The Ornamented Being
Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify. Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness.
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Muslin Dresses about 1800 Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
From one of my favorite books:
Voila: Glanzstucke Historischer Moden, 1750-1960
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Thank you to Stéphane Casali for his beautiful portraits from the Hodson event. The rest of the gallery can be seen here.
I have one class left in this semester and the Tudor Tailor book launch (I can’t wait to see our hard work in print!) on Friday. I promise I will start keeping up with my blog! I still have to tell you all about the Titanic II London Launch, I’ve been terrible I’m so sorry everyone!
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Thank you so much to Steve Smith of Creative Portraits for this beautiful photo!
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I’m home from the Ball!
You may have noticed that I ended up reworking my gown from Bath but to change it up just a little more I made an evening spencer to go over the gown. I will try to post more about this costume later this week on The Mended Soul!
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2013 is shaping up to be ridiculously expensive, particularly April.
I’ll be at a Napoleonic Ball in Northern England this weekend.Then I will be in Amsterdam in late February for an 1813 Ball. I need to finish up my pelisse and sort of the fur muff situation.
Then in very early March I have something involving 1912 but I’m keeping that under wraps for now.
April is the month that is going to be pretty bad. I believe the second weekend I will be in Bath for the Georgian Ball. I’ll need two ball gowns, possibly a day gown for Saturday, and definitely a picnic gown for Sunday. I’m lucky because I already took care of my wigs and hoops over the break and I have shoes, and stays from my internship at Williamsburg. I can drape everything on the stand and pretty much get those done very quickly but it’s the cost of the fabric that s going to be the real kicker.
The next weekend I will be in Malta for five days for a Napoleonic Ball and will need days gowns and evening gowns. I have a theme in mind and I’m really going to try to stick with that. I have three day gowns with bodices, sleeves, and skirts already made up that are folded up very neatly waiting to be finished.
I fly back on Tuesday and that Saturday I will be at a Victorian Ball in London. I’m really worried about this one because I’ve never made a costume from this era. The amount of fabric needed for skirts is staggering. I’m hoping that someone will let me either borrow or rent their crinoline and if their corset fits I could even use that. If not I have a set of corded stays and I’ll be sticking with the 1840s.
I need a job.All of this on top of working on my University projects!! I’ve been invited to attend quite a few Regency events later this summer so I will be re-using and upcycling my gowns. I always make gowns in a first stage so when I want to re-wear them I can add something else to make them new. Vaux le Vicomte is this summer so I won’t even worry about that just yet!
Edit: Sorry this ended up being so long. It was so refreshing to put my plan into words!
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I owe a debt of gratitude to Owen Benson from Owen Benson Visuals for this photo taken of me during the Jane Austen Festival Masquerade Ball in Bath.
Keep an eye on the Mended Soul for an update on this gown but until then here is the longer front and back view!
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Because obviously I don’t know my fashion history well enough to say that in my opinion Kate’s gown has a Napoleonic influence.
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Napoleonic Prisoner of War Bone Model of a 78 Gun Ship (1700 to 1900 Anglo French )
MediumBone, horse hair, metal pins
Provenance
Provenance: Ex Collection of the Younge Family, Puslinch House, Yealmpton,
Devon, England. The House in the ownership of the Family Since 1709
See Finch & Co catalogue no. 13, item no. 59, for a Napoleonic Prisoner of War Model of a 16 Gun Three Masted Merchant VesselLiterature
One can only be filled with wonder and amazement at the skill, patience, ingenuity and fortitude displayed by the unknown French seamen of the Napoleonic era who produced these accomplished works of art in the most sordid and terrible conditions of the prison ‘hulks’ with primitive tools and equipment.
Stripped of all masts, rigging, sails, decorations and embellishments these ‘hulks’ were moored in estuaries and harbours around the coast of Britain. Some were moored off Plymouth housing the captured Napoleonic prisoners of war and it is possible that this model was purchased by a member of the Younge family at that time as a memento or souvenir of the Napoleonic period.Description / Expertise
A Fine Detailed Napoleonic Prisoner of War Bone Model of a 78 Gun Ship
With Standing and Running Rigging above a Detailed Deck the Planked and Pinned Hull with Open Gun Ports and Cannon. A fine arched, curved and galleried transom and a carved horse figureheadExcellent condition, contained in a later mahogany and glass case
Circa 1800(Source: finch-and-co.co.uk)
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This is ridiculously amazing. I’ve never lied to you before so don’t let the long text fool you. It’s well worth the read.
NAPOLEONIC BONE MODEL GUILLOTINE
Richly carved and coloured, this model was carved by prisoners of war in the late 18th/early 19th century. It was originally designed to work - the victim loses his head when the sharp bone blade falls.
The guillotine was invented by Dr Joseph Guillotine to make execution more humane. It quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution and around 40,000 French royalists were executed. Victims were placed on a bench face down. The beheading was very quick, taking less than half a second from blade drop to the victim’s head rolling into the waiting basket.
During the Napoleonic Wars many thousands of prisoners of war (POW) of many nationalities, but particularly French and American, were held in and around Plymouth. They were held mostly on prison hulks moored on the Tamar, at Millbay Prison (now the site of Millbay Park) and, after 1809, incarcerated in the newly built Dartmoor Prison.
In addition to this model guillotine, our collections include a number of examples of POW work dating from the late 18th and early 19th century – including several ship models, gun carriages, figurines, straw work and bone boxes and other model guillotines.
Guillotine models are not unusual, but few are as elaborate as this example, which can be seen alongside a selection of our POW craftwork artefacts in our ‘Plymouth, Port and Place’ gallery.
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NAPOLEONIC PRISONER OF WAR BONE AUTOMATON, early 19th century, modelled as four ladies wearing bonnets and coiffes at various pursuits and two young children “”dancing”“, 4 3/4”” high, base 1 1/2”” x 3 1/4”“”
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An early 19th Century Napoleonic prisoner of war bone automaton of a lady
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I think the next set of objects are the most interesting things I’ve posted since Napoleon’s bees which I encourage you to view: Click Here
Carved by Napoleonic prisoners of war, unknown origins: “An extension to this tradition was the production of ships models by captured French sailors of the Napoleonic wars. The prisoners, many kept on aging hulks moored in harbours such as Portsmouth, would use pieces of bone and horn from the meat supplied to the galleys to produce finely detailed ships models using their knowledge of the designs and rigs of fighting ships of the period. With the open assistance of the guards and their officers, the models were then traded, with the prisoner receiving a small amount with which he could purchase additional materials, food and tobacco. At the end of the Napoleonic War many of the French sailors entered the well-established trade producing bone and ivory souvenirs centred in French ports such as Dieppe.”
