UCONN HISTORICAL COSTUME & TEXTILE COLLECTION




1839

2 pc dress


Brown two-piece shadow striped silk crinoline dress. Rounded bodice; drop shoulder. Round neck; pagoda sleeves trimmed with red, pinked ribbon and shirred brown material. Skirt is quite large with a circumference of 115 inches. Worn with 1951C 1850.53. False sleeve with hand embroidered trim. Ruffle of embroidery about 6" wide with set in embroidered piece above it. Good condition, but very yellowed. Lace collar from the Canby Lace Collection. Also Worn with 1973C 1865.29, a huge Kashmir - Cashmere - hand woven woolen shawl with hand done embroidery around a small patch of black light weight wool. Slight tear in the middle of the black.Labeled “Aunt Marion’s” Shawl, Salt Lake City, Utah. belonged to B.M. Noble. Donor: Noble, Elizabeth, Tolland, CT. Belonged to her Grandmother’s Aunt Marion.

After the turn of the 19th century and the Napoleonic era, the Neo-Classical slim lines began to widen.  First there was elaborate trimming that expanded the hemlines and then they began to add fullness to the top of the skirt as well, creating the illusion of a small waistline.  In the 1830s and the 1840s the silhouette became more extreme and was stiffened with horsehair crinoline petticoats.


Provenance:
Child, Mrs. Arthur G. of Greenwich, CT

Construction Label:
Homemade



1951C 1839.1