1897
A01=Elisabeth Kehoe
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Aristocracy
Author_Elisabeth Kehoe
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Banking
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HB
Category=HBG
Category=HBT
Category=HBTB
Category=NH
Category=NHB
Celebrity
Colour Photography
COP=United Kingdom
Costume
Costumes
Delivery_Pre-order
Devonshire House Ball
Diamond Jubilee
Early Photography
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eq_history
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Event
Famous Parties
Famous Party
Fancy Dress
Fashion
Glamour
Language_English
Noble
PA=Temporarily unavailable
Party
Politicians
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Forthcoming
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee
Royalty
Social World
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9781916846272
- Weight: 698g
- Dimensions: 170 x 240mm
- Publication Date: 15 Oct 2024
- Publisher: Unicorn Publishing Group
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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At the zenith of its power, Britain, the ‘Workshop of the World’, dominated the globe with military might and commercial acuity. The celebration of Queen Victoria’s sixty years on the throne was carefully positioned to highlight the country’s strength, especially in the face of rising competition from other nations. The festivities brought together, in a show of force, the Queen’s widely extended family, foreign dignitaries, diplomats, foreign royals and world leaders.
Extraordinary pageantry, parades and royal receptions served to dramatise the unparalleled significance of the event. The most important occasion, however, was the Devonshire House Ball, given at huge expense by the Hanover-born German ‘Double Duchess’ of Devonshire. The Duchess – having married not one but two English Dukes – took to the task with alacrity, bringing together an extraordinary group of nobles, politicians, plutocrats, influential foreigners and bankers, hosting the most famous party of the century: a fancy-dress ball with a guest list of the 700 social, political, cultural and prominent ‘celebrities’ of the day.
A specially commissioned tent – equipped with hand-painted backdrops, the most technically advanced cameras and lighting, along with realistic props – was set up in the magnificent gardens to capture the glamorous guests.
Many of the exquisite costumes – all of pre-eighteenth-century characters – were preserved by photograph and are shown here, colourised for the first time, to give us a sense of the wondrous, glorious occasion of the Ball.
Elisabeth Kehoe is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of London, as well as a researcher and broadcaster. She is the author of acclaimed biographies of the famous Jerome sisters (including Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American mother), Kitty O’Shea – wrongly blamed for destroying Ireland’s chances of independence in 1890 – and Helen D’Oyly Carte, the nineteenth-century powerhouse running the Gilbert & Sullivan companies and Savoy Opera and Hotel franchises, as well as other works on talented and overlooked women of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
