Thank you Jeri, for your complete and admirably scholarly response! My knowledge is based on the first of your references... the "Royal Honiton Laces", which I own. However, I confess that I have not gone beyond one source (an absolute "fail" in the current parlance), so I concede!
Clay Sent from my iPad On Mar 27, 2012, at 6:24 PM, [email protected] wrote: > A long reply for Clay and others interested in Queen Victoria's laces: > > I do not know the source of your information (below), Clay. Queen > Victoria was a very sentimental woman and wore her wedding laces throughout > her > life. Several of us have written frequently on Arachne about Queen > Victoria's laces, and many of those memos have been from me. I know the > ladies in > the U.K. have seen exhibits of her lace many times, while I have seen the > wedding lace only 3 times. > > The costume and lace experts to whom I have turned for information for the > past few decades are: > > 1. Elsie Luxton & Yusai Fukuyama - "Royal Honiton Lace", Batsford, 1988, > ISBN 0-7134-5764-3, 95-page hardback. This gives a comprehensive history > and view of Queen Victoria's wedding lace and royal christening robe - many > black/white pictures. An interesting unrelated section of the book is the > reproduction of 10 pages (in old English) of 1695 documents enacted by > Parliament. This book may be borrowed from IOLI's library. It is item > H-034. > > 2. Kay Staniland - "In Royal Fashion - The Clothes of Princess Charlotte > of Wales and Queen Victoria 1796-1901", Museum of London, 1997, ISBN > 0-904818-77-2, 192-page limp cover, artbook size. This scholar/author is > well-known in the U.K. for her costume history expertise, and especially that > of > these two royal daughters. I'd venture to say she is as well known as > Santina Levey, but in the field of costume. This book has photos of Queen > Victoria as an old woman, dressed for royal weddings, with her wedding lace > flounce sewn to her black gowns. Here is a picture caption: > > "In 1897 this photograph was used as an official Jubilee portrait, but it > had actually been taken on 6 July 1893 at the time of the marriage of Prince > George, Duke of York, to Princess Mary of Teck, the last occasion on which > the Queen wore her wedding lace. She had previously worn the lace at the > marriage of Prince Leopold in 1882, and again a photograph taken at the > time was issued in 1887 as an official portrait. The design shows up > particularly well on its black satin ground. The Queen is also wearing her > wedding > veil with the small diamond crown made for her in 1870, and a portrait > bracelet of the Prince Consort." > > In the Royal Collection there is a huge painting of the actual wedding > called "The Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1840, by Sir George > Hayter. About this, Staniland wrote a caption for the painting: "The > figure of > the Queen shows her dress complete with its original court train (no longer > extant)." > > This Staniland book is not in the IOLI's library. Suggest interlibrary > loan -- well worth the trouble to get for a fascinating read. The cased > version is ISBN 0-904818-55-1. > > 3. A 32-page booklet (H-075) that is in IOLI's library is by Kay > Staniland and Santina M. Levey - "Queen Victoria's Wedding Dress and Lace", > The > Costume Society (U.K.), 1983, no ISBN. This has a couple good photographs > of > the dress and lace, and a black/white photo of the wedding painting > described in 2 (above). > > 4. As a long-time member of "The Lace Guild", I can say that there have > been articles in their bulletins through the years about Queen Victoria's > laces. > > 5. Quite recently, it was reported on Arachne that a new christening gown > was made for Prince Edward's youngest child -- because by now the original > christening gown used since Queen Victoria's time was too fragile for a > baby to wear. The new gown was reported to have been made from Honiton lace > bits and pieces in the royal collection. > > 6. There are pictures of the Queen's wedding laces in quite a few books > written by our lace friends (past and present) in the U.K. > > Suggestion for those with books on Honiton lace: Please copy this memo > and place it in one of those for your future reference. > > Jeri Ames in Maine USA > Lace and Embroidery Resource Center > -------------------------------------------------------- > > In a message dated 3/27/2012 11:30:11 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > Jeri, if I am not mistaken, one of the reasons that Queen Victoria's > wedding gown is not given more respect is that much of the lace was > removed from it and used in other garments, particularly the Christening > Gown worn by all of her children, and many other Royal babies. I > believe that the last to wear it was Prince William. After that, it was > considered too fragile to be used again and is being carefully stored. > > I'm no expert, so I may have this completely wrong. I'll welcome any > corrections! > > Clay > > - > To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to > [email protected]. Photo site: > http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. 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