Victorian Fashion History Illustration: Taking an Airing (Dressed for the Outdoors), 1860

An antique fashion illustration that shows a group of four women and one child in a park, elegantly dressed in styles from the year 1860. The description of the outfits, from left to right, are as follows:

Fig. 1. -- Dress of apple green taffeta, shaded with black, a spray of leaves broché in black, at regular intervals; corsage plain and high; sleeves demi long, and of a narrow pagoda shape, trimmed with flat bows of apple green ribbon, as are the skirt and corsage, in a continuous line. Bonnet of peach blossom crape, with a fall of blonde. Rich lace shawl, lined with black marceline.

Fig. 2. -- Dress of summer poplin, with bars of mauve, or down stripes of black, crossing the white ground; each breadth is separated by a ruche of mauve-colored ribbon, and bows of the same extend down the side breadths. Ceinture or waist ribbon of the same, with flowing ends, also shoulder knots. Black lace bonnet, with field flowers.

Fig. 3. -- Dress of blue challais, solid color, trimmed with ruches of the same material. Leghorn garden hat.

Fig. 4. -- Walking-dress of plain taffeta, in ten flounces; each flounce bordered and headed by a plain row of black velvet. Drawn hat of white silk.

Child's dress of pink challais, with tablier front. Net for the hair, tied to the right with a knot of black velvet ribbon.

You can download the high-res 9" x 14" @ 300 ppi (1800 x 2850 pixels) JPEG without a watermark here. Lovely as a framed print but can also be used as a cover for a journal or in other graphic design projects.


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Victorian Fashion History Illustration: Dresses of Silk, 1857

A fashion illustration in full colour from my collection of Peterson's Magazine, December 1857 issue. The magazine describes the dresses as:

On the left, a dress of black silk, trimmed with nine rows of black velvet, graduated in width, and edged with black lace. The body is made with a basque and berthe, and trimmed to correspond with the skirt. The sleeves are of the pagoda shape, open on the inside of the arm.

On the right is a dress of chestnut-colored heavy silk. The skirt is very full, and trimmed on each side with two rows of velvet of a darker shade of brown than the silk. A row of velvet buttons is placed down the side of each band of velvet. The body is made without a basque, but with lappets in front, edged with a brown silk fringe. There is also a berthe formed of velvet and fringe. The sleeves are very wide, made with a cap or jockey, and trimmed to correspond with the body.

To download a free, high-res 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, please click here.


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19th Century Public Domain Poetry: The Toll-Gate (Poem for Kids)

This little poem, entitled "The Toll-Gate" was written and illustrated by Rudolph F. Bunner (1860 - 1931), a noted illustrator and painter. It was originally published in the December 1895 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. Here is how it goes:

There is a toll-gate hidden away,
Half in the fields, and half in the trees,
Where the children, the elves, and the fairies stray,
With footsteps facing the twilight breeze.

The fairies and elves can pass through free,
But a child must pay for the toll with a song,
Before the fairy land it can see,
And this must be said, or it all goes wrong:

"I believe in the Three Little Bears,
And the Prince that climbed the Mountain of Glass,
And I know how the Wild Swan's sister fares, --
So open the gate and let me pass."


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Victorian Fashion History Illustration: Promenade Costume for Spring, 1875

A black and white fashion illustration from the May 1875 edition of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine. The following is a description of the two costumes:

(Left)
Costume of light-brown silk alpace, trimmed with black Lyons silk. The front of the skirt is trimmed step-ladder fashion with bias silk bands, about one and a half inches wide, while the back breadths are encircled with four narrow overlapping flounces, headed with a similar silk band. These are framed with a ruche of the alpace, laid on in waves from waist to foot. The overskirt has the short pointed fronts, draped onto the long bouffant back-breadths by a bow of black ribbon, the points being edged with a narrow flounce and silk band. Close-fitting cuirass corsage, pointed front and back, and trimmed the same as the front of overskirt. The sleeves are coat-shaped, ornamented with a black silk cuff, on which is placed a black ribbon bow, encircled with lace. A band of the silk, edged with a down-falling flounce of the alpace and an upstanding frill of cambric decorates the neck, closed on the bust by a black ribbon bow. Black chip hat, trimmed with light brown and blue ribbons, and a blue feather.

(Right)
Promenade costume of black silk and French gray Summer cashmere. The silk skirt is trimmed with a gathered flounce, measuring in depth eight inches in front and twelve behind, surmounted with two wide and closely laid bands, piped on the edges. The overskirt and postilion basque are of the cashmere, edged with camels' hair fringe. The former is draped below the tournure, designing it as an apron, the looped sashes falling onto the silk flounce. Surmounting the fringe, on both the overskirt and basque, is a wide cashmere fold with a heavy rouleau of black silk, laid on through the centre; and a flaring black silk collar, deeper behind than in front, completes the neck. Muslin ruff and undersleeves. Hat of French gray chip, trimmed with black ribbon, and two ostrich tips - rose pink and gray.


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