Summary

Burgundy silk grosgrain wedding dress comprising jacket and skirt. Said at the time of donation to have been used in Ballarat in 1860, the dress's appearance indicates it dates from around 1890.

The burgandy silk is not weighted but spectral analysis has found that the black silk trim contains arsenic - possibly added to the fabric during the dying processes either as a colourant or as a fixative for aniline dye.

The dress has been roughly taken in and up at some stage, perhaps for fancy dress use during the 20th century. The modifications to the dress conceal a pocket, distort the neck opening, incorrectly gather the skirt and hide the important fact that the dress was made for a larger woman - a rare survivor from this period. Reversal of these modifications is recommended once they have been documented.

The dress was acquired with a collection of textiles and other items relating to the Pascoe and Scull families. Amongst them is a bible inscribed 'Winifred Carl Pascoe', and dated to circa 1860 (SH 910863). A Winifred Carl Pascoe married Ann May Sarah Fellows in 1913 in Victoria. He was born on 9 May 1885, son of John Herman Pascoe (1844 - 1908) and Mary Ann Plener Sharp (born Grafton, NSW, 1852 - died Coburg, Vic, 1935), who married in 1876.

Physical Description

1. Jacket with burgundy silk grosgrain bodice, with a fitted waist and pleated swallow-tail back. Stand-up collar and lapel trim of dark brown taffeta, lined with burgundy grosgrain. Buttoned at front with 17 brown buttons and button holes that are hand-sewn. Sleeves are of burgundy striped silk, with puffed shoulders of dark brown silk, as are the trimming and cuffs. Black press stud fastening on inner side of cuffs. Lining of jacket - some striped cream, some brown - is linen. Cotton tape with black hook and eye is fastened at darts and seams around waist line. Waist band is linen, as is the inner lining under the buttonholes. (Materials identified by XRF and FTIR analysis, February 2024, which detected weak traces of arsenic and lead in the shoulder puff material.) 2. Burgundy grosgrain and satin striped skirt has ten panels, gathered at the waist and bound at hem line with brown cotton binding. Skirt is lined with brown cotton twill and fastened at the waist with a metal hook and eye. There is an inset pocket on the right hand side. Originally, the skirt would have been well padded to accentuate a bustle look at the back.

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