Discover Royal Women at Fashion Museum Bath: Queen Charlotte / Series

#RoyalWomen #QueenCharlotte #Bridgerton
Welcome to our new series at the Fashion Museum on Royal Women.
Discover the only known surviving dress which once belonged to Queen Charlotte. Charlotte (b.1744) was the wife of King George III and features in the fictional drama 'Bridgerton'. In this video curators from the Fashion Museum discuss this c.1805 cream lace dress which Charlotte wore when she was 60 yeas old. The curators take a close look at the dress, including motifs created in the lace and recent conservation work.
Fashion Museum Bath has temporarily closed before moving to a new location in the centre of Bath. While the collection is in temporary accommodation you will still be able to access it online, where we will create an exciting programme of digital content, and loans to other museums.
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[@janetwilcock2120]

Beautiful. It’s wonderful to see that pieces like this have survived for over 200 years in such amazing condition. ❤

[@nataliechim5227]

Love this close up look at the lace of the dress and the history behind it.

[@bonnieabrs1003]

Wonderful work!

[@reinadegrillos]

Precioso y delicado trabajo artesanal.

[@Junoleda]

Might it not have belonged to Princess Charlotte, her granddaughter

[@Ad_Astra2023]

I’m not trying to judge Charlotte in any way but in the portrait, she appears to be too large to wear the dress.

[@jmash7751]

I was thinking the same thing! At age 60 and after birthing 15 children, I cannot see how she would have fit into that dress. The bust line alone looks more like for a 20 yr old than a 60 yr old.

[@fashion_museum_bath]

Hi, according to our conservators the dress dates to about 1805 so Queen Charlotte would have been around 60 years old at the time. All the measurements support it being Queen Charlotte’s dress - it does have a particularly wide bust when laid out flat, but the decision was taken by our textile conservator to display the dress in the way you see it, to reduce the strain on the very delicate fabric. The smaller bust line and waist line of the display figure allowed the drawstring at the neckline to be carefully drawn together and allowed more of the fabric to sit on the figure, which reduced the strain. The 1807 portrait which appears in the film is from two years later and shows her wearing a similar dress so it is definitely of her style. Hope this explains a little more about the dress and thank you for watching our film.

[@saraa3418]

Do we know anything about the provenance of this dress? I recall that Queen Maria Theresa of Austria being gifted a gown of lace by a city known for its lace making in payment of a debt being worth more than gold.

[@fashion_museum_bath]

Hi Sara, sadly, we haven’t been able to uncover a great deal of information yet about the donor or their family history, but according to the Museum’s records, the dress was handed down through generations of the eldest daughter in the donor’s family. It was common for items of dress to be given to favoured members of the Royal household as gifts and we wonder if this was perhaps the case with this piece. The quality and the quantity of the lace that makes up this dress certainly represents a great deal of wealth and supports a Royal commission.

[@saraa3418]

@@fashion_museum_bath Thank you! It's amazing that this dress has survived intact to us I'd imagine there was temptation to recut or reuse it over the years.

[@direfranchement]

That was NOT Queen Charlotte in that first portrait. Just insulting!