Milady’s Dressing Table
Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
Today we are in Lady Southgate’s dressing room, which is adjunct to her bedroom. It’s a quarter to midnight and poor Newman, Lady Southgate’s Lady’s Maid, has just seen her mistress to bed after Lord and Lady Southgate returned from an evening at Covent Garden. Yet her work is not done. She has her mistress’ clothes to clean and put away in the wardrobes, and her dressing table to tidy up.
Lady Southgate’s dressing room is situated on the third floor of Wickham Place. It is light and airy with an east facing window, so it gets the morning sun whilst Newman sets her mistress’ hair each day, and Lady Southgate applies beauty products to maintain her creamy complexion. The dressing room is a feminine preserve and its décor reflects that along with the current fashion for whites and pastel colours in boudoirs. The wallpaper is a fashionable Edwardian pattern of birds, butterflies and pink camellias on a pale green background. Feminine Rococo paintings hang on the walls in antique gilt frames. The room contains light coloured furniture including wardrobes full of her ladyship’s clothes, full length mirrors, a cream upholstered settee, several occasional tables, a Japanese floral painted screen, a Chippendale style salon chair upholstered in cream satin and a walnut Regency dressing table: a gift to Lady Southbank from her husband.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a monthly challenge called “Freestyle On The Fifth”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each month, and the image is to be posted on the 5th of the month.
This month the theme, “beauty” was chosen by Andrew ()
Lady Southgate’s Regency dressing table covered in her beauty aides, perfume bottles and her glittering travelling beauty case seemed the perfect choice for the theme. However, this upper-class boudoir scene is different, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures. Some pieces come from my own childhood including the Regency dressing table, the gilt hairbrush and mirror which I was given as part of my Christmas presents when I was around ten. Other items in this tableau I acquired as a teenager and as an adult through specialist doll shops, online dealers and artists who specialise in making 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
On the right-hand side of her dressing table is Lady Southgate’s glittering travel de necessaire (travelling case), which is hinged, has an inlaid top and is lined with red velvet. It contains an array of beauty aides any Edwardian woman, or her lady’s maid, would have used including curling tongs (which look like scissors), various perfume bottles, pill boxes and cosmetic jars and a shoe horn as well as a sizable mirror. Draped over its edge is a sparking “diamond” necklace made of tiny strung faceted silver beads. There is also a selection of sparkling perfume bottles next to the travel de necessaire which are hand-made by an English artisan, made of cut coloured crystals set in a gilt metal frame. In front of the travel de necessaire is a gilt hairbrush and looking glass.
In the dressing table well beneath the recessed mirror is a container of Val-U-Time talcum powder: an essential item for any Edwardian lady, a box containing Dionnetta skin whitening powder and several more perfume bottles.
On the left-hand side of the dressing table is a brass dish containing white wax, which was commonly used in Edwardian times to massage into the skin. There is also a metal container of Madame Pivette’s Complexion Beautifier, which was introduced in 1905 by Doctor J.B. Lynas and Son and produced in Logansport, Indiana. Doctor Lynas started his own profession in 1866, which was the making of "family remedies", which quickly gained popularity. It became so popular, that he sold extensively throughout the United States. His products carried names such as the Catarrh Remedy, Hoosier Cough Syrup, Ready Relief, Rheumatic Liniment, White Mountain Salve, Egyptian Salve and Liver Pills. Within a few years the "doctor's" medicine sales amounted to around ten thousand US dollars per year. By the turn of the Twentieth Century he had expanded his product line to include flavorings such as vanilla, cherry, lemon; and also, soaps, lotions and perfumes for ladies.
On the occasional table stands a 1950s Limoges vase filled with pink hydrangeas. The vase is stamped with a small green Limoges mark to the bottom. This treasure I found in an overcrowded cabinet at the Mill Markets in Geelong.
At the bottom of the pile on the occasional table next to the vase are two copies of The Delineator. The Delineator was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name The Metropolitan Monthly. Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was published on a monthly basis in New York City.
On top of The Delineator magazines are two corset boxes: a Baleinine corset from Paris and a Warner Brothers Coraline Health Corset from New York. The corset was an essential beauty aide for any Victorian or Edwardian woman. It was only with the invention of the Flapper in the 1920s, that corsets fell out of fashion. In the late Nineteenth Century, Dr. Lucien Warner, a prominent American physician gave up his practice to begin a new career on the medical lecturing circuit, specializing in women’s health issues. Dr. Warner lectured about the effects of the corset. After seeing how little influence his lectures had on women’s attitudes, he returned to his New York home and began a different approach to fighting the ills caused by the corset. In 1873, he designed a corset that provided both the shape desired by women and the flexibility required to allow some movement and reduce injuries caused by previous designs. The next year, Lucien Warner and his brother Dr. Ira De Ver Warner gave up their medical practices and founded Warner Brothers Corset Manufacturers. Dr. Warner’s Coraline Health Corsets were made up of two pieces of cloth which were laced or clasped together. These revolutionary undergarments also featured shoulder straps and more flexible boning and lateral bust supports made of Coraline, a product of the fibers of the Mexican Ixtle plant. The success of the Warners’ designs had made the brothers millionaires and in 1894 they retired and turned control of the company over to De Ver’s son and the Warner Brothers partnership was changed to a corporation. Warner's business was still doing well under the management of Dr.De Var's son. He even added new types of corsets: a rust proof corset, a combination corset, and even a hose supporter. In 1913 the company made seven million US Dollars in sales. Then in 1913 Warner Brother's bought the patent for the brassier from Mary Phelps Jacobs, and they ended up making twelve point six million US Dollars by 1920.
Behind the dressing table is a Chinese screen dating from the 1930s featuring hand-painted soapstone panels of flowers. It is framed lacquered wood and is remarkably heavy for its size. The reverse features Chinese scenes with mountains and pagodas.
Milady’s Dressing Table
Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
Today we are in Lady Southgate’s dressing room, which is adjunct to her bedroom. It’s a quarter to midnight and poor Newman, Lady Southgate’s Lady’s Maid, has just seen her mistress to bed after Lord and Lady Southgate returned from an evening at Covent Garden. Yet her work is not done. She has her mistress’ clothes to clean and put away in the wardrobes, and her dressing table to tidy up.
Lady Southgate’s dressing room is situated on the third floor of Wickham Place. It is light and airy with an east facing window, so it gets the morning sun whilst Newman sets her mistress’ hair each day, and Lady Southgate applies beauty products to maintain her creamy complexion. The dressing room is a feminine preserve and its décor reflects that along with the current fashion for whites and pastel colours in boudoirs. The wallpaper is a fashionable Edwardian pattern of birds, butterflies and pink camellias on a pale green background. Feminine Rococo paintings hang on the walls in antique gilt frames. The room contains light coloured furniture including wardrobes full of her ladyship’s clothes, full length mirrors, a cream upholstered settee, several occasional tables, a Japanese floral painted screen, a Chippendale style salon chair upholstered in cream satin and a walnut Regency dressing table: a gift to Lady Southbank from her husband.
This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a monthly challenge called “Freestyle On The Fifth”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each month, and the image is to be posted on the 5th of the month.
This month the theme, “beauty” was chosen by Andrew ()
Lady Southgate’s Regency dressing table covered in her beauty aides, perfume bottles and her glittering travelling beauty case seemed the perfect choice for the theme. However, this upper-class boudoir scene is different, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures. Some pieces come from my own childhood including the Regency dressing table, the gilt hairbrush and mirror which I was given as part of my Christmas presents when I was around ten. Other items in this tableau I acquired as a teenager and as an adult through specialist doll shops, online dealers and artists who specialise in making 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
On the right-hand side of her dressing table is Lady Southgate’s glittering travel de necessaire (travelling case), which is hinged, has an inlaid top and is lined with red velvet. It contains an array of beauty aides any Edwardian woman, or her lady’s maid, would have used including curling tongs (which look like scissors), various perfume bottles, pill boxes and cosmetic jars and a shoe horn as well as a sizable mirror. Draped over its edge is a sparking “diamond” necklace made of tiny strung faceted silver beads. There is also a selection of sparkling perfume bottles next to the travel de necessaire which are hand-made by an English artisan, made of cut coloured crystals set in a gilt metal frame. In front of the travel de necessaire is a gilt hairbrush and looking glass.
In the dressing table well beneath the recessed mirror is a container of Val-U-Time talcum powder: an essential item for any Edwardian lady, a box containing Dionnetta skin whitening powder and several more perfume bottles.
On the left-hand side of the dressing table is a brass dish containing white wax, which was commonly used in Edwardian times to massage into the skin. There is also a metal container of Madame Pivette’s Complexion Beautifier, which was introduced in 1905 by Doctor J.B. Lynas and Son and produced in Logansport, Indiana. Doctor Lynas started his own profession in 1866, which was the making of "family remedies", which quickly gained popularity. It became so popular, that he sold extensively throughout the United States. His products carried names such as the Catarrh Remedy, Hoosier Cough Syrup, Ready Relief, Rheumatic Liniment, White Mountain Salve, Egyptian Salve and Liver Pills. Within a few years the "doctor's" medicine sales amounted to around ten thousand US dollars per year. By the turn of the Twentieth Century he had expanded his product line to include flavorings such as vanilla, cherry, lemon; and also, soaps, lotions and perfumes for ladies.
On the occasional table stands a 1950s Limoges vase filled with pink hydrangeas. The vase is stamped with a small green Limoges mark to the bottom. This treasure I found in an overcrowded cabinet at the Mill Markets in Geelong.
At the bottom of the pile on the occasional table next to the vase are two copies of The Delineator. The Delineator was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name The Metropolitan Monthly. Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was published on a monthly basis in New York City.
On top of The Delineator magazines are two corset boxes: a Baleinine corset from Paris and a Warner Brothers Coraline Health Corset from New York. The corset was an essential beauty aide for any Victorian or Edwardian woman. It was only with the invention of the Flapper in the 1920s, that corsets fell out of fashion. In the late Nineteenth Century, Dr. Lucien Warner, a prominent American physician gave up his practice to begin a new career on the medical lecturing circuit, specializing in women’s health issues. Dr. Warner lectured about the effects of the corset. After seeing how little influence his lectures had on women’s attitudes, he returned to his New York home and began a different approach to fighting the ills caused by the corset. In 1873, he designed a corset that provided both the shape desired by women and the flexibility required to allow some movement and reduce injuries caused by previous designs. The next year, Lucien Warner and his brother Dr. Ira De Ver Warner gave up their medical practices and founded Warner Brothers Corset Manufacturers. Dr. Warner’s Coraline Health Corsets were made up of two pieces of cloth which were laced or clasped together. These revolutionary undergarments also featured shoulder straps and more flexible boning and lateral bust supports made of Coraline, a product of the fibers of the Mexican Ixtle plant. The success of the Warners’ designs had made the brothers millionaires and in 1894 they retired and turned control of the company over to De Ver’s son and the Warner Brothers partnership was changed to a corporation. Warner's business was still doing well under the management of Dr.De Var's son. He even added new types of corsets: a rust proof corset, a combination corset, and even a hose supporter. In 1913 the company made seven million US Dollars in sales. Then in 1913 Warner Brother's bought the patent for the brassier from Mary Phelps Jacobs, and they ended up making twelve point six million US Dollars by 1920.
Behind the dressing table is a Chinese screen dating from the 1930s featuring hand-painted soapstone panels of flowers. It is framed lacquered wood and is remarkably heavy for its size. The reverse features Chinese scenes with mountains and pagodas.