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Old Rags

@oldrags / oldrags.tumblr.com

Fashion history blog run by Katie, 21/f/NC, studying art history at UNC Charlotte.
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Favorite decades: 1910's, 1800's, 1870's
Favorite artists: Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Boldini, Henry Fuseli, Thomas Lawrence
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Reblogged

Town dress with chemisette owned by Empress Josephine, First Empire

“This high-waisted dress with its square, low-cut neckline and decorated with white embroidered flowers and leaves is typical of the fashion at the start of the First Empire. To conceal the low neckline, it could be worn with a chemisette which was slipped inside the dress. This one is in white muslin, embroidered with a sprinkling of flowers and embellished with a ruché trim. This outfit comes from the family of Madame Poyard who looked after the Empress’s wardrobe after 1809.”
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Slippers of Napoleon's Sister Found

A delicate pair of slippers that had been sitting unnoticed in a Scottish university’s collection for more than a century may have actually belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Princess Pauline Borghese, researchers say.

The narrow silk and leather shoes, which measured just 1.5 inches (40 millimeters) across the toes and about 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) long, were marked on the sole “Pauline Rome.” They would fit a small child today, but might have been perfect for the famously petite princess who researchers say was often carried from room to room. Pauline would have been the youngest of Napoleon’s three sisters; Napoleon also had four brothers.

The tiny slippers were sitting inside a chest of clothes in the collection of the University of Aberdeen, where they attracted the attention of Louise Wilkie, a museum staff member. Wilkie said the slippers were given to the museum by Robert Wilson (1787 – 1871), who traveled the world extensively as a ship’s surgeon and had a friendship with Princess Pauline Borghese. Read more.

Adelina Patti by James Sant, ca 1886, National Portrait Gallery, London

The Italian opera singer Adelina Patti, the last of the line of great coloratura sopranos, made her London debut on 14 May 1861 at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, as Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula. In this and other roles, particularly that of Rosina in The Barber of Seville, she delighted audiences throughout Europe and in North and South America. Her public career lasted nearly sixty years and is virtually without parallel.
Source: npg.org.uk

Mrs John Prescott Knight and Her Children by John Prescott Knight, ca 1837 England, the Shire Hall Gallery

A portrait by the Stafford-born artist probably of his wife, Clarissa Isabella Knight (nee Hague,) and their two sons Albert Stanley (1832–1917) and Julian Miles (1835–1871).
Source: BBC
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