Dear Catherine, The May/June issue of PieceWork magazine has been delivered in America. I was surprised to see an article "Victoria's Passion - Queen Victoria's Unremitting Love of All Things Lace". There were things I had never known. Christopher John Brooke Phillips, the author (born in England, now in Spain), has used records that most English lace experts have never shared in their books. It says the Spitalfields silk dress was designed by Mary Bellans (the greatly-respected English historian, Kay Staniland, spells this Bettans - and calls her a dressmaker) and the lace was designed by William Dyce, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Academy of Arts, and head of the Government School of Design (later the Royal College of Art, London). He says it was to have been supplied from Brussels, but Victoria specified that it be manufactured in Great Britain and that it be Honiton lace. He goes on to say it was manufactured in several villages within a 40-mile radius of Honiton. It says the veil, 54 inches square, and the flounce 144 inches by 27 inches, were made in Branscombe and Beer, engaging 200 lace makers from March to November 1839. The Queen's representative, Miss Bidney, supervised and ensured timely completion, after which the designs were destroyed. He claims today the cost of the lace would exceed $1-million American dollars. He also says the Queen instructed that after death she be interred with her wedding veil draped around her face. So, here you have a most recent account. It does not include a Bibliography. People like Santina Levey, Kay Staniland and Elsie Luxton have written informed books about Queen Victoria's lace. In "Queen Victoria's Wedding Dress and Lace" by Staniland/Levey, 32 pages extracted from another publication "Costume" dated 1983, they give the depth of the flounce as 25 1/2 inches. They write about 4 pieces of lace still on the dress -- the flounce, bertha collar, and 2 sleeve flounces. These lace experts also say 200 lacemakers from March to November, but only at Beers. Their text quoted a newspaper of the time that "Her Majesty, with regard to whose dress so much and so many contradictions have taken place, was attired plainly, and with simple magnificence, in white satin, trimmed with most splendid lace....round her head her Majesty wore a wreath of orange blossoms; but, contrary to all expectation, and in opposition to all prediction, neither veil nor scarf was permitted to interfere with the free sight of her Majesty's head, face, and neck". It was these two lace experts who first uncovered the name of the wedding lace designer, William Dyce, while writing this booklet. They found it in 1852 correspondence between Dyce and Sir Henry Cole (our old friend, the first director of the V&A Museum). A very large group painting, "The Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1840" by Sir George Hayter, a clear view of the Queen's face. There appears to be a veil attached at the back of her head. You can G**gle the artist's name to see it. A 1847 painting by Winterhalter, shows the Queen, and she wrote about the sitting. ...."I wearing my dear wedding veil", It is attached at the very back of her head, and there is a wreath of orange blossoms arranged like a crown - the same as at her wedding 7 years before. I favor the 1997 Museum of London book "In Royal Fashion - the Clothes of Princess Charlotte of Wales and Queen Victoria 1796-1901", by Kay Staniland. It has many photographs of actual clothing and the best-known portraits. There is also a 1988 book of good research, by Elsie Luxton and Yusai Fukuyama "Royal Honiton Lace". Luxton was the well-known lace expert with at least 6 Honiton books to her credit. I have seen these Royal laces more than once, and written about them to Arachne several times. Newbies may be able to find those other memos in Arachne archives. The last time I saw the gown at Kensington Palace, the flounce had been removed - too fragile to continue to be exhibited. They had put some disgusting net (modern scratchy kind) on the mannequin's head, which was confusing to non-lace people trying to relate to the concept of a Queen and Empress! Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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