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'Afternoon Dress. Evening Dress', July 1827

12 of 30 portraits by William Read

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'Afternoon Dress. Evening Dress', July 1827

by William Read, published by George Byrom Whittaker, published in La Belle Assemblée or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine
hand-coloured etching, line and stipple engraving, published 1 July 1827
8 1/2 in. x 5 3/8 in. (216 mm x 135 mm) plate size
Acquired, 1930
Reference Collection
NPG D47599

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Described in the issue for July 1827:
Afternoon Dress. A dress of fine India muslin, trimmed at the border with two rows of lozenge diamonds, formed of muslin doubled, and each lozenge trimmed round with narrow lace. Each row of this novel kind of trimming is surmounted by elegant embroidery in satin-stitch, worked on the dress; the row that is above the upper range of ornaments, is remarkably rich and beautiful. The body is à la Circassienne, the upper drapery of which discovers a chemisette tucker of fine muslin, laid in small plaits, and trimmed with narrow lace. The sleeves are en gigot, with mancherons à la Vandyke, edged round with lace, as are the long antique points at the wrists. Next the hand are broad gold bracelets, fastened with a cameo head. A white chip hat is worn with this dress, with an elegant plumage of white marabouts, and aigrettes à la militaire, formed of the green and yellow feathers of the parrot.
Evening Dress. A Dress of white watered gros de Naples, with two flounces; each flounce embroidered at the edge with coloured floize silk: the upper flounce surmounted by a rich and splendid embroidery in bouquets, consisting of fancy flowers of various bright colours, with purple thistles. The body, en gerbe, with a very narrow plaited tucker of blond. Sleeves en gigot, with cleft mancherons, finished round the edge in delicate embroidery of different colours. A hat of white chip, ornamented with feather-net plumage; the net finished by broad feather fringe, shaded blue; from the right side floats a kind of military comb of feather fringe, of shaded blue, which would give a martial appearance to the hat, did not a quilling of blond, under the brim, look so much like a cap beneath it, as to render the head-dress perfectly feminine.

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Current affairs

Lord Liverpool suffers a stroke and is forced to resign as Prime Minister. George Canning succeeds him only to die after four months in office.

Art and science

University College London, the first metropolitan university in England, is founded specifically to educate dissenters excluded from Oxford and Cambridge. Whig politician Henry Brougham, writer Thomas Campbell and financier and philanthropist Isaac Goldsmid are its principal patrons.

International

Britain, France and Russia sign a treaty in London agreeing to intervene in the Greek War of Independence. Allied troops under General Edward Codrington subsequently destroy Turkish and Egyptian fleets at the Battle of Navarino.
Western Australia is explored for the first time by Captain Stirling.

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