Friday, February 24, 2012

1860's Purple Day Dress












From the seller:

Offering a beautiful civil war period dress, original mid 1800s. Completely hand sewn. Made of a light weight wool fabric, rich purple color. Trimmed in black velvet ribbon around the bottom and on the top of the cuffs. This has a plain round neck, hook and eye closures up the front of the bodice, one hook at the waist.The bodice is fitted, v at back. The sleeves are off the shoulder, curved and full at the elbow. The bodice and sleeves are fully lined. There is padding inside the bodice in front from the shoulder to just above the bust? The skirt portion is gathered at the back center, folded pleats around the hips and front. The bottom of the dress has black velvet ribbon trim and the bottom inner edge is backed with thick brown cloth like the bodice. The bottom edge has stiff black binding on the edge (this has wear)..... MEASUREMENTS: Neck opening 14", Shoulders 18" seam to seam, Bust at underarm 38" around, Waist 32", Bodice is 16" long back of neck to waist seam, Sleeves are 23" long shoulder to cuff, Sleeve opening at shoulder is 17" around, elbow is 15" around, cuff is 10 1/2" around, the shirt is 42" long front and back waist to bottom, bottom is 136" around. CONDITION: The fabric is strong, no fading. This could be worn. There are small moth bites scattered, can be seen when held to the light, no large holes, no tears. The left front skirt seam has opened (photo), the thread gave out (I pinned it for the photo), would be easy to fix. I did notice some soiled areas, hard to see because of the dark color. This is purple, looks blue in the photos, I could not capture the color. Beautiful for its age and type. Check my other listings for more. I will combine shipping by weight. Email any questions. Thanks.

From Me:

At first blush, I thought this was a reproduction! It looked too "neat" to be an extant gown but the lining and other aspects of the dress show that, yeap, it's real!

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