HISTORY
A LESSON IN
Fancy dress Lindsey Tydeman of The Keep in Falmer has delved into history and discovered that for well-heeled Victorians, dressing up and having fun was a serious endeavour
ruff. But perhaps Mr Ward as a Tartar Chief in a layered full-length red gown bordered with blue and gold over an undertunic of blue, and a matching headdress and fan, outdid the others. We know about these wonderful flights of fancy because Anna Brassey took photographs of her guests during the party. She hand-coloured some and put them all inside a studded and clasped album embossed on the cover with her intertwined initials. She decorated each page with delicate pen sketches and surrounded the photographic mounts with botanical motifs. The album demonstrates what a serious business it was to have fun.
For the male guests, this was a chance to go completely over the top
T
his is Mr Toke. Mr Toke is on his way to a fancy-dress ball at Normanhurst Court in Catsfield in January 1872. He’s dressed as the allegorical character of Folly and sits on his hobby horse, presumably ready to be carried away by ridiculous ideas. His costume was positively restrained compared to his fellow partygoers. Their host, Thomas Brassey, had only recently finished his manor house and the many-pillared hall and wide central staircase were designed for parties. His guests were asked to come as figures from literature or history, and they didn’t let him down.
Wealthy Victorian women lived in long gowns and petticoats so for them the party was a matter of exchanging one role for another. Thomas Brassey’s wife Anna came as Anne, wife of James II of England while her friend Gertrude Robinson was Fatima. For the male guests, this was a chance to go completely over the top. Mr Gustave Hill came as a Knight Templar and wore an embroidered tunic, cloak and headdress, with a long sword stuck into his sash. Colonel Tubbs played Philip II of Spain and wore black velvet trimmed with gold, a red ostrich-plumed hat and large white
One photograph, inscribed CAB, shows a three-year old child dressed as an aristocratic lady, with court dress, fan and wig. CAB was Constance Alberta Brassey, Anna’s daughter, nicknamed Sunbeam she was to die of scarlet fever in January 1873. That event, just a year after the party may have changed everything for the Brasseys. Soon afterwards the family set off on a round-the-world trip on their yacht, named Sunbeam in memory of their daughter. Anna embarked on a new life as photographer and travel writer. She died at sea of malaria, on the way to Mauritius in 1887 and was buried at sea. Anna Brassey’s album (ref ACC 5634/3/2) can be ordered and viewed at The Keep. l For more information visit www.thekeep/info
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