Author: ROYAL DRESS
Title: Dresses Worn at the Coronation of His Majesty George IVth. July 19th, 1821.
Description: Sold at Dickinson's 114 New Bond Street, 1821. 10 cut out costumes for participants at the coronation, each c. 230 mm. high, hand-coloured lithographic figures. 10 costumes, 9 hats [lacks hat for no. 4. Gents. Court Dress], one interchangeable head. The pocket to the reverse for inserting the neck has been repaired on 3 figures and the head/neck has been remounted onto a different card. With the original printed title sheet, imprint in manuscript to foot, but no wrappers, if they were ever issued. The Dress Crisis at the Coronation. "Amongst the subjects not the least interesting, or productive of the least anxiety, was the question of dress. It had been repeatedly announced, under the authority of the Lord Chamberlain, that the dress to be worn both by ladies and gentlemen, was to be full court costume. This notification, however, not having been announced in any official form was received with doubt> and many who knew they would receive tickets for the Hall, neglected to provide themselves in the way suggested." "At length an extraordinary Gazette was published, formally confirming the statement which had been previously made. This order was seen but by few till the Tuesday preceding the Coronation, and when it was once generally known, the confusion it produced was truly comic, although to some not a little mortifying." "...more distressing was the situation of the gentlemen, hundreds of whom never had the honour of wearing a court dress, or perhaps even of seeing one, but who on the occasion were resolved to make any sacrifice for the sake of testifying their loyalty. Orders innumerable, with promises of immediate payment, surprised and delighted the whole fraternity of the tailors." "The chapeau, the bag, and the sword, particularly the latter, became with many unmanageable> in some cases it was seen pendent on the right side, which was consequently the wrong one> and in many cases it intruded itself between the legs of its awkward wearer, laying him prostrated on the ground, and the lives of his Majesty's most loyal subjects were often set at hazard from the bloodless points of the citizens' swords." Robert Huish An authentic history of the coronation of His Majesty, King George the Fourth (1821). Rare> I have been unable to trace another copy either at auction or in institutions.

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