Dress
c. 1830 (made)
| Artist/Maker |
Dress of fine quality wool, block printed with a design of stylised floral trails and stripes, in buff, two shades of purple and yellow. The dress has a bodice with long sleeves, joined to full length skirt. The bodice is constructed with a wide shallow neckline and diagonal pleats meeting at the centre front, and finished with self fabric piping. The bodice fastens at the centre back with 9 metal hooks and eyes. The sleeves are voluminous below the elbow, with the fabric of the upper sleeves controlled with deep cartridge pleats and bands of piped fabric. The cuffs fasten with 2 hooks and eyes at each cuff. The bodice lined with linen, and has a soft circular pad inside each bust point. The skirt is lined with glazed cotton and has an interlining of thin wool fleece 39 cm deep above the hem. The skirt is formed of four widths of fabric 69.5cm wide and an additional width 38cm wide, and is pleated onto waistband, with deep cartridge pleating either side of centre back.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | |
| Brief description | Dress of printed wool with long sleeves and full length skirt, 1830s |
| Physical description | Dress of fine quality wool, block printed with a design of stylised floral trails and stripes, in buff, two shades of purple and yellow. The dress has a bodice with long sleeves, joined to full length skirt. The bodice is constructed with a wide shallow neckline and diagonal pleats meeting at the centre front, and finished with self fabric piping. The bodice fastens at the centre back with 9 metal hooks and eyes. The sleeves are voluminous below the elbow, with the fabric of the upper sleeves controlled with deep cartridge pleats and bands of piped fabric. The cuffs fasten with 2 hooks and eyes at each cuff. The bodice lined with linen, and has a soft circular pad inside each bust point. The skirt is lined with glazed cotton and has an interlining of thin wool fleece 39 cm deep above the hem. The skirt is formed of four widths of fabric 69.5cm wide and an additional width 38cm wide, and is pleated onto waistband, with deep cartridge pleating either side of centre back. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label | 2017 - Gallery 40 Star Label
Day dress
About 1837
This dress was worn by Marianne Maurice (1808–40), as seen in the intimate family portrait nearby. Although the matching pelerine (short cape) in the painting is missing, the dress survives as new, carefully preserved by Marianne’s descendants for nearly 180 years.
Pleats and gathers are used throughout the dress. At the upper arm, intricately stitched pleats achieve the fashionable ‘collapsed’ sleeve. The dressmaker used fleece to interline the densely pleated skirt to give it extra body and fullness.
England
Block printed fine wool, possibly French
Given by Caroline Gowers née Maurice
Museum no. T.5-2015(05/2017) |
| Credit line | Given by Caroline Gowers née Maurice |
| Object history | This dress is especially unusual because it is shown in a watercolour portrait of the original wearer, Marianne Maurice (nee Bullock, of Burderop Park, died 1840) in about 1837. The dress is clearly depicted, although partly obscured by a matching cape which no longer survives. The painting shows Mrs Maurice resting on a couch in the family home, Lloran House on Marlborough High Street, Wiltshire, surrounded by her husband, a doctor, David Pierce Maurice, their daughter Adelaide, and Marianne's sister Louisa. The painting shows the precise context of the home of a country doctor in the 1830s, showing the furnishings and immediate details such as Marianne’s needlework accessories on the table in the foreground. The painting has been donated to the V&A's paintings department. |
| Associated object | E.448-2015 (Depiction) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.5-2015 |
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| Record created | December 29, 2014 |
| Record URL |
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