Early 1890's Wrapper (?) Dress

From the seller:

I have for your consideration a wonderfully unique authentic antique Vintage Pre Victorian 1860's 1870's Civil War ERA Ladies brown and black heavy floral print prairie dress with beautiful buttons and brown velvet trim Is ALL handstitched. Is NOT a reproduction. Has a built in waist cincher and is lined in brown dyed feedsack material with the paper feedsack label still attached in places!

This dress is phenomenal has the most delightful Civil War ERA details including material itself. The fact that it is longer in the back than the front to allow for a bustle. Gorgeous brown velvet trim at the high neckline bodice back and them. It also has a fantastic row of ruffles just above the hips at the back. Is entirely handmade as can be seen from the stitching in my close ups of the interior. Interior Closure is entirely metal hook and eye exterior buttons up the front with fantastic multi color buttons (not sure of material buttons are made of). The fabric is phenomenal please see all of my photos.

This is extremely form fitting at the bust, bodice and waist. It has some condition issues, but considering it's age of over 150 years old, are in my opinion very minor. There is some shredding under one arm as I have shown in close up photo. There are also several holes in the front of the dress but is not shredded and are not gaping can be repaired. The velvet at the bottom of the skirt is worn in places. The button holes will need to be restitched as they have torn but not so much so that they cant be repaired just a few stitches and good as new. Other than this I do not see any Major condition issues just a few as described above. I have seen clothing from this era in tatters and this dress is definitely worthy of being displayed not just studied!!!! If you are tiny it could even be worn but I would not recommend this due to the age but will leave that up to you! JUST short of being MUSEUM quality.

I purchased recently at a local estate auction.

As stated before this dress is entirely handstitched and handmade The measurements are as follows:

Bust - 17 inches across armpit to armpit for a bust of 32-34 inches maximum

Waist - 12 inches across so would be approx 23 - 24 inch waist maximum

Bodice Measures 13 1/4 inches from top of shoulder to top of waist.

Hips- 18" inches across so would be 36 inch hips

Length - Ankle length to be worn with lace up boots longer in back than in front 51" inches shoulder seam to bottom of hem in front.

I have not done anything to clean this dress as I did not want to risk damaging it. It may have odors from its previous life. I did not notice anything highly offensive. Please bid carefully as I do not offer refunds unless an item is grossly misrepresented and is being sold as found as is with no refunds or gaurantees.


From Me:

This looks to be from the late 1880's/early 1890's. The puff at the top of the sleeve gives away the date. Although some of the styling looks earlier, that could be from one of two reasons: the dress was from the early 1880's and redone as the styles changed or the lady who created the dress liked some of the earlier styling and added them to her dress. Either way, I wouldn't put a date earlier than 1875 on it.