Feather hair accessory possibly worn by the ballerina Marie Taglioni (1804-1884). Swansdown with feather tips.

Hair accessory made of white swansdown and fine black feather spines, with blue feather tips.
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Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

The accessory came to the Museum with an attached label in Margaret Rolfe's hand: "This white and blue feather belonged to Madame Taglioni it is very fragile and won't stand anything, so I will not lend it to Giselle to wear at the ball, she says I am a selfish pig. She had better rely on her 'adorable smile' - and not depend on my feather - It really does belong to Margaret Amy Rolfe, and not to Giselle. I don't like her. Foster 42 Wigmore Street said he would have been very proud had he made anything so curious and lovely." Giselle was Margaret Rolfe's cousin and the tone of the note implies that the feather must have been given to Margaret when she was still quite young.
It is part of a unique collection of memorabilia and personal effects which evoke Marie Taglioni in the last decades of her life.
A collection of Taglioni memorabilia was amassed by Margaret Rolfe, the granddaughter of Taglioni's closest friend in London, Mrs Boggs Rolfe; she attended Taglioni's dancing classes and received many gifts of Taglioni memorabilia, from Taglioni herself, from her grandmother and, after Taglioni's death, from her niece, Marguerite Troubetzkoi. She kept these, with a series of related notes, in various boxes and annotated envelopes (filed separately). These she passed to Cyril Beaumont, probably for the London Archives of the Dance (a number of the objects were referred to in "The London Archives of the Dance and some of its Treasures" by Cyril Beaumont, Ballet Annual, first issue, Adam & Charles Black, London, 1947, p110); the Archives never achieved an independent home and part of the collection, including the Taglioni memorabilia, was stored with Cyril Beaumont, where it became inextricably mixed with his own collection and came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest.

S.800-2001