Manufacture de Versailles
Silver gilt, enamel, ivory, gold, steel, wood and mother-of-pearl
Serving as both an indicator of status as well as a means of protection, a dress sword had been an important component of civilian attire for men since the sixteenth century. The finest were expensive objects, produced in the same tradition as jewellery and set with precious metals and gemstones.
...made for Napoleon Bonaparte and reflects the contemporary interest in classical ornament, with motifs including lions' heads, trophies of war and serpents.*
From the exhibition
Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians
(April to October 2023)
The display brings together over 200 works from the Royal Collection, including paintings, prints and drawings by artists such as Gainsborough, Zoffany and Hogarth, as well as rare surviving examples of clothing and accessories. The exhibition builds up a layer-by-layer picture of what the Georgians wore - from the practical dress of laundry maids to the glittering gowns worn at court - and chart the transformation of clothing and silhouettes from the accession of George I in 1714 to the death of George IV in 1830.
At the heart of the exhibition is a rarely displayed, full-length portrait of Queen Charlotte by Thomas Gainsborough, c.1781, which usually hangs in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle. Painted by candlelight, it depicts the Queen in a magnificent gown, worn over a wide hoop and covered with gold spangles and tassels. The painting is be shown alongside a beautifully preserved gown of a similar style, worn at Queen Charlotte’s court in the 1760s, on loan from the Fashion Museum Bath.
On display for the first time is Queen Charlotte’s book of psalms, covered in the only silk fabric known to survive from one of her dresses. The expensive fabric, decorated with metal threads to glimmer in candlelight, was most likely repurposed after the dress had passed out of fashion. As textiles were highly prized, Georgian clothing was constantly recycled, even by the royal family, and there was a thriving market for second-hand clothes.
The exhibition includes items of jewellery from Queen Charlotte’s famed collection, such as a diamond ring featuring a miniature of her husband George III, given to her on her wedding day. Other accessories on display will include beautiful English and French fans, which reached their fashionable zenith during this period, some representing topical events such as the first hot air balloon flight, and jewel-encrusted snuffboxes, reflecting the craze amongst both men and women for taking snuff throughout the 18th century.
The exhibition reveals how the Georgians ushered in many of the cultural trends we know today, including the first stylists and influencers, the birth of a specialised fashion press and the development of shopping as a leisure activity. From the popularity of fancy-dress and the evolution of childrenswear, to the introduction of military uniforms and the role of clothing in showing support for revolutions at home and abroad, Style & Society will explore what clothing can tell us about all areas of life in the rapidly changing world of 18th-century Britain.
[*IanVisits]
From the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Royal Palace. 1825 design, begun 1826 by John Nash, rebuilding Buckingham House of 1705 as a palace for George IV, completed 1837 with alterations by Edward Blore; The east range added 1847-50 by Blore; the Ballroom block of 1853-54, with Ambassadors' Court, by Sir James Pennethorne; the east front refaced 1913 by Sir Aston Webb for George V
Marble faced east front, the rest Bath stone except for Blore's west quadrangle front in Caen stone; slate and leaded roofs. Quadrangle plan. Monumental Graeco-Roman, composed with picturesque intent by Nash; Webb's east front a stiff Dixhuitieme exercise constrained by Blore's existing range but with elegant detailing: East front: three storeys with ground and attic floor mezzanines. Fenestration in rhythm 3:7:3:7:3 with centrepiece and terminal pavilion. Channelled ground floor with semicircular arched central gateway flanked by square headed doorways, all with fine ornamental iron gates of 1847; end pavilions and main range with square headed and semicircular arched gateways respectively; architraved sashes with open pediments on first floor and cornices on second floor; fluted Corinthian pilasters rise through first and second floors supporting main entablature with blocking course and balustraded parapet; centrepiece and terminal pavilions with Corinthian columns in antis and plain outer pilasters, in pairs on centrepiece, crowned by blind attics with pediments; continuous balustraded balcony to first floor.
West front: of Blore's east range; advanced centrepiece with tetrastyle giant fluted Corinthian column portico above archway; sculpture in pediment. North and South quadrangle ranges: by Nash and given uniform three storey height, with attic, by him in 1828; slightly advanced five-window wide pilastered centrepieces; ground floor Greek Doric colonnades filled in by Blore; to the south Ambassadors' Court with temple portico-porch and flanking ranges with Corinthian colonnade in antis, adjoining Pennethorne's 1853-1854 Ballroom block which continues giant columned corner pavilion theme of Nash's garden front.
East front of Nash's West range: originally open to deep forecourt and Mall, has storeys and attic main block, 11 windows wide, with three storey three-window wings, the main block with prominent, tetrastyle, two storey portico centrepiece, its low ground storey with cast iron coupled Greek Doric columns and the upper with giant coupled stone Corinthian columns carrying entablature and pediment with sculpture by Baily and crowning figures in Coade stone by W Croggan; the cast iron Doric colonnade is returned across ground floor of main block which has pavilion end bays dressed with giant pairs of Corinthian columns; tall blind attic; the friezes either side of portico by Westmacott and originally intended for the attic of Marble Arch.
West garden front, by Nash: Long symmetrical composition with five accents; basement, ground floor, piano nobile through two storeys and attic to main block with three-storey wings; the main block with five-window central bow and three-window side ranges terminating in one-window pavilions; the wings each of four windows with similar pavilion end bays; ground floor channelled, giant engaged Corinthian columns to bow and detached coupled Corinthian columns to pavilions carrying entablature with rich rinceau frieze; large frieze panels of Coade stone over first floor by Croggan; the attic above half dome of bow (Blore's replacement of Nash's dome) has a frieze by Westmacott intended for Marble Arch; the range is flanked at east of terrace by projecting conservatories in the form of hexastyle Ionic temples with pediments; the south conservatory altered as palace chapel in 1893 and as the Queen's Gallery in 1962.
Interior: State Apartments in west range at firs floor level, with two suites divided by the Picture Gallery, c1829-36 by Nash and Blore, in rich and already eclectic Graeco-Roman style with Louis XIV and Wren details in mouldings and motifs, approached via the Grand Hall with marble columns and Nash's recasting of the original Buckingham House staircase as well as by Pennethorne's Grand Staircase to south extended by Pennethorne to give access to his Ballroom block; the Picture Gallery redecorated 1914; the interior of the Ballroom retains Pennethorne's ceiling and throne recess but redecorated by Ludwig Gruner in 1902 when the walls, windows and doorways were remodelled by Verity; the plainer ground floor rooms below the State Apartments survive virtually as designed by Nash. Marble Arch (qv) designed by Nash in 1828 as the forecourt gateway was removed by Blore's east range and re-erected in 1851 on its present site.
[Historic England]
