The Bride of The New Year, 1906

       The bride robe for 1906/07 in its exquisite beauty is such an enviable creation that a woman is tempted to forget the "ideal" she is looking for and solemnly pledge her vows at Hymen's altar.

       The bride of the new year has the unique distinction of introducing a number of original ideas and of setting the pace with regard to the favored fabrics, their cut and design, which to a large extent predominate throughout the winter as the accepted mode. Then the Easter bride comes along with her novelties particularly suited to spring time. 

      Here are some general facts that will doubtless answer queries of the bride to be.

A Few Words To The Bride To Be.

       The trains of the bridal gowns are moderate in length and round. The length of the skirt for a formal wedding is 72 inches; for the quiet weddings it varies according to the taste of the bride. When married in the going-away costume, the skirt should trail several inches on the floor as a reception gown, or at least "break" for several inches.

       The skirts for the bridesmaids and maid of honor scarcely more than touch the floor, and some are even dancing length, for which purpose they are afterwards used. For the matron of honor, the mother of the bride or groom, the floor length is most often seen, that is lying on the floor for five inches and just touching in front. A skirt that sweeps the floor in front is most difficult to handle with any grace.

       There is a great variety of designs for the bridal robe, but for women who can wear them those mostly favored are the semi-Empire effects and the Princess. The semi-Empire is usually a carefully-fitted Princess having a Watteau plait in the back, springing either from between the shoulders or starting a few inches above the waist. The gowns not fitted snugly around are, nevertheless, closely confined to the figure in the front and at the sides, and in back there is frequently a suspicion of the short-waited Empire. This effect is simulated by the actual fitting and by the raising of the girdle or scarf ends which spring from the center of the corsage and extends under the arms, terminating in the center of the back.

       gowns for the bridesmaids and maid of honor are fashioned over these picturesque lines which go well with the fanciful headgear, sweeping Gainsboroughs or saucy Nepolean toques.

       Draped surplice effects with the daintiest of chemisettes are especially graceful and produce lines generally becoming. Bretelles simulating a surplus effect of the bridal fabric, worn over a bodice of lace, is a pleasing edition of this style. Both high and round necks prevail for all wedding gowns. When girdles are worn they are well fitted, rather wide, and curve out over the figure in a graceful sweep, but few are pointed.

Bridal Fabrics and Garnitures

       The favored materials for bridal gowns are Duchess satin, softer and more clinging than formerly, chiffon, chiffon cloth, liberty satin, satin meteor, messaline, peau de creape, crepe de chene, lace mounted over chiffon and silk.

       For the bridesmaids and maid of honor all the soft silks, with messaline and meteor in shadow, check and plaids or self color, chiffon cloth, peau de crepe, silk muslin or mull fancy nets and pompadour chiffons in their most delectable and subtle colorings are most often employed.

       Hand embroidery is shown to particular advantage on chiffon gowns. Silver tissue, lace and embroideries are among the elaborate garnitures. Under a lace robe was recently worn a slip of silver tissue with roses of same decorating the skirt and bodice. Lace is always to be depended upon, and the brides of the season are favoring various meshes, point laces, Duchess, Brussels, point de Venise, d'Alencon, Brussels, Princess and Limerick.

Fun After the Wedding, 1906.

       

Old Marriage Proverbs

       Many are the proverbs connecting themselves with marriages; below are just a few old ones...

"Woman has made man wise — and wary"

"A blind man's wife needs no painting"

 

"Who has a fair wife needs more than two eyes. "

"A fair woman and a torn gown will always find some nail in the way."

"The more women look in the glass, the less they look to their houses. "

 " The lazy wife has broken her elbow at the church door..."

 

"Women and hens through too much gadding are lost."

"The wife that expects to have a good name, is always at home, as if she were lame."

"He that lets his wife go to every feast and his horse drink at every water will have neither a good wife nor a good horse.''

 "He that tells his wife news is but newly married;" for "she conceals what she knows not."

 

"One tongue is enough for a woman."

"There is no mischief in the world done, but a woman is always one."

Indeed, "women and dogs set men by the ears."

 "A woman's mind and winter-wind often change," and yet, "swine, women, and bees cannot be turned. "

 " Women, priests, and poultry never have enough; ''for a ship and a woman are ever repairing."

 

"Husbands are in Heaven whose wives chide not," while "he who marries a widow will often have a dead

man's head thrown into his dish."

"Other people, especially the unmarried, can tell you just how to make domestic life a success..."

"Bachelors, wives' maids, and children are always well taught;" but frequently one of these wiseacres falls in love, ties a knot with his tongue that he can't untie with his teeth, and finds in truth that 'wedlock is a padlock.'"

"In spite, however, of the ancient saying that "honest men marry soon, wise men not at all" and that you

should "commend a wedded life, but keep yourself a bachelor," the world continues to try the trick over and over again. After all, what would we do without wives — especially we married men!"

"Wives must be had, Be they good or bad."

Perhaps it is true that "age and wedlock bring a man to his night-cap;" but the average fellow agrees

with Martin Luther that "He who loves not woman, wine and song, He is a fool his whole life long."

"Marriage has kept the world sane; it brings contentment; it creates order; it inspires personal progress."

"A little' house welt filled,

A little land well tilled,

And a little wife well willed"

"What greater joy than this? For, as Solomon declares, "houses and riches are the inheritance of fathers;

but a prudent wife is from the Lord.''

Weddings at The World's Fair Pavilion

View from fountain, the World's Fair Pavilion.

       Located on Government Hill, the World's Fair Pavilion sits on the site of the world's fair Missouri Government that was meant to be permanent but burned only weeks before the closing of the fair. It opened in 1910 as a gift from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Committee and helped to fulfill their promise to restore the park after the 1904 World's Fair. Designed by English architect Henry Wright, the pavilion originally cost $35,000 to build.

       In the early 2000s, the building underwent a $1.1 million restoration with the addition of new restrooms and a catering kitchen. The eastern archways of the building were removed (thereby opening the building to its original state), new lighting was installed, and the twin towers of the building were reconstructed.

• How to Rent the World's Fair Pavilion

See Weddings Hosted at The World's Fair Pavilion:

• Brad & Casey Wedding
• Wedding at the World's Fair Pavilion film by Forte Photography & Cenema
• Alex & Shannon Wedding
• Wedding Guests Shocked at Engagement Party

Weddings at The St. Louis Jewell Box

The Jewel Box (also known as the St. Louis Floral Conservatory and the City of St. Louis Floral Display House) is a greenhouse located in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. It now serves as a public horticultural facility and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

       In 1913, Nelson Cunliff became Commissioner of Parks and Recreation for St. Louis City. Due to high levels of smoke and soot within the city, he began a survey to determine which plants could survive the conditions. He later asked John Moritz, who was in charge of the city's greenhouses, to set up a display greenhouse to showcase various plants which could survive. It is said that someone called the displays "like a jewel box", hence the name. In 1933, Bernard Dickmann became Mayor of St. Louis and decided to build a new facility. The building cost $125,000 and William C. E. Becker, then Chief Engineer of Bridges and Buildings for the city, was assigned to design the building. Construction began on December 12, 1935 and the facility opened on November 14, 1936.

• How and When to rent the Jewell Box for Weddings

A wedding from YouTube at the St. Louis Jewell Box.

More Links to Weddings at The Historic Jewell Box:

• Austin and Olivia Complete Ceremony at St. Louis Jewell Box
• Blake & Holly Wedding at The Jewell Box
• St. Louis Wedding Highlight Video at the Jewell Box

Learn About Cameo Jewelry

Judge Mary  Bartelme
wearing a cameo at her
 throat, on a high lace
collar in the
 Edwardian style.

       Cameo is a method of carving an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewelry or vessel made in this manner. It nearly always features a raised (positive) relief image; contrast with intaglio, which has a negative image. Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting color to the background; this was achieved by carefully carving a piece of material with a flat plane where two contrasting colors met, removing all the first color except for the image to leave a contrasting background.

       Today the term may be used very loosely for objects with no color contrast, and other, metaphorical, terms have developed, such as cameo appearance. This derives from another generalized meaning that has developed, the cameo as an image of a head in an oval frame in any medium, such as a photograph.

       Ancient and Renaissance cameos were made from semi-precious gemstones, especially the various types of onyx and agate, and any other stones with a flat plane where two contrasting colors meet; these are "hardstone" cameos. In cheaper modern work, shell and glass are more common. Glass cameo vessels, such as the famous Portland Vase, were also developed by the Romans.

       Modern cameos can be produced by setting a carved relief, such as a portrait, onto a background of a contrasting color. This is called an assembled cameo. Alternatively, a cameo can be carved by the traditional, but far more difficult, method directly out of a material with integral layers or banding, such as (banded) agate or layered glass, where different layers have different colors. Sometimes dyes are used to enhance these colors.

"The Little Museum of Cameo Tower of Greek (NA) 

shows us the entire processing phase of a cameo, 

from the shell to a unique jewel of its kind."

       During the Roman period the cameo technique was used on glass blanks, in imitation of objects being produced in agate or sardonyx. Cameo glass objects were produced in two periods; between around 25 BC and 50/60 AD, and in the later Empire around the mid-third and mid-fourth century. Roman glass cameos are rare objects, with only around two hundred fragments and sixteen complete pieces known, only one of which dates from the later period. During the early period they usually consisted of a blue glass base with a white overlying layer, but those made during the later period usually have a colorless background covered with a translucent colored layer. Blanks could be produced by fusing two separately cast sheets of glass, or by dipping the base glass into a crucible of molten overlay glass during blowing. The most famous example of a cameo from the early period is the Portland Vase.

      Although occasionally used in Roman cameos, the earliest prevalent use of shell for cameo carving was during the Renaissance, in the 15th and 16th centuries. Before that time, cameos were carved from hardstone. The Renaissance cameos are typically white on a grayish background and were carved from the shell of a mussel or cowry, the latter a tropical mollusk.

       In the mid 18th century, explorations revealed new shell varieties. Helmet shells (Cassis tuberosa) from the West Indies, and queen conch shells (Eustrombus gigas) from the Bahamas and West Indies, arrived in Europe. This sparked a big increase in the number of cameos that were carved from shells. Conch shells carve very well, but their color fades over time.

       After 1850 demand for cameos grew, as they became popular souvenirs of the Grand Tour among the middle class.

Classically the designs carved onto cameo stones were either scenes of Greek or Roman mythology or portraits of
rulers or important dignitaries. In history, agate portrait cameos were often gifts from royalty to their subjects.
These antique cameos, some more than 2000 years old, are either displayed in museums or are in private collections.

       Sir Wallis Budge alleged that the noun "Cameo" apparently comes from Kame'o, a word used in kabbalistic slang to signify a "magical square", i. e. a kind of talisman whereupon magical spells was carved.

       Cameos are often worn as jewelry, but in ancient times were mainly used for signet rings and large earrings, although the largest examples were probably too large for this, and were just admired as objets d'art. Stone cameos of great artistry were made in Greece dating back as far as the 3rd century BC. The Farnese Tazza (a cup) is the oldest major Hellenistic piece surviving. They were very popular in Ancient Rome, especially in the family circle of Augustus. The most famous stone "state cameos" from this period are the Gemma Augustea, the Gemma Claudia made for the Emperor Claudius, and the largest flat engraved gem known from antiquity, the Great Cameo of France. Roman Cameos became less common around in the years leading up to 300AD although production continued at a much reduced rate right through the Middle Ages.

       The technique has since enjoyed periodic revivals, notably in the early Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Neoclassical revival began in France with Napoleon's support of the glyptic arts, and even his coronation crown was decorated with cameos.

       In Britain, this revival first occurred during King George III's reign, and his granddaughter, Queen Victoria, was a major proponent of the cameo trend, to the extent that they would become mass-produced by the second half of the 19th century.

       The visual art form of the cameo has even inspired at least one writer of more recent times, the 19th-century Russian poet Lev Mei, who composed a cycle of six poems entitled Камеи (Cameos, 1861), as reflections on each of the Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to Nero. In 1852 Théophile Gautier titled a collection of his highly polished, lapidary poems Emaux et Camées (Enamels and Cameos).
       Many modern cameos are carved into layered agates. The layers are dyed to create strong color contrasts. The most usual colors used for two-layer stones are white on black, white on blue, and white on red-brown. Three-layer stones are sometimes made. The colors are usually black on white on black. The layers are translucent; this allows the artist to create shading effects by removing material to allow the background layer to show through. This way a very realistic, lifelike quality to a figure can be achieved. For example, thinning the top black layer on a three-layer stone changes its color to shades of brown. Removing material from the white layer creates shades of blue or grey, depending on the color of the base.
       The majority of modern agate cameos are carved with the aid of the Ultrasonic Mill. This is a process where multiple copies of a master design can be produced very quickly by pressing a master die onto the agate cameo blank. A film of diamond slurry is used to aid cutting and the die vibrates ultrasonically in a vertical motion. The master is often hand carved by a skilled cameo artist. The result is a cameo that has a satin surface texture described as "freshly fallen snow" (FFS) by Anna Miller. This texture and the lack of any undercutting are used by appraisers as markers to prove that the cameo is machine-made.
       Cameos carved by hand are usually working from photographs of the subject. The fact that there is usually only one copy made means that the tooling costs involved rule out the ultrasonic carving process. There are very few people working in this field, as this is one of the hardest challenges for any gemstone carver. The combination of a highly developed artistic ability, craft skill and many years of experience are needed to be able to create lifelike portraits.
       It is quite rare, these days, for subjects other than portraits to be carved by hand as agate cameos. The traditional themes of classical scenes from mythology or a standard image of a young lady, are more likely to be made with the help of the ultrasonic carving machine as a limited collection of typically 50–200 pieces.
      Since the late 19th century, the species most used in good-quality cameos has been Cypraecassis rufa, the bullmouth helmet, the shell of which can be up to 6 inches long. In this species, the upper shell layer is whitish, and the lower shell layer is a rich orange-brown. Modern sources for this shell are Madagascar and South Africa. The finest hand-carving of these shells takes place in Italy. The most highly prized shell for carving is the emperor or queen's helmet shell, Cassis madagascariensis. This shell has white and dark brown layers and is known as sardonyx shell, and looks similar to the layered agate known as sardonyx. This shell is found in the waters of the Caribbean.
        The world center for cameo carving in shell today  is Torre del Greco, Italy. The shells are first marked with a series of ovals in a process called signing, then cut into oval blanks for the cameo carver. The actual cameo is mainly cut with a metal scraping tool called a bulino, an invention of Jewish artisan Antonio Cimeniello. A number of metal gravers are used: flat-faced, round and three-cornered. To speed production, grinding wheels are used to quickly remove excess material. When the details are completed, the shell is then soaked in olive oil, cleaned with soap and water and selectively polished with a hand brush.

More Information About Cameos and Contemporary Artists:

• Antique Cameos in the Hermitage Museum
• Gareth Eckley (cameo-artist)
• August Rudolf Wild 1891-1956, Gemmenschneider (cameo-artist)
• Gerhard Schmidt, Gemmenschneider (cameo-artist)