Man's coat, 1828-1830, English; Brown wool with cut velvet shawl

Brown wool cut-away tail coat with long tight sleeves, puffed and padded at the shoulder, with a cut silk black velvet collar and double row of metal buttons

Given by Messrs Harrods Ltd.

This was part of a very large collection of items of dress and accessories which was given to the Museum by Harrods, the department store, in 1913. The collection had been formed by the artist Talbot Hughes, who wrote a book on the history of dress, illustrated with photographs of models wearing items from his collection. A large firm in America had offered to buy the collection and present it to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, but Hughes did not want it to go abroad. At the suggestion of Cecil Harcourt Smith of the V&A, Harrods bought it for £2,500 and gave it to the Museum for the 'public good'. Harrods displayed the collection for three weeks in December 1913.

The cut-away coat remained formal daywear for men until the 1850s. The long tight sleeves, puffed and padded at the shoulder, and thickly padded chest seen here are characteristic of fashionable men’s coats in the late 1820s. The double row of buttons accentuates the wide shoulders and narrow waist.

T.683-1913