Some antiques..

I thought I should show some accessories I wore on the ball which doesn’t really show in the pictures, such as underwear and some jewelry. All of what I will show you now are actually antiques, all of it!

Lets start with something I got from my lovely Peter this Christmas, a little broach (5.5x 2.5 cm) in sterling silver, made, from what I can see of the marks on the back, in the Swedish small town of Sala, or Stenungsund, it is hard to see clearly, but if it was made in Sala it would be really wonderful since Peters family has a summerhouse there and we spend very much time there. Sadly I can’t make out when it was made but I believe it is from around 1900, but it has a timeless design so I feel it works for re-enacting in general, as well as everyday life.

I also think the stones  (and they are all still there!) are all cut glass, the stone in the middle is damaged but it hardly showes and it gives it a very interesting and mystical story. When and why did this happen? Oh if things could talk…

 

I wore it on the left shoulder on the dress, opposite the flowers!

 

Shoes normally is a heck of a problem. You can hardly find shoes with the same touch in detail and form today, even if it’s historical recreations. But I had some luck with me a few years ago and ran in to an antique pair of shoes in a little shop here in Stockholm. They are probably from around 1890-1910, can be earlier to, but I find it more probable around 1900. they’re in black leather, with a wooden heal and some sort of black stone decoration. Probably a size 37,5, they’re a little big for me, but with double socks they fit me very well! I know some might want to kick me now for wearing antique shoes, but I can tell you it shows how much better they “feel” after and while wearing, in contrary to just letting them collect dust in a box or on a shelf, then they just start falling apart by themselves. Guess it has something to do perhaps with the moist from the feet or something!

Well, I am really happy I got hold of them and saved them from squashing in a cupboard with other shoes. Let them live and be worn for as long as they hold together I say!

 

 

Then we have those unmentionables… but I’m going to mention them anyway because this is so cool! My family went to my paternal grandmother last year to help her move from her apartment to a elderly home, and there I found some interesting stuff, like these gloves, probably my grandfathers, and they fitted Peter like a charm!

 

And then my mother found what we believe is my great grandmothers old bloomers, and some details saved from a chemise, which of course match the bloomers, and then a corset cover from the teens probably by the looks and designs of it. (Don't have pictures of those yet though..)

 

 

I had to move some buttons in the waist, wash them in some chlorine (they had some yellowing parts because they’re old) and mend some small holes, but other than that they were in perfect condition! But they were closed in the crotch, and I needed them to be open or else there could have been an accident.. so I gently pulled apart some seams and remade them to fit my needs.

 

As a note my leather gloves are also antiques, but there are so many pictures of them already so I skip those..

 

I will take some better pictures of the bloomers when the chemise is made with the matching edging, but when that will happen I don’t know..