As I admitted yesterday, I'm not a huge fan of royalty (but better the Queen than a Trump!) - however, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit at the weekend to catch the last day of the Russia, Royalty & the Romanovs exhibition at the Queen's Gallery (now transferring to Edinburgh, where admission charges are considerably cheaper!).
It's all very topical for those who are watching Victoria on TV ... and I thought I was au fait with who's who, but even so my head was spinning with all those royal marriages across Europe.
I think my favourite exhibit was Princess Charlotte's beautifully preserved Russian dress - as seen in the portrait above. Touchingly, it was a maternity dress - her death following childbirth in 1817
left the throne vacant for Queen Victoria. So rare that the clothes seen in portraits survive.
One might imagine that the fabric would have rotted by now. Are any of Victoria's clothes still extant?
ReplyDeleteYes, her wedding dress and quite a few other gowns - I've certainly seen them in exhibitions at Kensington Palace. And her bloomers often turn up at auction!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful dress!
ReplyDeleteYes, I've seen several antique shows where Queen Vic's drawers turn up.
Although I am far from a Royalist - I wouldn't go the end of our street if any of them were there; I did enjoy your account of the 2011 event....
I agree, Vronni - in fact, I didn't go to the end of the street when one of them - Harry/Will, I forget - was visiting last week.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder about Victoria's drawers ... I think I read somewhere that she gave them as gifts to courtiers. But the mortification of knowing your old knickers were coming up at Christie's!
Such a touching story about the dress, Mary. It's hard to imagine that a maternity dress of that quality wouldn't have been passed along. I wonder if there was any superstition attached to the wearing of a purposeful dress that didn't end well for the previous owner?
ReplyDeleteI wonder, Darlene? Or maybe the dress was kept because Princess Charlotte was such a hugely popular figure? Wouldn't have been handed down to Victoria's (German) mother because she had to race back to England at the last minute so Victoria would be born there.
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