This would have been me

Auguste Toulmouche: Dans la bibliothèque, 1872

I ran into this picture on Pinterest (ha!), but it's taken from Wiki. I would have totally worn that dress (plus some short sleeves, that is), and I would have totally read like that, and stood like that, because I already have - see my profile picture. As a Whovian, I imagine this would be the time-traveller me. I can guarantee you I'd go straight for the bookcase.

And now I want a bookcase like that, too. And to wear that hairstyle.

I love those books haphazardly left open on the chair. I do that, too, even though it's bad for the books. I just never have enough bookmarks.

"The Secret of Chateau Wardrobes" exhibition in Dačice

The main reason we went to Dačice - the main reason for me, anyway - was an exhibition of extant clothes from the end of the 18th century through the 19th to the beginning of the 20th. Those clothes all came from chateaus and museums, or private collections, in the region.

The exhibition was fantastic: just two rooms, but packed full of awesome.

And photographing was allowed.

You can imagine what a happy little marmot I was!

You can see all the photos from the exhibition here; I'll only post some, because, seriously, 248 photos? :D Hopefully, I'll at least eventually manage to add captions to all of them...

And maybe post some more details of some clothes later. For now, I'm posting this wrap-up post so that I don't feel guilty about not having posted it earlier!





This suit (what is it called, really?) is from the end of the 18th century. It comes from the collections of the chateau in Jindřichův Hradec; it belonged to Jan Rudolf Černín z Chudenic (a count from the region; Johann Rudolf Czernin von und zu Chudenitz) and may have been made in France.






This one's another of Jan Rudolf Černín's clothes; it's from 1791, allegedly made in Paris. These two are silk.



This one's Jan Rudolf Černín's from the end of the 18th century as well, but it's woolen, and simpler, indicating a later date, or perhaps a different purpose?



It's got painted buttons. Each of the buttons has a slightly different miniature painting in it. Wow.



The wedding dress of Marie Terezie Černínová, née Orsini-Rosenberg, Vienna 1817. Muslin (obviously). Collections from Jindřichův Hradec.



The manequin was very obviously the wrong size for it; but that meant I got to see how it closes.
I'm not sure whether the tie is just a tie, or whether it's also a drawstring. But notice there's a hook in the middle and an eye on top, alternating on one side: a neat little trick against accidental opening I've read about some time ago on some costuming site. It's proven to be period-correct now. ;-)



Also, there is a patch under the bust on the right side, which you can't really see in the photo, but it made me a very happy little marmot to see that yes, these fabrics tore. Even if you were a countess. And isn't that bodice treatment lovely?

And now my favourite garment from the whole exhibition. Not so much in colour; but the construction and overall silhouette are delicious.



An 1830s dress/wrapper from the museum in Písek. Well, they say it is a day dress. But it's a wrap dress. Silk taffetta. (BTW, they tend not to say many details about the construction in the captions, rather they tell the general history of clothing in the era. Nice for people who know nothing about it, a bit redundant for me.)



I told you. The construction is delicious. Look at that tiny piping at the hems!



Apparently, it closes with fabric-covered buttons and some sort of loops or hidden buttonholes. My guess is the former, because the fabric at the right side was slightly scrunched as if something was sewn to the wrong side - you can sort of see that in the photo.

The details end here. There's too much to post details of everything; these were the earliest, most interesting pieces. Most interesting to me, mind you. (And I even have more details of them.) If you want to see more, go to the album, as linked above, or let me know in the comments and I'll put the photos with my observations (if I have any) in another post.

From here on, I will post single photos of all the other garments.

Old photos

(More antique than vintage this time, but I don't want to scatter the tags all over the place.)

I got inspired by Stephanie Ann's post about preserving old photos and went photo-hunting again. And I got some pretty, really old photos really cheap! (Most of them were 20 CZK, that's about one US dollar at this time.)

Thanks to Stephanie's post, I know these all are "Carte de Visite". They're all approximately the same size, although they were all taken by different photographers, in different times, and probably also by a bit different techniques (the last photo at least).

If you click on the photos, you should get HUGE versions of them. I want to give you (and myself!) as many details as possible.

This one is probably the oldest - the style of the dress is - 1860s?


She looks a bit prim, but she has a pretty dress - I love the trim, and the waist detail.

This young lady/girl is probably also from the 1860s?

Unlike the others, she was photographed outdoors. Also unlike the others, this photo has no markings. Notice the girl is most probably wearing her hair in a snood under that hat! And, again, look at the trim. Aww.

This one is, I guess, circa 1867-1870:

Look at that trim again! The buttons! And the hairstyle. Quite a curious hairstyle, now that I see it big.

And c. 1880 - I guess: the wide sleeves and the narrow skirt...

Another lady with a parasol! Unless it's an umbrella. She has quite an elaborate dress and headdress! A wreath thing and a veil. And, wow, she seems to have short hair!
(Iglau is nowadays called Jihlava. They have a beautiful zoo, among other things.)

And I'm not sure about this one - it's clearly the newest - it's glossy, and the writings on the back are in Czech, not German or German/Czech as the previous ones. Also notice the Czech names are written with diacritics, not in the German way like the Doleschal/Doležal above.

I bought this one because I really liked the lady... she feels like someone I would have known, so to say. I also like the way she dressed. A good, simple coat and a bit of whimsiness with the lacy shawl and the headdress. Yup. I like her.

If you have any ideas as to the dates, tell me!

I was very successful today on the vintage front - I also bought a c. 1950 knitting magazine. Complete with the patterns and one single knitting pattern (a cute cap) inside for a good measure. 45 CZK. I'll show you in another post.

It really makes me happy. Reading all about the vintage patterns and pattern magazines on foreign blogs, I was feeling a bit sad - not just that I didn't have any - that's my own problem, after all - but that I didn't know of so many pretty vintage patterns in my country. Feeling that the 40 years of communism had stripped my country of something quite precious. Well, it seems that process took some time and early on, there were still people from the old times in the "business" and took good care of it. :-)