Highest Valuation, A rare 18th century dress, Tewkesbury Abbey, Antiques Roadshow

looking at this dress I can sort of picture the theme one mystery morning a woman walking through the abbey meadows it's wonderful and is it a family heirloom no no so what is it it was given to me by a friend in the 1960s and she gets gave it maybe no Clyde just had a daughter and I think she thought she might be interested later on to walk you know to dress up in it and did your daughter's Brown and I've never been touched I've never seen you date you've never seen it out no first time you've actually ever seen it on here on show yeah how do you think it look very nice beautiful for how have you kept it in a box or in a drawer yeah well let's talk about what it is it is what's known as a Roble aforesaid or a sack back robe people might say all obviously it's incomplete we've got an open front when it was an open robe and you would wear a very beautiful we call them a petticoat it was a skirt really under it and of course you would have had wide hoops a little lower there to give you that wonderful silhouette yeah and if you can imagine wearing this and in the candle light of the 1760s or the 1770s which is when it dates from how that would have glistened and sparkled and you would have seen shadows down the side of the dress it would have been quite it's frozen tears it would have been wonderful I should think the material that it's made from is really quite exquisite because it's painted silk and not embroider there is embroidery on it yeah but it's painted silk person and so this fabulous painted silk would have been imported to Europe to be made up into this dress here in England the decorations on it are also rather wonderful you've got at the front here these little tendrils of dangling tassels of Chanel work yeah and then down each side you've got raised pockets almost which have got a little piece of wool inside a bit like it looks almost like a piece of cotton wool we'd ever get in a real wool inside this panel here to give it a 3-dimensional view for miniatures early what I'd like to do if the breeze will allow it I'm just going to turn it round if I may can you give me a hand gently because it is and we can see the back here which gives it its other names you have a sack back row and you've got pleats running from the shoulder blades box pleats running all the way down to the bottom so we can give this a sort of train effect that's right and when you wore this you are making really quite a statement and you can do that much beautiful and of turn it back now if I may and you can enjoy the front what I also like very much are these scalloped edges we've got scalloped edges particularly on the sleeves here when one looks at a dress like this one has to appreciate that this is an extraordinary survivor painted fabrics are notoriously difficult to keep and the fact that it's been kept in a box for so long would perhaps explain why it hasn't just fallen to pieces which is what so often it's a fake it is incredibly rare survivor it's beautiful it's a lovely design and perhaps more importantly a dress like this is of huge demand internationally by collectors a museum this has a future way outside here at Dukes Bree and who knows where it will ultimately end up but this is for a major museum somewhere in the world and what was just a present from a friend yeah is now going to be worth something around 40,000 pound of well don't kill me granddaughter that oh dear I can't believe that

Channel: Van Balen Pies

Views: 539,586

Rating: 4.8511362 out of 5

Keywords: Tewkesbury Abbey, Antiques Roadshow, Series 39

Id: 87a499MBzpA

Length: 4min 39sec (279 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 14 2017