PGC2019: Meisterin Christian Baier's "M&M" dress

Meisterin Christian enters her stunning gown into the category “With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, with ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things.”  She describes the garment her persona would have worn:

Persona period inspiration and use:

Christian is a woman of the court in early 16th C Saxony.  Clothing of women of this court are recorded in art of the time, most notably in the portraits of Lucas Cranach.

I had intended to make this gown originally for Midwinter Coronation in Cluain in 2017, but my modern work commitments became overwhelming and I did not get the dress finished at that time.  The gown then spent time in the “naughty corner” waiting on another event for which a velvet, high-necked court gown would be appropriate, which presented itself in the shape of Midwinter Coronation 2019 in Southron Gaard.  I had completed the bodice and skirt of the gown, so it was a fairly small job to assemble those, attach the fastenings, and make the brustfleck.  Sadly I was enjoying that event too much to get photographs, but I am told the play of firelight across the velvet and silk was lovely.

The dress is nicknamed the “M &M” dress, not only because the design comes from an illustration of ‘Maria and Margareta’, but also because there are 413 (or perhaps more) individual pattern pieces for the dress across the fabric, interlining, and lining.  (Why a nickname?  I have quite a few black and gold Saxon gowns, so it’s useful to have an easy way to identify each.)

The dress design comes from an illustration of Maria and Margareta, daughters of John the Steadfast, Elector of Saxony in the Das Sächsische Stammbuch (the Saxon family / friendship book) of 1546, in the Dresden archives, which features drawings of the extended families of the Dukes of Saxony and their ancestors.

The dowry of Magdalene of Saxony (daughter of Duke George the Bearded of Saxony, and his wife Elizabeth) from her wedding to Joachim Hektor II, the Margrave of Brandenburg (heir to the Electorate) in 1524 lists approximately two dozen gowns. As a peer of the realm, this seems like a useful sized wardrobe for Christian!  Magdalene’s dowry includes gowns of velvet and silk brocade, trimmed with pearls, similar to the M&M gown.

Design, Materials and Construction:

Design: the design is taken directly from the Stammbuch illustration of Maria and Margareta, although with the cuffs of one dress and the brustfleck design of the other.  The dresses in the Stammbuch are similar to Saxon court gowns seen in other portraits of this period, so can be assumed to be an accurate representation of clothing of noble women of the period.

Materials and construction: the gown is made of a natural fibre high quality velvet, which is about as close to period velvets as it is possible to get at an affordable price.  Of course the joke is on me, because the pile is very thick, which makes it fiddly to sew (hence the “naughty corner”).  The brocade is gold metal thread and black silk in a traditional brocade design.  The gown is interlined with linen canvas, and lined in linen.

Reference:

• 1526 Nürnberg wedding record:  H. Doege, "Das von Questzische Hochzeistbüchlein, 1526”, Waffen und Kostümkunde, 1922.  Also see Schulordnungen, schulbücher, und pädagogische miscellaneen aus den landen deutscher zunge: Im auftrage der Gesellschaft für deutsche erziehungs- und schulgeschichte, Band 34.  Translated here.
• Saxony Stammbuch: Das Sächsische Stammbuch 1546, http://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/56803/1/cache.off