1821 December Green Promenade Dress, English. High waisted coat over white dress with ruffled collar, vertical front bows, short puffed sleeves over long straight sleeves, matching ruffled bonnet and yellow gloves. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’, London, U.K.
1812 Young Lady Playing Devil On Two Sticks, or, the “diabolo” game. The game was known as “The Devil on Two Sticks” in England at the time as the name “diabolo” was only invented later. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1811 Woman Carrying Cloth and a Package. Sewing a dress? Green dress with a white bodice, green spotted cornet for a hat. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Even though this a French fashion plate, this is typical of the Empire dresses worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries. Low necklines and skirts that started directly under the bust and flowed into the classical relaxed wide styles of Greece and Rome. These high-waisted dresses were worn most days and cotton, silk or taffeta were the popular fabrics.
What did an older lady do and wear in the Regency Era? Information & pictures for readers and writers of early 1800s history, nonfiction and fiction. books2read.com/suziloveOLD The older lady’s day usually started with her toilette in her bedroom, where her maid helped her dress for the day and styled her hair. After that, she would join her family downstairs for breakfast unless she preferred a tray with either tea or hot chocolate in her bedroom as she prepared for her busy day. Her day would be made up of speaking with the housekeeper and the cook about the week’s menus, assuring that the servants were all available that day and no one was ill, and checking the list of foods needed.
She would also enquire if the laundry was up to date and that they had enough good linen to make up all the beds before extended family members and guests arrived. If she was in the country and hosting a weekend house party, she would assign rooms to the guests on her lists and query that all was in readiness for their arrival.
What did an older lady do and wear in #RegencyEra? Information and pictures for readers and writers of #History #nonfiction #Regency. https://books2read.com/suziloveOLD Share on X
1809 July Opera Dress Round convent robe of Egyptian brown tissue worn over white satin underdress, ornamented at feet, bosom and sleeves with broad Antique lace, out on full, and narrowing in front, white satin appliqued stomacher embellished with gold lattice work and continued in a straight line down to the hem. Headdress is a gold net caul, enclosing the hair at the back and finished in front with a Mechlin veil displaying the hair on the forehead and falling over the left shoulder. Necklace and armlets are a single row of Bohemian pearl with topaz or diamond snaps. Grecian scarf of rich Andalusian silk, contrasted with the robe and wrought at the ends in a deep Tuscan border of gold or colored silks. White satin slippers, trimmed with brown foil or gold, French kid gloves, opera fan of white crepe with a border of jessamine. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’. I can picture aristocratic women wearing this sort of gorgeous outfit to the opera or an evening event.
Demolition of the old house, between the Strand and the River Thames, began in 1775 and continued in stages as the new Somerset House was constructed around it. When the new building rose from the rubble, the Royal Academy, which had been one of the last occupants of the old Somerset House, became one of the first occupants of the apartments which fronted the Strand, providing tangible continuity between the old and the new.
The Royal Academy of Arts
George III, described as an “enthusiastic if undiscriminating collector and patron of the arts”, provided invaluable patronage for the three learned societies. When old Somerset House was relinquished by the Crown, the King reserved to himself the right to appropriate sufficient space in the new building for the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries.
The Great Exhibition Room
The most important part of the building for the Royal Academy was its Exhibition Room. Situated at the top of the steep, winding staircase, it was roughly 53 x 43 feet and 32 feet high including the lantern, and was described by Joseph Baretti as, “undoubtedly at that date the finest gallery for displaying pictures so far built.” It was here that George III was given a preview of the first Royal Academy Exhibition held at his command in 1780.
Year by year, the exhibits increased. There were 547 in 1781, 1,037 in 1801, and 1,165 in 1821, so that the pictures had to be hung almost from floor to ceiling and with the frames touching one another. From 1832 onwards there was talk of the Royal Academy moving to more spacious rooms in what is now the National Gallery, which was being built at the north end of Trafalgar Square. Accordingly, the last exhibition at Somerset House was held in 1836.
When the Academy moved, the most valuable decorations were taken down and reused in their new quarters. Later they were moved to Burlington House, the Royal Academy’s present home, where the ceiling paintings by Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffmann can now be seen in the entrance hall. The Academy’s old rooms at Somerset House were occupied by the Department of Practical Art, or Government School of Design.
The Royal Society
In 1776, they discovered they were to share the building to the east of the Strand entrance with the Society of Antiquaries, and complained to William Chambers that the accommodation would be inadequate; that the library would be too small and that there would be no room for the Society’s museum.
One of the first discoveries announced to the Society in its new quarters was that of a new planet, first observed by William Herschel in 1781. He wished to call the new planet Georgium Sidus in honour of the King, but other astronomers disagreed and today we know the planet as Uranus. Fellows of the Royal Society were keen to prevent war and politics interfering with the advancement of scientific discovery.
During the Napoleonic Wars of 1796-1815, the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, used his influence both in England and France to ensure that explorers of the two nations were not obstructed by the conflicting armed forces, and that French scientists should continue to be elected Fellows of the Society. When Sir Humphry Davy became president in 1820, the Society became oriented more towards pure scientific enquiry, to which ends, George IV founded two Gold Medals.
After the Royal Academy left Somerset House in 1837, the Royal Society remained there until 1857 when it joined the Academy at Burlington House.
The Society of Antiquaries
In 1776, the Antiquaries heard about the proposed new building at Somerset House, they decided to apply to George III, their Patron, for rooms there. After some intense lobbying by the President, the Reverend Dr Milles, the Society’s request for accommodation was favourably considered, and the King was, “most graciously pleased to order that the Society be accommodated with apartments in the new buildings at Somerset House.”
The resident Secretary of the Society was accommodated in the attic with three rooms “with deal dadoes, and Sienna marble and Sicilian jasper chimney-pieces”. The basement was hotly contested between the Royal Society and the Antiquaries, who were eventually allowed a kitchen, cellar, two vaults, and a privy. However, the lobby, originally intended for the footman in waiting, had to accommodate the Antiquaries’ porter as the Royal Society had taken possession of the Porter’s Lodge!
In the 1850s there was a proposal to move the Royal Society and the Antiquaries from Somerset House but, when the Royal Society moved out in 1857, the Antiquaries decided to remain, taking the opportunity to secure sole use of the disputed rooms, until they joined the other two learned societies at Burlington House in 1874.
The Navy Board
When the Admiralty moved into new premises in Whitehall in 1725, it was decided that the Navy Board, over whom the Admiralty had responsibility, should move to a site much closer; from Seething Lane behind the Tower of London to new offices at Somerset House. Chambers proposed to house the Navy Board on the west side of the south wing of the new building, in the part facing the river, with the Seamen’s Waiting Hall in the centre of the building providing an imposing entrance.
The related Sick and Hurt, Navy Pay, and Victualling Offices were to occupy the range of buildings on the west side of the courtyard. By 1789 the move was completed and, for nearly a century, more than a third of Somerset House was home to the various branches of the Navy Board.
General Register Office
In 1836 the General Register Office was created to set up a comprehensive system for the registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths and appoint the first Registrar General based at Somerset House. It was not until 1970, after slightly less than a century and a half at Somerset House, that the General Register Office moved out.
Principal Probate Registry
The Inland Revenue Stamp duty on documents, including newspapers, was only one of many revenue-raising methods administered by the Stamp Office, one of the government departments which moved to the new Somerset House in 1789. In 1834 the Stamp Office united with the Affairs of Taxes and in 1849 Stamps and Taxes joined the Excise to form a new Board of Inland Revenue. The Board of Inland Revenue today still occupies the east and west wings of Somerset House.
To read more of the history of Somerset House, visit their fascinating site.
Somerset House, London, UK. London's Best Places To Visit. #London #RegencyEra #BritishHistory https://books2read.com/suziloveROver Share on X
1800s A Young Lady Riding and Carriage Driving, England. #Riding #Regency #Victorian #Cartoon From: 1860 Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour by Robert Smith Surtees. via Google Books (PD-100)
Almack’s Assembly Rooms often appear in Regency Era romances as they were a well known gathering place for those in the Ton looking for wives or husbands. 1770-1840 . Almack’s or Willis’s Rooms, King Street, St James, London, UK. Almack’s Assembly Rooms, founded by William Almack at No. 26-28, were on the site of the present Almack House. The club was originally a gaming establishment but moved from Pall Mall. The Assembly rooms were on the South side of King Street in St James’s and were opened on February 12, 1765. At the time the subscription was ten guineas for which there was a ball and supper each week for the twelve weeks of the season.
Assemblies were held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but only four or five times a season. Dates were listed in the paper along with the names of the Patronesses. When Lady Jersey took over Almack’s around 1815, assemblies were changed to Wednesdays. Many aristocrats were reportedly offended by something that happened at Almack’s but Lord Jersey is reported to have refused to duel over any inferred slights because it would have meant he was forever involved in a duel. The other well-known Patronesses were Lady Bathurst and Lady Downshire.
1765-1840 ca. Almack’s, or Willis’s, Assembly Rooms, South Side Of King Street, St James, London. commons.wikimedia.org
1800s Early Exterior of Almack’s Assembly Rooms, London, UK.
Captain Gronow, an army officer in London around 1814, wrote about the rules of Almack’s in Captain Gronow’s Recollections and Anecdotes, 1864 , but only gives his views on a few years of Almack’s history.
What did Jane Austen and friends wear? Early 1800s fashions were elegant and pretty with high waists and fabrics that were almost transparent. These Empire style gowns, named after Napoleon’s first Empress, became popular throughout Europe, and were then copied around the world. Colorful outwear was added to make an ensemble more attractive and warmer. History Notes Book 26 Fashion Women 1805-1809.
https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1805-1809
The Empire waist gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given in France to the period when Napoleon built his French Empire.
High-waisted, loose gowns were adopted by the aristocracy as a symbol of turning away from the fussy, elaborate and expensive clothing worn in the 1700s. Jean-Jaques Rousseau advocated copying peasants and returning to a simpler life and more natural fashions. Unrestricting clothing was part of the new Democracy in France and these simpler and flowing fashions were adopted all over Europe, including Britain and despite the continual wars being fought against France during the early 1800s. Not even war stopped fashions from being copied everywhere.
1813 October Morning Dress, English. Jane Austen and her family and friends would have worn this style of relaxed dress and cap. White At-Home dress with morning lace cap and a red shawl. Plain cambric underdress, three-quartered muslin or Chinese silk robe trimmed round the bottom and up the front with Indian border, or needle-work, and finished with a deep flounce of lace. Convent hood and pelerine of white net lace, confined under the chin with a silk cord and tassel. Hair in irregular curls with a fancy flower in the front. Short rosary and cross, plus bracelets, of coquilla beads. Buff or lemon kid slippers and pale tan gloves. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
This is a typical outfit worn at home in the morning in the house, to be seen only by family or close friends. A lady might wear this while writing having breakfast, writing letters, or reading. Called by the various names of Undress, to At-Home dress, or Morning dress, it is the most relaxed ensemble a lady will wear all day. The sort of outfit Jane Austen would have worn when writing her books.
