1870 Midnight blue velvet jacket
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1870-1875 A jacket in midnight blue silk velvet.
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The jacket from the side
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The back of the jacket
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Detail of one shoulder
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One of the frog fastenings on the front
Description
The jacket is lined with black silk; it has 11 hooks down the right-hand front edge; the left edge has an eye at the neck, five eyes at the lower end and six worked loops in between. A panel of the velvet, 2¼" wide, is sewn under the left edge from 1" below the neck curving in 9½" further down; this lies under the centre front opening when fastened, covering any gap between the edges.
Two pairs of frog fastenings in jet beads are spaced down the front about 5½" apart; on the right-hand side they have 2" long loops of plaited black silk covered cord to attach to black shiny toggles on the left which may not be original.
There is black silk piping all round the edge of the jacket.
The jacket is trimmed with bands of black cord openwork forming lobes with black silk twill folded into ½" wide box-pleats in the centre of them and jet beads; on the lower edge of the jacket, 1" above the hem, this trimming has more openwork with jet along its top and is 2¾" wide. The lobed braid is 1¾" wide over the shoulders with 1¼" wide black cord lace edging and jet beads along its top edge which covers the top of the sleeves; this also goes round the neck, the lobes overlaying the bodice and the lace covering the 1" stand collar.
The back of the jacket is open from the waist down, the right side overlapping the left, with the lobed trimming, 2" wide, on its edge. Above that is a black cord and jet bead motif, 5⅜" high, with a 1½" long tassel at the top and a 3" long tassel of larger jet beads at the waist.
The outer sleeves have a row of the lobed trimming, 1¾" wide, 1½" up from the ends and another row 1½" above that, sloping up and leaving a 4" gap near the elbow.
Black wool Bedfordshire lace, 3⅜" wide, goes round the jacket hem.
Contemporary illustrations
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Fashion plate in The Young Ladies' Journal, March 1867
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Unknown young woman, c.1868
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Detail from a fashion plate in The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, February 1871
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Fashion drawing in La Mode Illustrée, March 1874
