Background:

Being presented to the British monarch was one of the foremost life-cycle rituals in British Society — marking a girl’s transition to womanhood. From now on she was allowed to participate in a “Season” of parties, balls, races and dinners which in essence constituted a marriage market populated by people with the right pedigree.

By 1898, the time of the images shown at the start of this exhibition, high Victorian ornamentalism was in its last throes. The Victorian psyche fetishized women to the point where delicate, demure women were considered an ideal of beauty and the strictly regulated Court dress of this era emphasized these elements. The Court dress was so structured that the body had little freedom of movement, with the waist cinched in almost brutally in order to create the wasp-like shape.

An aspiring debutante would have to start planning for her presentation at Court months in advance. She would have to find a lady who had already been presented to the sovereign and hence entitled to present her. She then had to choose an appropriately gorgeous yet modest white dress, and take etiquette and deportment lessons. Finally she had to learn how to make the requisite curtsey to the monarch and then throw her train over her arm so that she could walk backwards out of the Throne Room without turning her back to anyone.

Married ladies, or those who had undergone a change of status (from plain Mrs to Lady, for example) could also be presented at Court and were allowed to wear other than white for their gowns. They could also wear black in periods of Royal mourning.

The regulations of the Court directed that all ladies to be presented must appear in full Court dress – that is to say, with low bodice, short sleeves, train of a stipulated minimum length, short veil and/or lace lappets and long white gloves. The head-dress consisted of three ostrich feathers arranged in the so-called Prince of Wales plume: a centre feather higher than the two on each side worn slightly on the left of the head. Fans and bouquets were optional.

Although all the girls came from a privileged or recently-wealthy background, Queen Victoria (d. 1901) kissed and embraced personally only the daughters of aristocracy, with others being allowed to kiss her hand. The kissing was abandoned by King Edward VII (r. 1901-1910), who also moved his Courts to late evenings, made the hundreds of presentations speedier, and offered some refreshments to the participants.

The male equivalent of the Court at Buckingham Palace was the men-only Levee held by the King or the Prince of Wales at nearby St. James’s Palace. Those to be presented were either members of the diplomatic corps or men who had achieved a change in social status or military rank.

The men also had to adhere to strict regulations regarding their garments or uniforms. In addition, Court costumes were meticulously specified for the various dignitaries of the royal household.

After either event, the young ladies and the honoured gentlemen would usually make their way to one of the nearby fashionable photographic studios for a commemorative portrait. The Lafayette studio in New Bond Street, a few minutes away from the palace, was particularly popular.

With some small changes and a relaxation in the dress code, the ritual of presentations at Court continued, with a break for the two world wars, until it had become an uncomfortable anachronism and was abolished in 1958 by Queen Elizabeth II.

What becomes clear from an examination of the life of the young debutantes seen in this exhibition is that, by the time they reached marriageable age, they had achieved nothing, or very little. It is also clear that in most cases their future lives were spent as beautiful and hopefully charming appendages of their husbands. Not all of them found a suitable partner during their first Season; some spent the rest of their lives in spinsterhood or endured unhappiness in loveless or acrimonious matrimonial arrangements. And yet, hundreds of them turned up every year at Buckingham Palace as though strongly believing that the smile of the Sovereign, as it was said, would “transform the little homely grub into a gay butterfly”.

Half a yard — half a yard —
Half a yard onward,
through the first crush-room
Pressed the Four Hundred.

Forward — the Fair Brigade!
On to the Throne, they said:
On to the Presence Room
Crushed the Four Hundred.

“The Charge of the Court Brigade”,
Punch, 30 May 1874

A selection of these images appear in an eexhibition held at the Pszczyna Castle Museum, Poland, 2020; and at the Muzeum Podlaskie w Bialymstoku, 2023.