Dress

Physical description

Girl's dress of mid-blue shot silk lined with white glazed cotton, the bodice robings and skirt border and sleeve cuffs all trimmed with black velvet ribbon appliquéd in Greek key pattern. The dress has a scoop neck, to which a tucker of machine-made lace has been attached and short sleeves with puffed inner sleeves of white machine-embroidered lawn. The bodice comes to a shallow point at front and back, and the skirt is attached to it in unpressed box pleats, except at the waist back where it is cartridge pleated. A pocket of white glazed cotton is concealed in the skirt in a seam toward the true right-hand side, and the skirt has a false hem of blue ribbon. The waist front has a panel of gauging over a narrow busk of metal, and the garment fastens at the back with loops and blue silk-wound buttons.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (made)

Date

ca. 1855 (made)

Dimensions

Length: 60.5 cm centre back

Object history note

RF 71/ 2541: Given by Miss Margarita Drysdale and Miss E V L Marshall, of Chadwell Farm, Lucketts, Route 4, Leesburg, Virgiinia, USA via Miss Stella Clive Smith, 142 Gloucester Place, London NW1 6DT. There is a black and white photograph (negative number GB 1375) of a miniature of a girl wearing the dress.

Descriptive line

Dress for a girl: blue shot silk, trimmed with black velvet ribbon; made in England, ca. 1855

Materials

Silk; Glazed cotton

Techniques

Stitching; Appliqué

Collection code

MoC