Reticule owned and possibly made by ballerina Marie Taglioni (1804-1884). Satin, silk knitting and beads.

Reticule of dark red fine knitted silk with dark red satin top through which runs a cord drawstring; decorated top and bottom with a band of 4 rows of tiny beads in dark red, pink, green and dark green; in the centre similar bands edge a band with bead embroidery in the form of pink flowers and dark and light green leaves.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

One of several bags and accessories owned by Marie Taglioni in the Cyril Beaumont Collection. The bag may have been made by Taglioni, who was a proficient needlewoman
It forms 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 from Taglioni's niece, Marguerite Troubetzkoi, after Taglioni's death. 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.15-1987