Dress sash
Category
Costume
Date
1899
Materials
Gold thread, Silk
Order this imageCollection
Lanhydrock, Cornwall
NT 886169.3
Caption
Mary Agar-Robartes (1879–1946) welcomed in the 20th century at a fancy-dress party, dressed as the titular character from the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary’: Mary, Mary, quite contrary / How does your garden grow? / With silver bells and cockleshells / And pretty maids all in a row! Fancy-dress parties were very common from the mid-19th century onwards, especially in high society. Decadent and inventive costumes gave revellers the opportunity to be bold or even risqué in their fashion choices. Inspirational guides were published on the creation of imaginative and exciting costumes. ‘Mary’ from the eponymous rhyme was a popular choice of costume. In Ardern Holt’s Fancy Dress Described (1879), he suggests that a ‘Mary’ costume could include a ‘satin tunic with silver bells and garlands of cockleshells … tiny watering-pots for earrings; cockle-shell necklace ... high-heeled satin shoes’. Mary’s dress certainly incorporated some of these features, being decorated with shimmering metal threads and accessorised with a headdress of silver bells and cockleshells. Helen Antrobus
Summary
A necklace of metal (silver?) cockles and bells. Worn with a cream silk dress with shell design, and a cream sash across chest with 1900 in gold and gold fringe.
Provenance
Acquired on transfer of the house to the National Trust. This dress was worn by the Hon. Mary Agar-Robartes at a New Year's Eve party 1899. She would be twenty one on the 12th April 1900.
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. 140-141.