Costume design by Wilhelm for a dancer in M A Bertrand's star ballet In A Star in Act III of The Bronze Horse, Alhambra, 1881.

Full length female figure with hands behind her back, wearing very low necked sleeveless silver costume cut into a point at centre front from low hip to mid thigh, the lower edge trimmed with silver and gold fringing; around the bust and hips is a line of bold black lozenges within each of which is a palest orange and gold star. At the back of the head is a bold silver pointed star in front of which is a smaller gold pointed star. Pen and ink, watercolour, gouache, gold and silver paint on card

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

The costume was designed by Wilhelm for a dancer in M A Bertrand's ballet 'In a Star' in Act III of 'The Bronze Horse', produced at the Alhambra, London, in 1881.
The design was probably part of the London Archives of the Dance; the Archives never achieved an independent home and part of the collection 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.

Historical significance: An example of design for the ballets at the Alhambra Theatre by the leading designer of his period. The ballets at the Alhambra and Empire Theatres are of great significance in the history of ballet in England, as they ensured the continuity of a ballet tradition in London between the Romantic ballet and the 'new' ballet of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes.

S.238-2000