Dress

United States

About 1882

  • Titles Dress (Descriptive)
  • Medium satin, cotton, silk
  • Dimensions Length at front: 55 in. (139.7 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Mrs. Kirk Parler in memory of Mrs. Anne Townes Nance, 1987.192.1
  • Work Type dress
  • Classification Costume

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Embroidered and painted picture on silk, decorated with beading and tassels, featuring a female figure as Liberty, central to the composition, holding up a cup to the American eagle in her right hand and supporting a staff with her left arm, the staff with an American flag, waving as if in a breeze, the stars picked out in metal, and a Phrygian hat with tassels perched on top, in her left hand Liberty holds a floral garland that extends down to the ground, Liberty wears a gold dress with a tasseled sash around her waist and fringe at the hem, she stands atop a key, likely the "Key of Tyranny," the key to the Bastille which had been sent to George Washington in 1790 by Lafayette, and which is symbolic of the American triumph over monarchy and oppression, and garter, with a banner bearing the motto IN ROY M and a broken candlestick, the background features a painted blue and gray cloudy sky with a domed church on the right and a sea or harbor, along with a rock with flowers and grass in the foreground, a column with a floral garland is immediately behind Liberty.
Lozenge quilt, red borders and background, dark brown lining, quilted with brown thread in shell patterns
Champagne flute with a conical bowl of white glass with vertical ridges and a series of black dots that spiral and elongate toward the stem, where they appear to wrap around it, the round foot of clear glass.
Unknown design, blue and white