Museum Monday!

c1820 Girls Gown 92.2000.23

Happy Monday!  I have decided, that if I am going to bring back Museum Mondays...this year, I get to pick the topic, and will share some of my favorites with you...maybe next year can be least favorites...if there is such a thing.  Every now and then, I do random Google image searches to see where photos of pieces in my collection show up...I have found a few in bogus eBay auctions...criminals will lift the pic off my blog and use it to run a fake auction...they dont even bother to block out the watermark on my images!!!!... Then sometimes, I get a pleasant surprise and find something that really gets me excited....like with today's piece~ a wonderful, ever so charming, quaint little girls dress. I saw a photo in my search and thought~ is this my dress??? The sleeves are different...and when I clicked on the link that took me to the Met's Museum page...I was really excited!

When I purchased my little gown from its family at Nappa Hall in the UK, it was a dirty crumpled little mess. I had it sent to me across the pond and showered it with love and care and its such a charming, beautiful little gown. c1820, with full little cap sleeves drawn up in thirds, trimmed in pretty little double mull frills~ the gown itself is quite plain....white muslin...but the little mull frills~ all have their edges whipped in pink thread, as well as pink whipping along the top of the growth tucks and front stitchings. 6 precious Dorset buttons adorn the front, with pink accent stitching in their centers.  In an era when clothing was hand stitched at home, before the days of ready made or ready to wear clothing.....one would tend to assume.....that they had a one of a kind gown......but ....then along came Google and its all seeing worldwide search......

This is the Met's gown~ you can see it here. 

This is no coincidence. Absolutely not. They purchased their gown 13 years before I purchased mine, but both come from the UK, and they are so near identical in construction, they were most likely gowns for siblings. (Other than the sleeves and the neckline/pointe trim being different, they are constructed the same). The Met gown's color is much deeper and richer than mine~ but upon close inspection, I have found my gown's thread to be quite faded~ behind the Dorset buttons and in protected areas, its much darker.  The Met's web page has date of construction about 20 years later than what I believe the age of garment to be~ even so, its always exciting to find a mate~ perhaps one day they can share the same space with each other again
Both full views are large, so you may click on them to see all their details!