1885 Red bustle cage
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1884-1889 A red striped wool bustle cage
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The back of the bustle cage
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Inside the bustle cage
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Detail of the top of the back showing the crossed steels
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The bustle cage folded flat
Description
The cage is covered with plain weave wool in red with stripes of black and wine.
The top is enclosed in a strip of the wool with ¾" showing on the outside; the wool of the cage is gathered into 3" at the centre back. A length of white tape is threaded through the waistband to tie in the front; this may be a replacement for the original. Another tape is sewn 6" down the edge each side, to tie in the front at hip level; one is original and the other is a replacement.
Six steels are encased in channels of white tape, sewn on the inside of the back panel, about 3½" apart down the back. At the top there are two sets of pairs of steels crossing over at the centre, one 4½" down from the waist and the second pair 4" below that.
The side panels are 8½" wide at the top with ¼" wide darts into the waistband; they slant away to nothing at the hem.
The back has an inside panel of dark brown silesia, 4½" wide at the waist and 12" wide at the hem. It is sewn to the wool where the steels end, and pulls them in to form the necessary curves.
The bustle cage can be folded flat for storage, but it would also concertina in this way when the wearer sat down.
It came from the family of a Miss Weston, Lewes, Sussex.
Contemporary illustration
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Fashion drawing in Sylvia's Home Journal, December 1884
