Queen Victoria's Costume for the Stuart Ball in 1851

Detail of Queen Victoria's Costume for the Stuart Ball in 1851. © The Royal Collection Trust

The most glamorous of all Queen Victoria’s surviving clothes, this costume was inspired by the court of Charles II. The rich brocade of the underskirt was woven in Benares. The lace of the berthe is a copy of seventeenth-century Venetian raised-point needle lace, probably made in Ireland and perhaps acquired at the Great Exhibition. The Queen’s costume was designed by the French artist Eugène Louis Lami. The Stuart bal costumé was the third such held at Buckingham Palace by Victoria and Albert. Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010 Source

Queen Victoria's Costume for the Stuart Ball in 1851, front. © The Royal Collection Trust

Queen Victoria's Costume for the Stuart Ball in 1851, back. © The Royal Collection Trust

Queen Victoria's Costume for the Stuart Ball in 1851, detail of the brocade underskirt woven in Benares. © The Royal Collection Trust

‘... My costume was of grey moiré antique, ornamented with gold lace, - a very long waist & sleeves trimmed with old lace. The petticoat showing under the dress which was all open in front, was of rich gold and silver brocade (Indian manufacture) richly trimmed with silver lace... In my hair I wore an arrangement of pearls. The shoes and gloves were embroidered to match the dress.’ Queen Victoria’s Journal, 13 July 1851

Queen Victoria's Costume for the Stuart Ball in 1851, detail of berthe (lace is a copy of seventeenth-century Venetian raised-point needle lace). © The Royal Collection Trust

The costume was featured in the exhibition Victoria & Albert: Art & Love (2010) at The Queen’s Gallery in London. The exhibition was the first ever to focus on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s shared enthusiasm for art.

Bringing together more than 400 items from the Royal Collection, it celebrated the royal couple’s mutual delight in collecting and displaying works of art, from the time of their engagement in 1839 to the Prince’s untimely death in 1861.

The exhibition also challenged the popular image of Victoria – the melancholy widow of 40 years – and revealed her as a passionate and open-minded young woman. Source

Eugène Louis Lami, Design for the Queen's costume at the Stuart Ball, 13 June 1851, c.1851. Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, 18.0 cm (image), RCIN 919903. © The Royal Collection Trust

Victoria was very pleased with her costume, writing in her journal on 13 June that 'our dresses ... were really beautiful & so correct. Dearest Albert looked so handsome in his, & his admirable wig made him look so young. Our dresses were most exactly carried out from Eugène Lami's designs.' To provide further encouragement to the textile trades, Prince Albert’s costume was made entirely with British materials.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Study of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in costumes of the time of Charles II, Signed and dated 1851. Oil on canvas, 57.9 x 46.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external), RCIN 400822. © The Royal Collection Trust

Eugène Louis Lami, The Stuart Ball at Buckingham Palace, 13 June 1851, signed and dated 1851. Watercolour and white bodycolour, 30.6 x 45.2 cm (sheet of paper), RCIN 919904. © The Royal Collection Trust

Description A watercolour depicting the Queen and Prince Albert standing on the right, while the dancers of the English, Scottish, French and Spanish quadrilles approach from the left and make obeisance. In this watercolour, the dancers of the specially-choreographed quadrilles approach the royal party in the Throne Room which, until the opening of the new Ballroom in 1856, was the rather cramped venue for such occasions.

Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010 Source