La Belle Assemblée, April 1806.
“London Fashions Engraved for the Present Month”
This print appeared in only the second month of publication for this important magazine. (This was the March 1806 issue. From the first month, February 1806, all fashion prints and fashion commentary were dated for the next month. As all La Belle Assemblée prints have a provenance for the following month, those are the dates I always use on this website.) For the first 3 months of publication, each fashion print included multiple figures: three, four, or even five figures in different types of dress. There was typically one print of London Fashion and one of Paris fashions that copied prints from the French publication Journal des Dames et des Modes. By the fourth issue, only two figures were used, and that arrangement continued through 1808, with an inconsistent mix of London and Paris fashions.
I have a bound volume of La Belle Assemblée for the first 6 months, and all the prints are in black and white. Most scholarship on this magazine firmly states that all fashion prints were published in black and white until December 1806, when both black and white and hand-colored prints were offered, with a more expensive price for the latter. And yet this print and some others I have seen from these early months are hand-colored. This perhaps suggests they were colored by amateurs, owners of the black and white prints who tried their hand at coloring them. The coloring here, though, is so precise that it looks professionally done. Or perhaps the amateur was simply very talented.
The print is described in the magazine as follows:
“No. 1.–A FASHIONABLE WALKING DRESS. A short round gown of plain India muslin, with a border at the bottom, made high in the neck. A blue velvet spencer; a cap with a lace border; a straw hat, turned up in front, with a small pink rose.
“No. 2.–A FASHIONABLE MORNING NEGLIGE. A gown of India striped muslin made with a full collar to button close to the neck, and down the front, with long sleeves. A half mob cap, with a yellow crown. This figure is represented reclining on a fashionable sopha.
“No. 3.–AN EVENING FULL DRESS. A Mameluke robe of white crape, trimmed round the bosom and the bottom with slate coloured Delta trimming; worn over a white sarsnet slip; the sleeves short and full; rich clasp; a half handkerchief crossed over the bosom, with a cornelian broach; turban of slate coloured crape, and gold aigrette; white kid gloves and shoes; ridicule of white velvet and gold.”
The numbered head-dresses are not specifically described, though in the General Observations on the Fashions for April there is a lengthy discussion of fashionable head-dresses.
