Dress, 1805-1810, French. Cotton embroidered with silver thread and spangles

Embroidered muslin dress

Given by Messrs Harrods Ltd.

This was part of a very large collection of items of dress and accessories which was given to the Museum by Harrods, the department store, in 1913. The collection had been formed by the artist Talbot Hughes, who wrote a book on the history of dress, illustrated with photographs of models wearing items from his collection. A large firm in America had offered to buy the collection and present it to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, but Hughes did not want it to go abroad. At the suggestion of Cecil Harcourt Smith of the V&A, Harrods bought it for £2,500 and gave it to the Museum for the 'public good'. Harrods displayed the collection for three weeks in December 1913.

This muslin gown is a typical evening ensemble of the period 1800-1810. The embroidered design of flowers has been worked in cotton and silver thread with tiny gold spangles (sequins). It resembles fashion plates and descriptions from the fashion magazine La Belle Assemblée of 1807. A new development in dressmaking is the fastening of the gown at the back rather than the front.

T.673-1913