Fully Boned Corset - Corps fermé

This splendid corset with wide cut-out is completely boned and closes in the back with more than fifteen loop-locking stitched eyelets. It is entirely covered with silk interwoven with silver and the frontal portion is decorated in a bizarrely patterned silver lamé. Eight wedges of this precious fabric are arranged in a fanshape on the bodice. The connecting seams and upper edge of the neckline, are equipped with a passementerie made from silver flattened wire wound around a silk core. The corset itself is made of linen and is stiffened by 120 whalebone stays arranged closely in the round. Remnants of other decorations appear on the spatulate busk end, located in the front centre: small braided silver edges with short frays remain. Remnants of thread show that nine such “bolts” were originally located on either side of the centre and apparently provided decorative lacing.
The bodice back and straps are cut from a single piece and tied with a ribbon bound at front. The green ribbon on the right is original. There is a pocket in the centre of the low bodice neckline in which fragrances or other intimate items could be concealed. The lapels are lined in leather. The corset is closed in the back.
Girls were expected to begin wearing their first corsets when they were still young. In her memoirs Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, sister of Frederick the Great, reported how unpleasant this was: “… und zum Unglück ließ mich die Königin, damit ich zierlicher erschiene, so entsetzlich schnüren, dass ich ganz schwarz im Gesicht wurde und mir der Atem ausging.” [“and to my misfortune, so I would seem more delicate, the queen had me laced up so tight that I became quite black in the face and ran out of breath.”] –Wilhelmine von Bayreuth 1990: 82.
The fact that this opinion was not necessarily shared by mothers is proven by a 1785 remark of Baroness Oberkirch: “C’est une erreur de condamner les corsets qui ne sont dangereux que trop serrés. Ils ont l’avantage inappréciable de maintenir les épaules en arrière et de développer la poitrine.” (“It is a mistake to condemn the corsets, they are dangerous only when laced too tightly. They have the indispensable advantage that they draw the shoulders back and make the breast more pronounced”) (Oberkirch 2010: 512).