Court mantua
Category
Costume
Date
circa 1750
Materials
Silk (white cannelé brocade)
Order this imageCollection
Berrington Hall, Herefordshire
NT 2900201
Caption
Mantuas were 18th-century women’s gowns designed around a fitted bodice, with fabric gathered at the hips and a long train, worn over a supporting hooped petticoat. By the 1750s they had evolved from formal day dress into elaborately constructed gowns featuring the widest skirts ever seen in European fashion, reserved for use in British royal court circles. Made by female dressmakers, the simple but expansive structure of the skirt was designed to show off widths of expensive handwoven silk. This dress is made of fashionable cream silk brocade with a design of floral bouquets against stripes and meanders of gold thread. In 2016 this extraordinary silk court mantua was discovered at auction, deconstructed in a box. It was made for Ann Bangham (1731–98), the wife of Thomas Harley (1730–1804), one-time Lord Mayor of London. Despite her high status, no portrait survives, so the dress also serves to document her life. It was purchased for the National Trust and carefully reconstructed by conservators at Berrington Hall.
Summary
Silk gown (court mantua), mid eighteenth century, the silk probably from Lyon, white cannelé brocade woven with a gilt meander and flowers, with double sleeve ruffles, one sleeve, petticoat and three fragments, elements lacking, including one sleeve, the bodice lacking some skirt panels.
Provenance
Originally owned by Anne Bangham, wife of the Hon. Thomas Harley, (1730-1804), Lord Mayor of London, who bought Berrington in the 1770s; thence by descent until sold in 1901; purchased by the National Trust at auction at Christie's South Kensington, London, 14 September 2016 (lot 586), with contributions from the H.M. Davies bequest, the C.G. Davies bequest and other gifts and bequests to the National Trust.
References
Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, pp. 66-67.