1903 Black beaded evening dress
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1902-1907 An evening dress in black silk satin under bead embroidered net.
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The back of the dress mounted
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Detail of the front of the bodice
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Detail of the back of the bodice
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One of the sleeves
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Detail of the beading on the side of the skirt just below the waist
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Detail of inside the back of the bodice showing the label on the waistband and the ribbon with the wearer's name
Description
The bodice and skirt are separate.
The bodice has bones on the seams and darts, and 5" long ones on the front edges; the inside waistband, sewn on at the centre back, is 1¼" wide with two hooks and eyes to fasten at the front. The bodice is mounted on black silk taffeta, and the front opening is fastened with 12 hooks and eyes alternating each side in pairs; a piece of the taffeta, 2½" wide, is on the left edge, to lie under the opening. A hook pointing down inside the base of the centre back is to attach to an eye on the skirt to secure it under the bodice edge. Dress protectors in black cotton sateen are inside, round the lower armholes, with small panels of the satin, 3" deep at the widest, in the back of the armhole between them and the sleeves.
Black silk gauze covers the bodice, with four pleats into the waist at the back and two each side of the centre front opening where it is gathered into the waist and the neck edge as a drape down the front.
A layer of black cotton net with a scalloped edge hangs over the bodice, going to a point at the centre front waist, rising to 3½" deep under the sleeves, and 5" deep across the back; it is decorated with a design in cut steel and jet beads, and black sequins. Swags of the gauze go round the neck, caught down in places by the beads, and a cut steel oval buckle (now broken) on the right shoulder. A wired semi-circle of black net with beading, 3" wide, covers the front neck opening; one end is sewn to the right front, and the other end has a hook for a bar on the left front. Pieces of the gauze hang from each end of this, 5½" long on the right, 6" on the left, with a silvery metal aiglet on the ends.
The lower edge of the bodice is covered with a piece of gauze, 2¼" wide, with three tucks along it, widening to 2¾" at the centre back; a 3" long extra piece is added to the end on the right front with three hooks on its pointed end to fasten on to worked bars on the left side.
A strip of black net is sewn inside the neck edge, 1" deep at the front widening to 1½" at the shoulders and 2" round the back; the top is folded over to encase a ¼" wide fine black silk ribbon drawstring, ⅜" down from the top, to tie at the front.
The sleeves are made of a double layer of the gauze, gathered into the armhole seam at the top; a ½" pleat is 1¼" down and another one ¾" below that. An extension of the beaded net on the back, 4" deep at its widest, goes loosely across the sleeve head each side and is sewn in to the front of the armhole seam. The sleeves are 11½" long, and the ends are gathered in to a wavy-edged band of beaded motifs alternating with flattened rosettes of gauze; frills of the gauze about 1" wide, are on the ends with little swags of gauze and sequins on the edge.
The tops of the trained skirt and the net overskirt are encased together in a ½" wide silk waistband, with two hooks and eyes, 1" apart along it at the centre back opening; the eyes are oversewn, as is another eye at the centre, pointing up for attaching to the hook on the bodice. The placket has five Nicholls dress clips down it on the satin and three hooks and worked bars on the overskirt.
The net overskirt has the same bead and sequin embroidery forming a full-length design over the front panel and smaller versions at the back. It has a frill, 2½" deep, gathered round the hem with silver sequins along the edge. The overskirt is 4" shorter at the back, rising over the train.
Contemporary illustrations
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Lady Maud Warrender, photographed in The Lady's Realm, 1903
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Detail from a cartoon in Punch, February 1903
History
The dress was made by Buckmaster Court dressmaker, 47 Sloane Street, and the label is woven on the inside waistband.
It was made for Miss E Harence, whose name is written on a piece of ½" wide white silk ribbon sewn onto the inside waistband.
The name Harenc was originally Huguenot and appears in records with various spellings. It is possible that this dress was worn by one of the daughters of Emily Letitia Harenc (née Rooke, 1821-1899), wife of Rev. Edward Alexander Frederick Harenc who died in 1853, and may have been the wearer of the 1885 Striped silk dress. Her unmarried daughters were Emily Frederica Louisa (b.1844) and Sophia Edith Harriett (b.1847), one of whom might be the Miss E Harenc, whose name is written in this dress, which was acquired at the same auction. They all lived at the same address in Kensington.