Description:

Victoria of England Queen

Queen Victoria's dress cuff, with superb provenance


Handsomely presented fabric swatch from gown worn by and belonging to Queen Victoria (1819-1901), with superb provenance. The swatch appears in a floating mount to the right of a reproduction of Sir George Hayter's 1833 oil portrait of the future Queen Victoria and her spaniel Dash, and above a copy of the provenance. The overall matted size is 19.25" x 15.25".


The mustard yellow silk damask sleeve cuff is embroidered with blue and mauve flowers, the whole measuring approximately 5.75" x 6.25". Expected wear including light discoloration to the .5" wide cotton cuff liner. Accompanied by a copy of the provenance reading: "Sleeve from one of Queen Victoria's dresses. Gotten through Fanny Davenport, the actress - Pres. By Mr. Roller, N.Y." The dress remnant eventually made its way into the collection of the Luray Museum of Luray, Virginia.


This fabric remnant likely dates before 1861. In that year, Queen Victoria's beloved Prince Consort Albert died, and Victoria thereafter exclusively wore black clothing. Today Queen Victoria is often imagined as a stout woman with an enormous bosom, but during her early adulthood she was quite slender. The young queen’s so-called “Accession Dress” in the Kensington Palace Collection has a small waist measuring 22 inches. A pair of 1890s royal bloomers from the same collection illustrates the monarch's later weight gain, with a waistline measuring about 50 inches in diameter. This later girth is impressive when one considers the queen was 5’ tall during her youth and even shorter in her old age.


Queen Victoria was one of Great Britain’s longest ruling monarchs, overseeing an industrializing England and an expanding overseas empire including India after 1876. She, along with her nine children, would dominate European politics (and royal households) throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


Anglo-American stage actress Fanny Davenport (1850-1898) interpreted some of the melodramatic theater roles popularized by her French contemporary Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923). She died of complications of an enlarged heart at age 48.


This fabric sample came from the Luray Museum of Luray, Virginia. This museum, started by town resident Mary "Mollie" Zeiler Zerkle (1845-1933), safeguarded artifacts of mostly local interest. According to family history, nineteen-year-old "Mollie" nursed Union soldiers after the 1864 Battle of New Market. She married Lemuel Zerkle, and the two lived in New Market, Virginia until 1890. That year, the family relocated to Luray, fourteen miles east across the Massanutten Mountain range, where Lemuel had secured a post as Superintendent of Luray Caverns. Local historian Daniel Vaughn reported that the museum operated between 1938-1960, after which point the collection was sold at auction.


Gene H. Baber of Fisherville, Virginia was an avid antique collector. His collection included everything from Civil War letters to epaulettes, from early frakturs to vintage wind-up toys.


Provenance: Estate of Gene H. Baber, Fishersville, Virginia; Collection of Mary "Mollie" Zeiler Zerkle and Lemuel Zerkle, Luray Museum, Luray, Virginia


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