White Cotton Coutil Corset c. 1900 Donated by the President of Royal Worcester Corset Company to the Brooklyn Museum of Art

This white cotton coutil corset c. 1900 was donated by the President of Royal Worcester Corset Company to the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1950. 

Original acquisition tag with accession numbers.  Beautiful insertion lace trim at the top has a thin satin ribbon laced through.  Front busk closure and back lacing.  This corset is entirely machine sewn.  

Around the turn of the century, the shape of the corset began to shift, from the narrow hourglass silhouette of the 1880s to the elongated swan-like body of the Gibson girl. This new corset was touted as healthier with its new flat-front shape designed to “support the abdomen” and its lower cut that would not “suppress the bust.” This corset, when laced tightly, prevented even the small protruding abdomen of the earlier spoon busks, and it pushed the hips back and the bust forward, contorting the back into a graceful s-bend. The corset was a symbol of morality and dignity, a form of feminine armor to guard a woman from the evils of the world, and those who refused to wear them were thought “disreptuable,” and “slovenly.”

Source: The Corset, Valerie Steele 

Click here to check if this garment is for sale

Museum deaccessioned metallic gold fancy dress waistcoat c 1878.  Stamped Maison Moreau D. Baron Successor.

 

This  is a Brooklyn Museum of Art deaccessioned metallic gold fancy dress waistcoat c 1878.  It is stamped Maison Moreau D. Baron Successor.  This house constructed costumes for masquerades held at the royal court of Napoleon III.  Fancy dress costumes were often an expensive undertaking, and this opulent piece is no exception.  

Woven with gold tone metal threads and accented with a polychrome floral matelasse pattern, brocaded in red and blue flowers.   The waistcoat is constructed in an 18th century style, collarless, and closes with three buttons at center front decorated with rhinestones.   Three matching buttons adorn each pocket flap.  The backing is a yellow glazed linen twill.  This is the 19th century's approach to the 18th century's textiles, with better technology and grander ideas.

chest:  38 inches (96.5 cm)

front length:  31 inches (79 cm)

Back Length:  23 inches  (58.5 cm)

Fancy dress has its origins in the popular masked balls of the 18th century.  Clearly big business, one 1898 book on dance entreats its readers "The best advice we can give is as follows:  If you intend appearing in fancy dress, be guided by some qualified costumier... as we are happily not all endowed with the artistic instinct, the costumier becomes absolutely necessary if we want to make a respectable appearance in a really striking fancy costume."   Madame Delphine Baron, at the helm of Maison Moreau, seems to have been just such a costumier.  The US report on the 1867 Paris Universal Exposition praises her display:  "A few choice specimens of historical and fancy costumes for both sexes were exhibited by Madame Delphine Baron, one of the eminent practitioners in the art of costuming, which is carried to so great perfection in Paris. Its successful practice in the higher grades requires no inconsiderable historical study, and calls in play really artistic qualities."

Sources:

http://www.archive.org/stream/reportonclothing00stevrich/reportonclothing00stevrich_djvu.txt

http://chrisbrady.itgo.com/dance/leggett/leggett142.htm


Click here to check if this garment is for sale 

Two piece printed cotton day bodice and bustle overskirt 1880's

The bodice is fully boned and has box pleats, narrow cuffed sleeves, stand up collar, mother of pearl buttons and is flatlined in cotton twill.  The buttonholes are bound by hand with a buttonhole stitch.  The skirt is not lined and bustles with internal self fabric and twill tape ties.  

The unusual print resembles volleyballs or golf balls, quite playful, and certainly a conversation piece!

Bust:  30 inches (76 cm)

Waist:  23 inches (58.5 cm)

Skirt Length:  43 inches (109 cm)

The late James Laver, a curator at the Victoria and Albert museum, once noted "It seems to be one of the principles of fashion that once an exaggeration has been decided upon, it becomes ever more exaggerated." So it was with the bustle fashions of the 1880s. After a brief flirtation with a more fitted silhouette, the bustle expanded to its peak around 1885, with fashion plates depicting women resembling nothing so much as centaurs, and satiric cartoons comparing well-dressed ladies to snails, beetles, even tea trays.

Source: Four Hundred Years of Fashion, Natalie Rothstein


Click here to check if this garment is for sale 

Collection of Items from Dr. Albigence Waldo, Connecticut

Surgeon During the American Revolution

Dr Albigence Waldo (1750-1794), served as clerk in the "Lexington Alarm" and was commissioned surgeon's mate of the Eighth Connecticut Regiment.  The Connecticut Committee of War commissioned him chief surgeon of the ship "Oliver Cromwell" and he was also commissioned surgeon of the First Connecticut Infantry Regiment of the Line.  He was at Valley Forge, Germantown, Lexington and Concord, Cambridge and Roxbury. 

Items in this exceptional collection:

• Toile coverlet:  Three vertical toile panels with one horizontal seam printed with "Apotheosis of Franklin and Washington", c. 1785-90 (97 1/2 by 87 inches) copper plate block printed, six complete pattern repeats, eighteen block placements.  
• Linen bed sheet:  Owned by Dr Albigence Waldo and wife, Lydia, used at Valley Forge "L. Waldo" inscribed in ink c. 1777, 65 by 85 inches
• Letters:  Sections of a letter written by Dr Albigence Waldo, 29 letters and notes by Dr Albigence Waldo, copied by family members in the early to mid nineteenth century

This collection was deaccessioned from the Southern Oregon Historical Society because it did not adhere to their current collections policy of objects relating to or representative of Jackson County and Southern Oregon.  Each item has the SOHS's acquisition numbers and is documented in the contract between the SOHS and the donor (Mrs Berte P Thurston, great - great granddaughter of Dr. Albigence Waldo).

For pricing click here

Silk Brocade Shoes with Pattens, c. 1720-1740's

Lady's Silk Brocade Shoes with Pattens c. 1720-1740

These silk brocade shoes with original pattens, c. 1720-1740 were deaccession from The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York and come with the museum's acquisition tags (numbers and dates).  They are beige silk faille brocade with green, white and rose floral print.  They have squat heels, latchets and up turned toes.   The brown leather pattens have red leather scroll stitched patterns on the sides.   One with original silk still remaining on the patten the without.  One patten strap is broken where the hole to lace them would have been.   The silk is damaged on the front sides of the shoes.