Dresses and decorative art from history
Dresses and decorative art from history
December 08
The Fashion Museum, managed by Bath & North East Somerset
Council at the Assembly Rooms, Bath, is enhancing its current
display Dresses of History from 6 December 2008.
Alongside the dresses, the Fashion Museum is displaying a selection
of silver and porcelain treasures on loan from the Holburne Museum
which is currently closed for development, providing a unique
opportunity to display fashionable objects and costume
together.
The Dresses of History display includes 13 dresses
and ensembles from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian periods. All
of the pieces to be displayed have been carefully chosen for their
decorative qualities and because they were the height of fashion at
the time. A brand new lighting system has been installed in the
Dresses of History gallery, and visitors will be able
to enjoy seeing not only the glittering silks in the 18th century
court dress, but also the sparkle of 18th century dining silver on
display there.
This is not the first time that these two historic museums have
collaborated. In 2007 the Fashion Museum borrowed several pieces of
highly decorative seventeenth-century silver from the Holburne
Museum. The pieces were displayed in a case with some of the finest
seventeenth century embroidered gloves from the historic Glovers
Company's collection.
“This is a great opportunity to showcase to our visitors some of
the historic gems in both of the Museums’ collections”, commented
Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager, “The collection here at
Bath & North East Somerset’s Fashion Museum does include some
of the most beautiful and fashionable historic dresses in any
museum collection in the world, and we have been working for some
months now to enhance this display with decorative art objects of
the same period from the Holburne Museum. We hope thus to give our
visitors a real glimpse of history”.
Matthew Winterbottom, Curator of Decorative Art at the Holburne
Museum, added:
“Following the success of the gloves display, both Museums agreed
to collaborate on a series of displays combining eighteenth and
nineteenth century dresses with objects from the same periods. This
is possible because the Holburne is closed for two years for
redevelopment. It also ensures that objects from the Holburne
remain on public display in Bath during the Holburne's closure
period. This provides a unique opportunity to display fashionable
objects and fashionable dress together.”
“Visitors will be able to draw parallels between them. They were
not made in isolation; the lavish dining silver, porcelain and
glass was all used and lived with by people wearing clothes such as
those displayed in the cases. It is very good to be working so
closely with another Bath Museum to mutual benefit.”
The Fashion Museum is open daily, 10.30am - 4.00pm, exit 5.00pm.
Visit www.fashionmuseum.co.uk for
more information.
ENDS