Glove wallet probably belonging to the ballerina Marie Taglioni (1804-1884).

Fold-over glove wallet in ivory satin, the sides and top edges of inner pockets bound in white and green cord, the interior lined in ivory quilted silk. On the front is embroidered "Gants" in pink silk surrounded by an embroidered frame of green leaves, tiny rosebuds and tiny blue flowers.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

The glove wallet was probably owned, possibly made, by Marie Taglioni. 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.790-2001