Dress bodice
Knight and Lee Ltd
Category
Costume
Date
1900 - 1902
Materials
Brass, Lace, Muslin, Silk, Silk taffeta, Whalebone, Wool
Measurements
445 mm (Length)780 mm (W)
Place of origin
Southsea
Collection
Killerton, Devon
NT 1366499.1
Summary
Dress bodice - Black wool and silk patterned gauze, over foundation of cream silk taffeta. Bodice made in ten sections, with additional pieces for plastron front. High stand collar, plastron made of taffeta overlaid with silk muslin. Alternating strips of black and white machine made insertion lace hand-stitched together overlay silk muslin. Yoke of plastron is made up in the same way, with insertion laid horizontally instead of vertically. Neckline finished with black lace edging, backed by a double pleated frill of organdie. the remainder of the bodice made of black gauze (leno weave?), with a pin-tucked yoke and fullness pleated from yoke to hem on left and right fronts, and CB. Yoke and front edges trimmed with applied machine trimming, swiss embroidery on voile. Front pendant trimmings fall from upper edge and yoke. Sleeves are gathered at shoulder, and into three rows of piping just above elbow, sleeves very full at lower arm, and gathered into deep cuff, again with three rows of piping at wrist. Fabric of cuff is pin-tucked, trimmed with swiss embroidered motifs at ends. Bodice is boned, with fifteen whalebones in total. Fastens at CF with thirteen pairs of metal hooks and thread covered loops arranged alternately as hook and loop, loop and hook for more secure fastening. Plastron fastens with eight brass hooks and worked loops, with four additional brass hooks corresponding to three pairs of worked loops on collar, and a single fourth loop on back neck. Label woven onto petersham waistband in gold on cream stitched to the waist 'Court Dressmaker Knight and Lee Ltd, Southsea'. Large brass hook stiched below waistband to secure bodice to skirt.
Provenance
May have belonged to donor's paternal grandmother Alice Mary Robertson.
Makers and roles
Knight and Lee Ltd