Public promenade and bridal dresses, May 1847

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Described in the magazine:
No. 4. Public Promenade Dress. Shaded silk robe, corsage en amazone, and long tight sleeves. Violet silk visite, trimmed with black lace and ribbon to correspond. Rice straw capote, ornamented with blue feathers and blue ribbons.
No. 5. Bridal Dress. India muslin robe, the corsage made high and full. Long sleeves bouillonné, and open at the bottom. There are two skirts, each finished with a deep flounce of point d'Angleterre. The head-dress is the bridal veil of the same lace, and a wreath of white roses and orange blossoms.
No. 6. Morning cap. Composed of mousseline quadrillée, bordered with English lace, and trimmed with oiseau ribbon.
No. 7. Dinner cap. Of Brussels net, bordered with Honiton lace, and trimmed with flowers and green ribbon.
No. 8. Morning cap. Composed of muslin, bordered with Valenciennes lace, and trimmed with lilac and white ribbon.

Events of 1847back to top

Current affairs

The 10 Hours Factory Act passed, regulating working hours for women and children under the age of eighteen to a maximum of ten hours a day.
The Communist League is founded in London, and drew up a set of rules and aims, including overthrowing the bourgeoisie and empowering the Proleteriat, and ending class division, forming the basis of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto (1848).}
Death and emigration resulting from starvation, plague and disease during worst year of the Great Famine in Ireland, known as Black 47.

Art and science

A good year for novels: Emily Bronte's passionate, rebellious and gothic Wuthering Heightsis published, followed shortly by her sister Charlotte's 'Jane Eyre, a story of a governess's struggle for liberty from social and gender constrictions. Drawing on a similar vein of revolution and rebellious women, William Thackeray's satirical novel Vanity Fair is serialised.

International

The Don Pacifico affair sparks an international incident, when the Jewish trader's business was burned in an anti-semitic attack in Athens. When the Greek government refused to compensate him, Gibraltar-born Pacifico appealed to the British government. Foreign Minister Palmerston sent a squadron into the Aegean in 1850 to seize goods of the equivalent value, leading to strained relations with Turkey and Russia, and heated debates in Parliament.

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