Wedding dress

Physical description

Wedding dress consisting of a bodice, skirt, sash, collar, cape and silk fragment.

The dress is of cream silk gauze with narrow opaque stripe, and trimmed with cream silk embroidered net lace. A three-quarters length bodice with flared sleeves and attached draped polonaise overskirt bordered with lace. The bodice fastens with hooks and eyes in the centre front and with a 'V' neck. Full length underskirt in the same gauze edged with three flounces of lace, with edges of lace attachment to the bodice and skirt tidied up with silk satin rouleaux, and an additional row of rouleaux on the sleeve edges. The bodice front and polonaise overskirt are trimmed with silk satin ribbon bows. Belt sash of silk satin lined with cream silk, and with a fastening centre front camouflaged with a satin bow. Large silk gauze and net lace bow supported with a stiff cotton gauze interlining and attached to the back of the belt. Accompanied by a matching striped silk gauze cape and separate collar, and a fragment of silk gauze.

Place of Origin

Great Britain, UK (probably, made)
France (probably, made)

Date

ca. 1872-1874 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Silk gauze, trimmed with silk embroidered net lace, silk satin, lined with silk

Dimensions

[Wedding bodice] Circumference: 88 cm waist, Circumference: 89 cm bust, Width: 36 cm centre back, Length: 38 cm to waist, Length: 140 cm overall, Length: 131 cm overall, excluding lace, Length: 56 cm over sleeve, including lace, Length: 47 cm under sleeve, including lace, Circumference: 15.5 cm wrist, Width: 6 cm lace
[Wedding skirt] Circumference: 68 cm waist, Length: 139 cm back, Circumference: 600 cm hem
[Wedding sash] Length: 64.5 cm

Object history note

This dress was donated by Felicity Ashbee in 1962. It was found amongst the effects of her family and was stated to have come from the Seebohm banking family, who were Quakers.

Genealogical research in 2008/09 revealed that the bride who wore this dress was Lucretia Crouch, who married Benjamin Seebohm at the Friend's Meeting House in Clevedon, 10 September 1874.

Descriptive line

Wedding dress consisting of a silk gauze and lace bodice, skirt, satin sash, collar, cape and silk fragment, probably made in Great Britain or France, ca. 1872-1874

Exhibition History

Unveiled: 200 years of wedding glamour from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington 17/12/2011-22/04/2012)
The White Wedding Dress: 200 Years of Wedding Fashions (Bendigo Art Gallery 01/08/2011-06/11/2011)

Labels and date

Dress for a Quaker wedding
Britain
1874

Quakers in Britain varied in their approach to dress. In general they favoured mainstream styles, wishing to appear well-dressed without standing out. Lucretia Crouch adopted this course when she married Benjamin Seebohm at the Friends' Meeting House in Clevedon in 1874. Her husband, a bank manager, was a widower with a young daughter.

Dress (bodice, skirt and sash): silk gauze trimmed with machine-made lace and silk satin
Given by Felicity Ashbee
V&A: T.68 to B-1962 [2011]

Materials

Satin; Gauze; Silk lace

Categories

Textiles; Embroidery; Fashion; Marriage; Lace; Quaker; Women's clothes

Collection code

T&F