Victorian Prints

This little poem, entitled "The Toll-Gate" was written and illustrated by Rudolph F. Bunner (1860 - 1931), a noted illustrator and painter. It was originally published in the December 1895 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine . Here is how it goes: There is a toll-gate hidden away, Half in the fields, and half in the trees, Where the children, the elves, and the fairies stray, With footsteps facing the twilight breeze. The fairies and elves can pass through free, But a child must pay for the toll with a song, Before the fairy land it can see, And this must be said, or it all goes wrong: "I believe in the Three Little Bears, And the Prince that climbed the Mountain of Glass, And I know how the Wild Swan's sister fares, -- So open the gate and let me pass." Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Free for pers

A black and white fashion illustration from the May 1875 edition of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine . The following is a description of the two costumes: (Left) Costume of light-brown silk alpace, trimmed with black Lyons silk. The front of the skirt is trimmed step-ladder fashion with bias silk bands, about one and a half inches wide, while the back breadths are encircled with four narrow overlapping flounces, headed with a similar silk band. These are framed with a ruche of the alpace, laid on in waves from waist to foot. The overskirt has the short pointed fronts, draped onto the long bouffant back-breadths by a bow of black ribbon, the points being edged with a narrow flounce and silk band. Close-fitting cuirass corsage, pointed front and back, and trimmed the same as the front of overskirt. The sleeves are coat-shaped, ornamented with a black silk cuff, on which is placed a black ribbon bow, encircled with lace. A band of the silk, edged with a down-falling flounce of

A black and white fashion engraving from the January 1875 edition of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine . The following is a description from the publication: Nos. 1 and 2 gives a front and back view of a promenade costume. The skirt is of black gros-grain silk, and is trimmed with a deep box-plaited flounce, each plait ornamented with a band of ribbon velvet. The overskirt is of gray cashmere, very long at the back, and undraped and arranged in a triple box-plait, which is sewed into the waistband, and the plaits laid evenly the full length of the skirt, and tacked in several places on the side, to keep them in position. The front is pointed, and is closed by buttons and buttonholes after being trimmed with a band of velvet, the trimming extending around the lower edges, and also up the centre of the back-breadths. Close-fitting basque-corsage, also of cashmere, belted at the waist, and trimmed with velvet to correspond with the overskirt, both the front and back of the corsage

These are original, first-generation digital scans of vintage real photo postcards (RPPCs) from my personal collection. The first two photos show a pretty young Edwardian girl with daisy hair ornaments posing first with her right profile presented and then with her left profile presented. A big thank you to James W. who pointed me to her possible real identity, a German actress named Grete Reinwald (1902 - 1983). You can read more of her story here . After reading her biography and seeing all the pictures of her (some look so drastically different that it is hard to believe that they are of the same person), I began to wonder if I might have other photos of her in my collection. I managed to find one of a young girl all wrapped in gauzy chiffon who looked like she had the same upturned nose and tight-lipped smile - can this be a young Grete as well? Next, I came across this photo of an older girl - she looks to be in her late teens but there is something of her nose and the eve

A set of illustrations from February 1879 showing the four stage of a pretty hairdressing style for February 1879 with hair set in many loops. If you are feeling adventurous, below are the instructions for trying out the style as written by Mrs. Jane Weaver: All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Original, first-generation digital scan of an engraved fashion plate from the February 1860 issue of Godey's Lady's Book in my personal collection. The description for the costumes (from left to right): Fig. 1. -- Evening-dress of white silk, with two skirts; the lower one has a flounce of lace, headed by a puffing of silk, caught at intervals with sprays of crimson salvia; the upper skirt is in longitudinal puffs, finished in the same manner; puffed and pointed corsage trimmed with salvia; round wreath of the same for the hair. Fig. 2. -- Evening-dress of rose-colored silk; the lower skirt trimmed with four straight flounces, or single folds of the silk, edged by a shell ruche of the same; the upper skirt has corresponding volantes arranged as a tunic to the right; low, pointed corsage, with Grecian folds, trimmed by a flounce and heading of lace, the fall is crossed at the bouquet de corsage, and is continued in graceful lapels. Round wreath of blush roses without foliag

First-generation digital scan of an engraved fashion plate (in full color) from the January 1860 issue of Godey's Lady's Book in my personal collection. The description from the book reads as follows: The Bride's Toilet. -- Gored dress of thick white silk, sloped to the hips, the only ornament being flat bows of white satin ribbon, fastened by pearl buckles in the centre; these extend from the throat to the hem of the skirt. Veil of thulle. Wreath, mounted in the coronet form, of fine flowers, jessamine, and rose-buds. From left to right: Fig. 1. -- Dress of queen's purple moire; the skirt full and plain, ornamented by a tablier trimmed of black Chantilly lace, placed spirally on each side of the front breadth, and following the opening of the corsage around the throat. From the waist line to the hem of the skirt is placed a row of rosettes of silk and lace. Sleeves, quite tight at the shoulder, and widening a little to the parement or turned back cuff. Underslee

A fashion illustration from my collection of Peterson's Magazine , July 1857 issue. From the magazine, the description of the dresses are: On the left, a morning dress of white cambric, trimmed in front in the apron style with insertions and heavy worked rufflings. The corsage is made with a basque and ornamented to correspond with the skirt. On the right, a dinner dress of white muslin, trimmed with three flounces richly embroidered. Corsage high. A small mantle of white muslin, embroidered. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Antique fashion illustration from the December 1901 issue of The Delineator . The magazine says: " On the left , charming simplicity marks this gown, for which black crêpe de Chine was chosen in combination with jetted lace, rowa of ribbons of graduated widths and narrow ruffles of the crêpe de Chine. The waist is in low, rounding outline at the top, a short distance from which a ruffle of the material is arranged so that with the jetted lace it suggests a bertha. A closing is made at the back with small buttons, and the front blouses with becoming fulness [sic]. The cap sleeves are circularly shaped, and a ribbon belt describes the dip. An inverted box-plait takes up the fulness at the back of the five-gored skirt, and a graduated, circular flounce is added. Several narrow ruffles arranged on the flounce near the bottom give a fluffy effect. White embroidered mousseline de soie will evolve a handsome evening gown, with medallion of black lace on white-edged black chiffon. A sa

A Victorian lady dressed in a mantelet made of vicuña , considered the world's rarest fabric , so luxurious that the Wall Street Journal says coming in contact with it might cause you to "...for a moment, think seriously about blowing your children's college funds." Originally published in an 1873 issue of La Mode Illustrée . All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Okay, I've bought huge lots of antique books from eBay before but this is the... biggest one ever! 20, yes, TWENTY bound volumes of full-year La Mode Illustrée magazines ranging from 1873 to 1903 - the originals, not reproductions . These books are huge, measuring approximately 15" x 11" bound - over 120 pounds of books that were shipped to me all the way from a dealer in Ireland! Swoon. With gorgeous illustrations of Victorian and Edwardian fashion on almost every single page , my rough calculation is that I have at least 25,000 images on my hands! What am I going to do with these? I haven't quite decided yet. I'm not even sure where to begin digitizing! As problems go, this is a very nice one to have, don't you think? :)