Dress fabric and paper

This is a length of seven yards (1.15 metres) of good quality dress silk purchased to be made up by the customer's own dressmaker as a lady's mourning dress. Victorian etiquette demanded that upon a death the whole household went into black (mourning) clothing, including children and servants. The severity of the mourning depended on the closeness of the relationship. Concessions in the form of added decoration and, ultimately, the use of colours such as grey, mauve and white, could later be adopted.

The silk was purchased from a branch of Peter Robinson's shop devoted to mourning wear. It retains its original wrapper on which is printed the legend 'From Peter Robinson/Mourning Warehouse/ Regent Street/W'. Peter Robinson's linen drapers shop originally opened in 1833 at 103 Oxford Street.

The mourning shop, which opened some years later was one of many taking advantage of a rise in mourning trade. It was nicknamed 'Black Peter Robinson's' and shop assistants there offered customers advice on the appropriate level of mourning . The shop catered for a wide range of customers from the middle-classes down to the upper ranks of the working classes.