Blue was a fairly simple color to find, although many seem to be in the same dusty tone range. It seems like it could be a fading issue, although some of them have a great deal of gold which looks in good condition. Again, definitions from Elephant's Breath & London Smoke.
Blue: among dyers for one of the five fimple or mother colours, of which they form others. Royal English Dictionary, 1775.
Indigo: Indigo Blue. Is a dark blackifh Blue. Philosophy of Mineralogy, 1798.
Sky: Sky-colour. Blue; azure; like the fky. Dictionary of English Language, 1792.
Azure: Is a bright Blue with fcarce a tint of Red. Philosophy of Mineralogy, 1798.
Cerulean: Blue, fky-coloured. Complete Dictionary of the English Language, 1797.
China Blue: is azure blue with a little Prussian blue in it. Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, 1814.
Prussian: is a deep colour, and brighter than indigo. Transactions of the Society, 1825.
Royal Blue: For the Turkey blue, which is the deepeft, a very ftrong archil bath is firft given; and for the royal blue, one of the fame kind, but weaker. Encyclopaedia Perthensis, 1816.
Sapphire: a precious Stone of a blew Colour with golden Sparkles. Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, 1708.
Ultramarine: among Painters, the fineft fort of blue colour. Royal English Dictionary, 1775.
Blue: among dyers for one of the five fimple or mother colours, of which they form others. Royal English Dictionary, 1775.
Indigo: Indigo Blue. Is a dark blackifh Blue. Philosophy of Mineralogy, 1798.
Sky: Sky-colour. Blue; azure; like the fky. Dictionary of English Language, 1792.
Azure: Is a bright Blue with fcarce a tint of Red. Philosophy of Mineralogy, 1798.
Cerulean: Blue, fky-coloured. Complete Dictionary of the English Language, 1797.
China Blue: is azure blue with a little Prussian blue in it. Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, 1814.
Prussian: is a deep colour, and brighter than indigo. Transactions of the Society, 1825.
Royal Blue: For the Turkey blue, which is the deepeft, a very ftrong archil bath is firft given; and for the royal blue, one of the fame kind, but weaker. Encyclopaedia Perthensis, 1816.
Sapphire: a precious Stone of a blew Colour with golden Sparkles. Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, 1708.
Ultramarine: among Painters, the fineft fort of blue colour. Royal English Dictionary, 1775.
V&A Robe a la Francaise, 1760-69
Met Silk Stays, Late 18th
Met Silk Shoes, 1776
Met Silk Robe a l'Anglaise, 1770-75
Met Silk Robe a la Francaise, 1760-70
Met Leather Shoes, Late 18th
MFA Silk Gown, 1745-55
CWF Silk Robe a l'Anglaise, 1780-95
4 comments:
Where do you get all of your pictures? I just love them. I wish I could just crawl into the clothes, exspecially the shoes.
Lots of hours spent sifting through museum online archives. The best/worst part is that many of them keep updating and adding new things! Hard to keep up, but exciting!
I'm Nancy Glass. I worked at the Costume Design Center at CWF for 36 years. When I first saw the royal blue damask gown with the sawtooth trim, I asked Linda Baumgarten,textile curator at CWF, about the trim. At that time she indicated that she thought it was added in the 19th century. Should anyone wish to copy this design, they might want to delve into the gown history if they want to maintain a purely 18th century style.
Ooooh...I love that last gown so much!
Nancy, thank you so much for your input. My very first thought on looking at the CWF gown (well, second, after "Ooooh...pretty!") is that the trim looked very Victorian, and not at all 18th century, and then I started wondering if there might have been flat geometric 18th century trim like that. And then I read your comment :-)
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