1818 Pink spencer
| ||||||||||||||||||
1816-1820 A spencer in pale pink figured silk.
-
The back of the spencer
-
Detail of the puff on one of the shoulders
-
Detail of the right front showing the darts
-
One of the cuffs
-
The tape inside the back waist where the name is written
-
Detail of the woven silk fabric
Description
The silk has a woven self pattern of different sized dots.
Each front has three darts grouped together to shape the bust, and the centre front edges have no fastenings.
The collar is stiffened and 2⅞" wide at the centre back; it curves round to nothing at the front where there is a hook and eye. The edge has piping in matching silk satin, and this goes round all the edges of the spencer, including the vandyke shaping, 1¼" deep, on the lower edge.
The sleeves are gathered into the armhole seams and have puffs over the tops sewn in with a piped seam; these have zig-zags of double piping, with self fabric and matching silk taffeta alternately filling the triangles between them. The lower edges, which are not sewn to the sleeves, are piped. The ends of the sleeves are pulled in by loose double bands, ⅜" wide, of the satin, 3½" up from the ends, and sewn to the sleeves at one point only; they are fastened by a pearl button and a worked loop. Sewn to the bands are 2" deep pieces of the taffeta cut into 1⅜" deep vandyke shaping with piped edges, and attached to the sleeves only at their points; below them are ½" wide double bands of satin, sewn on ½" up from the sleeve ends.
The back is gathered for 4" at the centre back waist under the self belt; this is ⅝" wide, with the piping each side, and fastens at the front with a hook and two eyes, ⅝" apart along it.
The spencer is lined with thin cream silk, and a tape, ³⁄₁₆" wide, is sewn round the inside of the waist of the fronts. Another tape, ⁵⁄₁₆" wide, is sewn inside the back waist, with long ends to tie round the front. The name M Roberts is written in ink at the centre back.
Contemporary illustrations
-
Fashion plate in R.Ackermann's Repository of Arts, October 1817
-
Fashion plate Costume Parisien,1818
-
Fashion plate Costume Parisien, 1818
-
Fashion plate in La Belle Assemblée, Parisian walking dress, 1819
History
The spencer was bought at an auction of art and antiques from Major and Mrs Riall of Ballyorney House, Enniskerry, co.Wicklow. The property came into the Riall family on the marriage in 1801 of Charles Riall to Anne Roberts, daughter of John Roberts, owner of the Shanganagh Estate where the house is situated. Martha was John Roberts' second daughter, who was born in the late 1770s and died in 1857. She was unmarried and inherited a substantial amount from her father; she bequeathed all her property to her Riall nephews and nieces and their descendants..
Family research by Ruth Mathewson, genealogist. Websites: Kindred Ancestry and Irish Geneaography
The 1819 Muslin skirt was bought at the same auction; it is about the same date as the spencer, and the waist measurements are the same, so it is likely that this too belonged to Martha Roberts, and the items may have been worn together.