1882 Wedding dress and shoes
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1882 A wedding dress in cream silk satin
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The dress from the side
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The back of the dress
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Detail of the end of one sleeve
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Detail of the edge of the back neck
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Detail of the hem of the overskirt; some pearls are missing in the motifs
Description
The bodice and skirt are separate.
The bodice is mounted on pale ginger silk taffeta except for the two centre back panels which are unlined. All the darts and seams are boned as well as the left centre front edge; the back lower edge is pointed at the centre and the bone extends down it. There is padding inside the fronts each side above the bust. The inside waistband is 1⅜" wide with two hooks and eyes fastening at the centre front, and there are hooks pointing up, 1" each side of the centre back, to attach to eyes on the skirt. The lower edge has double piping in the satin.
The centre front opening has 14 pearl buttons on shanks (one is missing) and worked buttonholes, although the lowest three would be tricky to use as they are overlaid by the trimming. This is ivory cotton net with rows of rosettes of pearls and white beads, and it covers most of the front bodice panels with a row of the motifs round the back neck edge. It extends over the front beyond the neck edge of the satin, and has swathes of silk tulle under it, which is now fragile but may have filled in the neckline; fragments of tulle remain under the trimming at the back.
A large bow of cream silk moiré ribbon, 2½" wide with ¼" wide stripes along its edges, is at the top of the right front by the opening, and there are similar bows on each shoulder.
The sleeves are made of two layers of beige cotton net with white bead and pearl sprigs scattered over them and the pearl rosettes round the lower edge; they are unlined.
The waistband of the skirt is cream petersham ribbon, 1⅜" wide, with two hooks and eyes spaced 1⅝" apart along it, and eyes each side of the centre back for the hooks inside the back of the bodice.
The silk of the front skirt has 1⅜" wide stripes of moiré and satin; three pleats each side of the centre are held in place on the inside by ivory silk ribbon, ¹⁄₁₆" wide. It is backed on stiff muslin and the hem has a facing of cream satin 2½" deep.
The plain satin back skirt is pleated into the waistband with 1" of cartridge pleating each side of the centre back, and it is unlined. The sides each have two 3" deep pleats into the side seams, the lower ones are about 10" down from the waist, and the satin is caught up in a number of places to form paniers at the side back; many of the holding stitches have now gone and the lowest is about 12" below the waist, so how the draping looked is conjecture to some extent. The centre section is not gathered in any way and is extended into a train; there are signs that there may have been tapes sewn on the inside to control the folds. The hem has a frill made a strip of the satin unevenly box-pleated and then folded lengthways and sewn on to make a double frill, 1¼" deep over 1" showing below.
The front has a panel of beige stiffened cotton net, sewn on at the waist at the left and then, 13½" down from the waist, curving down nearly to the hem, and rising up to 7" below the waist on the right, gathered in places along the way so that it hangs in a drape; it is sewn to the front skirt along the side seams. White bead and pearl motifs are scattered over it, and the lower edge is curved, 5" above the hem on the right and 14" above on the left, with a ⅞" long fringe round the lower edge, of pearl beads with a pearl on the end. Another piece of the same bead and pearl decorated net is draped over it asymmetrically, 15" at its deepest on the right.
A knot of a length of the cream ribbon is sewn 4" down from the waist and about 6" to the right of centre, its ends hanging down 15" and 17½" long and caught to form loops; the same arrangement of the ribbon 18½" and 22½" long is below and a further length below that is in two loops, 12" long.
Contemporary illustrations
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Fashion drawing in The Queen, April 1881
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Fashion plate in Musée des Familles, December 1881
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Fashion plate in Revue de la Mode, 1883
Associated item: shoes
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One of the shoes from the side
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The toe of one of the shoes
Description
These shoes were worn at the wedding. The are made of ivory silk satin a little paler than the dress. The vamp is lined with beige glazed cotton and the quarters with ivory kid leather. The Louis heel, covered with the satin, is 1¾" high; the leather sole is continuous with the inside face of the heel, a style popularised by the fashionable Parisien shoemaker Pinet, and so was sometimes also known as a Pinet heel. The trim on the throat is an elaborate bow of the satin with added loops of matching silk grosgrain and white beads.
More shoes from the Hopkins Collection can be seen in Footwear, published by The School of Historical Dress and available from the Hopkins Costume Trust bookshop.
Associated item: wax orange blossom wreath
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The box the orange blossom came in
Description
These are lengths of wax orange blossom with sprigs of white heather and green leaves on wired stems; there are two long pieces shown, with a shorter spray. They came in the box shown, with a pencilled note which says "My mother (Nellie Granville's) wedding orange blossom wreath etc." They were possibly to be a head-dress for the bride, but it is not clear how they would have been arranged in her hair, or whether some pieces decorated the dress. There are two more smaller sprays and other fragments in the box, and the wax is now brittle and discoloured.
History
The dress was worn by Eleanor Katherine Granville when she married Charles Topham Naylor, Barrister at Law, in St Andrew's Church, Biarritz on the 27th April 1882. Her father was secretary of the English Club in Biarritz, France.
She was born in October 1857 in Havant, Hampshire to Captain Robert Creighton Granville and Caroline Hortense St Ledger Grenfell, and died in December 1940, in Stroud, Gloucestershire, at the age of 83; she had four children.
The dress was donated to the Hopkins Collection by her granddaughter, Molly Campbell, (Aunt of Kave Quinn, Production Designer).