The Ornamented Being
Ornamented: -verb: Adorn; beautify
Be·ing: -noun: Fulfillment of possibilities; essential completeness
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Doña Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, Princess of Eboli, Duchess of Pastrana, “She was considered one of Spain’s greatest beauties, despite having lost an eye in a mock duel with a page when she was young.”
(Source: Wikipedia)
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An emerald, pearl and diamond tiara, circa 1900 Designed as a laurel wreath, pierced and millegrain-set with circular, step and mixed-cut emeralds, interspersed with pearl ‘berries’ and rose-cut diamond stems
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Portrait of Charlotte of Belgium 1864
Franz Xaver Winterhalter
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I found this very interesting: “The court ladies called it “putting on the armour” and it was rigidly defined what you could wear:
Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm describes the court dress worn during the last reign by maids of honour in the chapter “The Ladies of the Imperial Court” in her book, The Russian Imperial Award System 1984-1917
Mistress of the Court: A russian style dress of gold embroidered raspberry velvet with a long skirt and an underskirt of white satin also richly embroidered in gold. The headdress was a kokoshnik of the same color velvet with a long white veil of lace or tulle.
Lady of Honour and Maids of Honour of the Bedchamber: Court costume was the same cut and design as that of the Mistress of the Court except the kokoshnik and the dress were made of dark green velvet.
Maids of Honour who attended the Empress: Same cut and design dress as above, but dress made of crimson velvet embroidered with gold.
Maids of Honour who attended Grand Duchesses (wives of Grand Dukes): Same as above made of crimson velvet embroidered with silver.
Maids of Honour who atteded Grand Duchess (Daughter or Grandaughter of Emperor): Same dress design and cut as those above, but made of light blue velvet.
Of note, Ms. Tillander-Godenhielm states that when maids of honour married, they had to retire from their position, but were allowed to attend court functions in court dress of the same cut, made of any material and ornamented in any fashion.
As noted in Mr. Nicholson’s article, maids of honour were required to wear the diamond studded chiffres.
The highest memebers of the imperial family wore cloth of silver and it was incredibly heavy and this was worn at events like weddings and coronations.”(Source: lamodeillustree.livejournal.com)
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ca. 1870
- ” … The early ’70s dress bodice could be as high-waisted and round as the ’60s but also developed a short tail or basque at the back. The neckline was often square and decorated with a lace frill. Long, two-piece, coat sleeves were set into armholes that were gradually returning to the natural shoulder point. Alternative elbow-length sleeves, widened into a frill below, like the pagoda sleeves of the previous decade, often with a profusion of lace. There was more than a hint of the eighteenth century about the square neck and be-frilled elbow-length sleeve.”
