LINGERIE BAGS

This collection of handmade ribbon-tied bags belonged to Princess Marie, the youngest daughter of King George V of Hanover and his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. They are variously decorated with lace, quilting, embroidery, cutwork and fagotting (drawn thread work). The Princess, together with her maids, probably made these intricately worked items. Sewing and embroidery were considered a suitably genteel and accomplished occupation for a lady, reflective of her gender, good character and domestic role within society. These lingerie bags would have stored and protected the Princess’s fragile handmade lingerie, including the camisoles and underwear worn beneath the short back-laced corsets and petticoats then fashionable. Over these she would have worn a crinoline cage, which by the 1860s was flat at the front and domed at the back. Her gown would have been laid over top of this carefully structured foundation.