Worn by Harriett Joyce (b.1863), the donor's grandmother, to marry Percy Raven Sams on 8 June 1899 at St Andrew's Church, Earlsfield, Middlesex. The family came from High Easter near Chelmsford. The bride chose to be married in a purple silk day dress due to her advanced age (she was 35). While purple is typically a half-mourning colour, there is no known association with a death in the bride's family.
Before marriage Harriett was a lady’s maid to Mrs Frances Boevey in West Kensington. Harriett's husband was a representative from the Water Board. She was a accomplished needlewoman who made her own dress and who altered it soon after her wedding to make the skirt narrower (parts T.309C to F-1982 are two skirt gores and interlinings; the other parts H to J are also fabric remnants from the dress) and more fashionable, although the alteration is so neat as to be invisible. Harriett was known as a neat, brisk woman who was said to have bought her and her husband's home with her own savings. (Information given by donor upon delivery of dress)
ecrm:P3_has_note
Worn by Harriett Joyce (b.1863), the donor's grandmother, to marry Percy Raven Sams on 8 June 1899 at St Andrew's Church, Earlsfield, Middlesex. The family came from High Easter near Chelmsford. The bride chose to be married in a purple silk day dress due to her advanced age (she was 35). While purple is typically a half-mourning colour, there is no known association with a death in the bride's family.
Before marriage Harriett was a lady’s maid to Mrs Frances Boevey in West Kensington. Harriett's husband was a representative from the Water Board. She was a accomplished needlewoman who made her own dress and who altered it soon after her wedding to make the skirt narrower (parts T.309C to F-1982 are two skirt gores and interlinings; the other parts H to J are also fabric remnants from the dress) and more fashionable, although the alteration is so neat as to be invisible. Harriett was known as a neat, brisk woman who was said to have bought her and her husband's home with her own savings. (Information given by donor upon delivery of dress)