Blonde Lace on the 19th Century Red Carpet

1833 Bridal Ensemble

Loretta reports:

Some of my readers have asked about blonde lace.

Certain of the ladies’ magazines listed who wore what at court events. If you type “blonde” into the search box for this 1831 Royal Lady’s Magazine, you will notice that nearly every single lady wore blonde or blonde lace to the Queen’s Drawing Rooms.

Naturally, then, blonde features in my heroines’ clothing. And quite naturally also, readers have asked about it, some puzzled especially by the notion of “black blonde.”

Blonde lace is a silk bobbin lace. A search on YouTube will show it being made, and give you an idea why the handmade version was so very expensive and highly prized. The “blonde” part refers to the silk’s natural color. Once a way was found to make the silk stronger, it could be lightened, for a white blonde, and dyed for black blonde.

1833 Carriage Dress

Sleuthing online, one ends in a confused state. “Next to Chantilly the blondes are the most important among the silk laces.” Elsewhere, we’re told that Chantilly is a blonde lace. My impression is, the blonde made in Chantilly was considered superior. I await elucidation by textile experts.

For the purposes of my books, this isn’t crucial, any more than it was crucial for the magazines to distinguish. For the purposes of A Duke in Shining Armor in particular, what you’d probably rather see are examples.

Beechey, Queen Adelaide

The bridal ensemble (at top) I gave my heroine Olympia includes “a pelerine of blond extending over the sleeves” and “a deep veil of blond surmounting the coiffure, and descending below the waist.”
The “French” dress she donned at the inn was based on several images, but this pink carriage dress from the Magazine of the Beau Monde, though listed for August 1833 (my story is set in June of that year), about covers what I had in mind. She wears “a black blond pelerine with square falling collar, the points descending low down the skirt and fastened in front with light green ribbon noeuds.”

However, portraits capture the look of the lace much better than the stiff, stylized fashion prints. Queen Adelaide (consort of King William IV, monarch at the time of my story) is wearing blonde lace in this image from about 1831.

Giovanina Pacini

Giovanina Pacini, the eldest daughter of the Italian composer Giovanni Pacini wears what I'm pretty sure is black blonde in this 1831 image.

You can see a sample of Belgian Bobbin Lace in this lappet.
And here is a sample of French Pillow-made Silk Blonde.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

Opening the New London Bridge, August 1831

London Bridge 1 August 1831

Loretta reports:

Usually, I start the month with fashion plates, but today’s the 185th anniversary of the opening of the “new” London Bridge. So we'll look at that instead, in pictures and text, since it isn't in London anymore.

The bridge, as many are aware, has had several incarnations.

On this day in 1831, King William IV officially opened, with great pomp and ceremony, the version that’s since moved—more or less—to Arizona.
You can read a short summary of its life here, and a lengthy account in the Gentleman’s Magazine starting here.

London Bridge ca 1890-1900

You may not feel up to an early 19th century detailed report on the bridge’s history and construction, along with a blow-by-blow description of the opening ceremony. These lengthy accounts are tough on modern readers. But this sort of thing was what readers wanted, in the days before photography, let alone television. If the whole article is too much for you, you might still want to take a look at the very nice bird’s eye view engraving here.

Image above left: The New London Bridge as it appeared on Monday August 1st, 1831, at the Ceremony of opening by their Majesties, courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Below right: London Bridge ca 1890-1900, courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

Who Drives in Rotten Row?

Hyde Park Corner

Loretta reports:

It’s been a while since I wrote my traditional Regency stories, and I’m not sure whether I allowed my characters to travel in a carriage in Rotten Row or realized this would be a faux pas. I’ve written about it before (here—with maps!)

“The right to drive along the Row in a carriage remained the prerogative of the reigning sovereign; as late as 1832, a map of London published by the United Kingdom Newspaper marked Rotten Row as ‘The King’s Private Road.’”
—Joyce Bellamy, Hyde Park for Horsemanship (1975)

Samuel Sidney’s Book of the Horse (1880) confirms this.

Rotten Row

As does Baron Redesdale’s Memories (1916)

Yet searching online leads to confusion. I find many books, by 19th C as well as recent authors, referring to driving in Rotten Row. Did these writers confuse Rotten Row with the carriage road running more or less parallel to it? A blog post indicates the Row was not restricted to riders until 1834, and certainly some caricatures seem to support this.Some 19th C authors describing Hyde Park say the rule was not in effect until Queen Victoria’s time, while others believe it dates to King Charles II or King William IV.

In any event, Queen Victoria was in no doubt whatsoever about her prerogative.

The Queen's Drive

Since my current books are set after 1830, I feel comfortable keeping my fictional carriages off Rotten Row.

Hyde Park after 1736-Larwood

Images: George Cruikshank, “The Arrival, or Western Entrance to Cockney Land” (first published in The English Spy 1825);  "Out of Place" from Punch, scanned from Hyde Park for Horsemanship; Hyde Park after 1735 from Larwood, The Story of the London Parks (1874).

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will allow you to read at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

King George IV's cottage at Windsor

Loretta reports:

What's here called the His Majesty's Cottage became the Royal Lodge, the residence at present of Prince Andrew.  It's by no means the same building.  King William IV had all but the conservatory demolished after his brother King George IV* died.  Why?  Good question.  I wondered the same about King George IV’s demolishing Carlton House.

 

—Images are from Ackermann’s Repository for January 1823.
*More about this controversial monarch here, here, and here.

Celebrating the King's Birthday in 1835

King William IV

Loretta reports:

As some people may or may not realize, the English monarch’s birthday is not always celebrated on the actual anniversary of his or her birth.  Queen Elizabeth II, who was born on 21 April 1926, most recently celebrated her “official” birthday on 16 June 2012.

So it was in the case of the reigning monarch, King William IV,  in the time of Scandal Wears Satin.  In 1835 his official birthday—and the Drawing Room that caused so much anguish to one character—was 28 May.

~~~

In leaving the great quadrangle, and passing along in front of the tower, upon the quay, my attention was arrested by something like fifty very small brass pieces, not more than two feet in length, shaped like a howitzer, and placed in a line, a few feet apart, and having the appearance of being loaded, and ready to be discharged. It occurred to me instantly that I had often, when I was a boy, heard of the firing of the Park and Tower guns, and as this was done only on great occasions, I thought they must be very great guns, of course. Upon inquiry, I found that these squibs were to be let off at one o'clock, in honor of the King's birth-day. I do not know that a sense of the ludicrous ever came over me so powerfully as at that moment. However, I congratulated myself upon happening to be in London on the king's birthday, when I was further informed that it was not exactly and literally so", for he was born in the autumn, and not in the spring, and upon further inquiry, I ascertained that it is one of the rare prerogatives of the British monarch, to choose his own birthday, according to his own royal pleasure and convenience. This year it occurred in the month of May. Next year it may happen earlier or later, just according to the high behest of the throne. At one o'clock, I presume, the Park and Tower guns were fired, though I was not so fortunate as to hear them, and in the evening there were splendid illuminations, in St. James Square and other parts of the metropolis. —Supplement to the Connecticut courant, Volume 4, 1835

Illustration, Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850), King William IV, from Wikipedia