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Materials: Evening bodice, day jacket and skirt:
Robin's egg blue silk faille, silk gauze, silk tulle, Valenciennes lace,
whalebone stays (7 in bodice, 6 in jacket), silk and cotton cording and muslin
lining (bodice & jacket).
Provenance: This gown's original owner was Mary
Caroline Lewis, daughter of Reverend Zachariah Lewis (he was the tutor of George
and Martha Washington's children). Mary Lewis in 1843 married Augusta
Corey Richards. In the mid 1850s they built Woodcliff House. J. D.
Rockefeller, in the early 20th c., bought Woodcliff, demolished it and built the
Cloisters on the same site. Click here for a complete family
provenance.
Condition: Evening bodice, excellent; jacket,
very good; skirt, excellent. Bodice is nearly perfect, with original
lacing; there is a 1/4" tear in the faille by the left side seam and some
deterioration in the silk tulle at the neckline. The jacket has one
missing button, 1" stains under each arm and two faint round water stains
on one front panel. Jacket also originally had a bow or other trim at the
center back, now missing. The skirt has minor, and very small stains and
because of the volume of fabric, these are not readily apparent.
Measurements: Bodice: B, 32"; W, 23".
Jacket: B, 36"; W, 24"; Sh-Sh, 15"; Slv L, 17 1/2".
Skirt: W, 23"; Front L, 41"; Back L, 61"; Hem C, 171".
Comments: A breathtakingly beautiful anti-bellum
gown. The workmanship is done to very high standards. The dull
greenish gold color of the corded trim on the jacket is a sophisticated contrast
to the robin's egg blue.
Imagine Mary Richards walking the grounds of her 1850s New
York mansion in this gown...gazing at the Hudson River peacefully flowing by now
that the threat of attack from the Confederate army had passed.
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