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Archive for 2011

In Honor of the Royal Wedding: Princess Charlotte’s Wedding Dress, 1816

Posted in 19th Century England, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency style, Regency World, tagged , , , , on April 25, 2011| 16 Comments »

Wedding dresses in the royal collection. Princess Charlotte's gown is in the middle. Image @Daily News

The Telegraph.co.uk features a video of five beautiful wedding dresses of the past, Queen Victoria’s and Princess Margaret’s among them, and asks the question, “How will Kate Middleton’s gown measure up to history?” Featured is Princess Charlotte’s beautiful silver wedding gown, which has not been on view for several decades and which, as the oldest wedding dress in the collection, requires quite a bit more conservation. In these images pulled from the film you can see the beautiful sheen of the silver fabric, which was meant to represent British wealth, status, and power.

It was made by Mrs Triaud of Bolton Street, from ‘cloth-of-silver’, silk bobbinet embroidered with heavy silver lamé, embellished with Brussels lace, and with embroidered flowers and shells festooning the hem.” –Telegraph.co.uk

Contemporary images simply do not do the dress justice.

One can see in this small (blurred) image how the dress sparkles under lights. The dress required “500 hours of detailed hand-stitching in ultra-fine, mono-filament silk threads, almost invisible to the naked eye.” Those poor seamstresses must have gone blind. The Regency Fashion page carries a description of the dress and ceremony in La Belle Assemblee.

The manteau was of silver tissue lined with white satin, with a border of embroidery to answer that on the dress, and fastened in front with a splendid diamond ornament. Such was the bridal dress” … La Belle Assemblee

Princes Charlotte and Prince Leopold on their wedding day in 1816, Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace

The historic wedding dresses are among the 10,000 items in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection. Queen Victoria’s wedding dress will be publicly displayed in March 2012, in the new permanent exhibition at the refurbished Kensington Palace, ‘Victoria Revealed” hrp.org.uk . –  Telegraph.co.uk

In this older image you can see the gown's train. Image @Museum of London

The jewellery of the royal bride is most superb; beside the wreath, are a diamond cestus, ear- rings, and an armlet of great value, with a superb set of pearls.” – La Belle Assemblee

Contemporary depiction of Princess Charlotte's wedding

Sadly, the marriage did not last for even two years, due to Princess Charlotte’s death in childbirth (see article below.) Thank you, Brandy Parfums for alerting me to this video and article!

More posts about Princess Charlotte and Royal Weddings:

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A Receipt for a Pudding by Mrs. Austen

Posted in 19th Century England, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Period, Regency World, tagged , , , , on April 23, 2011| 6 Comments »

A Receipt for a Pudding

Contributed by Mrs. Cassandra Austen (Jane’s mother) to Martha Lloyd’s collection of recipes, 1808. As this recipe attests, Jane Austen came by her talent honestly. For amusement, her family wrote riddles, charades, poems, and plays for each other. Mrs. Austen excelled at poetry to the extent that one can easily follow her recipe in rhyme.

Puddings, Mrs. Beeton

If the vicar you treat,
You must give him to eat,
A pudding to hit his affection;
And to make his repast,
By the canon of taste,
Be the present receipt your direction.

First take two pounds of Bread,
Be the crumb only weigh’d,
For the crust the good house-wife refuses;
The proportion you’ll guess,
May be made more or less,
To the size that each family chuses.

Then its sweetness to make
Some currants you take
And Sugar of each half a pound
Be not butter forgot
And the quantity sought
Must the same with your currants be found

Cloves & mace you will want,
With rose water I grant,
And more savory things if well chosen;
Then to bind each ingredient,
You’ll find it expedient,
Of Eggs to put in half a dozen.

Some milk dont refuse it,
But boiled ere you use it,
A proper hint this for its maker;
And the whole when compleat,
In a pan clean and neat,
With care recommend to the baker.

In praise of this pudding,
I vouch it a good one,
Or should you suspect a fond word;
To every Guest,
Perhaps it is best,
Two puddings should smoke on the board.

Two puddings! – yet – no,
For if one will do,
The other comes in out of season;
And these lines but obey,
Nor can anyone say,
That this pudding’s with-out rhyme or reason

Jean at Delightful Repast has created a modern interpretation of this bread pudding. It looks so delicious, I think I shall try it at my next Janeites meeting! Click on the link for the recipe. Thank you for sharing, Jean!

Jean's bread pudding

Bread and Butter Pudding, also called simply “bread pudding,” is a dessert that has been a first for many of my dinner guests. Since I grew up with it, I’m always amazed when people tell me they’ve never had it before. They always like it and think it was something very difficult and time-consuming to make, when actually it is quite the opposite (Isn’t that what every hostess aims for!).

If you are a Jane Austen aficionado, you may have read her mother’s recipe, written in rhyme. My recipe makes about a fourth the quantity of Mrs. Austen’s and uses proportionately less sugar and butter and more eggs. Also, I skip the cloves and rosewater–the cloves because so many people don’t like them and the rosewater because I seldom have it on hand.

Sometimes I serve it with custard sauce, sometimes with my Banana-Pecan Rum Sauce (see below), but this time I served it with softly whipped cream sweetened with a drop of real maple syrup.

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Upstairs Downstairs DVD Giveaway!!

Posted in British Servants, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Movie review, Popular culture, Upper Class, Working class, tagged , , , on April 22, 2011| 52 Comments »

The third episode of Upstairs Downstairs will be shown this Sunday. Will you tune in?  (Watch all three episodes from April 25 through May 24 at this link.) Better yet, the BBC will make the DVD available for sale Tuesday, April 26th.

BBC’s Upstairs Downstairs DVD is available for purchase!

Upstairs Downstairs has been brought back with a fresh new cast. It is 1936 and six years since parlormaid Rose (Jean Marsh) left 165 Eaton Place. Fate brings her back to the house and its new owners, Sir Hallam Holland (Ed Stoppard), his wife Lady Agnes (Keeley Hawes), and his mother, Lady Maud Holland (Eileen Atkins). Rose recruits a new “downstairs” family to help run the elegance and finery of the “upstairs” world. Set against the historical backdrop of a pre-World War II Britain with a new King on the throne, with Fascism on the rise on the continent, and with sexual, social and political tensions at 165 Eaton Place, this new series provides an evocative take on the master-servant relationship.

In honor of the U.S Premiere on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic, the BBC is giving away a free DVD just two days following the conclusion of the third episode. This DVD includes the making-of featurette Upstairs Downstairs – Behind Closed Doors. (SRP: $34.98 ($43.98 in Canada)

CONTEST is CLOSED. The winner is Felicia!!: For an opportunity to win the DVD, all you need to do is leave a comment stating what you liked best about this 2010 series! The drawing (by random number) will be held on Tuesday, April 26th at 11:59 PM, EST.

Read this blog’s reviews of UpDown in these posts:

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Games Regency People Played: Blind Man’s Bluff

Posted in 19th Century England, jane austen, Regency Period, Regency style on April 20, 2011| 3 Comments »

Gentle readers, I will be on semi-hiatus for the next few weeks, as my personal and work schedules do not permit me to concentrate as much on my blogs as I would like. For the time being I will feature past posts or link to others. When I looked at these images, I was reminded of the old-fashioned games of my childhood. Do children, I wonder, still play blind man’s bluff? Curious minds want to know.

Blind Man's Bluff

The above plate came from Healthful Sports for Young Ladies by Mlle St. Sernin, a French governess, and delightfully illustrated by Jean Demosthene Dugourc (1749-1825). In blind man’s bluff, the blindfolded person must first find someone and then guess her identity. Here is a charming description from Mlle St. Sernin:

Le Bon Genre documented the social trends and leisure activities of Parisians. Below are two images from that magazine.

Black and white plate of Blind Mans Bluff, Le Bon Genre, 1803

Magazines with color plates cost more. Blind Mans Bluff, Le Bon Genre, 1803

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Upstairs Downstairs 2010, Second Episode

Posted in 19th Century England, British Servants, Jane Austen's World, Movie review, Popular culture, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2011| 21 Comments »

Oh, my, Upstairs Downstairs turned down a darker road in the second episode, which can be seen online this week until May 24th.

The arrival of parlor maid, Rachel Perlmutter, changes the mood of the show from light-hearted to somber. She is a Jewish refugee from Germany who is forced to work as a maid, a career that is dangerous to her asthmatic condition.

Rachel (Helen Bradbury) suffers from asthma, which strikes her at the most unexpected moments.

Race and prejudice are the very obvious subtexts of this episode, in which Mr. Amanjit, who at first lived apart from the staff, is slowly accepted downstairs.

This scene, in which Mr. Amanjit was invited to listen to music on the radio, was most gratifying

Harry Spargo, the chauffeur, has developed a political interest that is typical of many people in the 1930’s, but his leanings are towards the far right and with the black shirts of Oswald Mosley’s fascist party.

Harrys social politics will place him at odds with the family and lead to tragedy belowstairs

A bored Ladie Percie flirts with danger as she pursues the chauffeur and his interests.

Bored and rebellious are not a good combination in the mind of a none too bright woman. Lady Percie races up the stairs to join an unsuspecting Harry at a far right rally.

And Agnes, the mistress, is pregnant.

A montage shows the stages of Agness pregnancy in swift succession

While I liked that Upstairs Downstairs embraced the many social upheavals of pre-war Britain, the one hour format is too rushed for these complex plot developments. I know the original series was based on one-hour shows, but back then each episode centered on one plot line that was often developed over several episodes. There were too many holes in the various plots that have been introduced and this series seems rushed, giving almost no time to character development. I hope that the pace slows down in Season 2 next year. Meanwhile, I can’t wait to see what develops in Episode 3, for at this point the twists and turns have intrigued me.

I must admit to being disappointed with the costumes, which did not appeal to me at all.

Other Upstairs Downstairs posts on this blog:

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