of velvet for winter wear and light silks for the summer. Particularly flamboyant examples caused comment, such as the brightly coloured, embroidered waistcoats worn by Charles Dickens on his American tour in 1842, which were labelled by the press as 'somewhat of the flash order'.