Buckingham Palace: Oldest British royal wedding dress goes on display

The earliest surviving British royal wedding dress is going on display in a new exhibition.

The wedding dress of George IV's daughter and heir Princess Charlotte of Wales will go on show at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians will feature more than 200 works from the Royal Collection.

Curator Anna Reynolds said: "It's fascinating what we can learn about a period through a fashion history lens."

Princess Charlotte's marriage to Prince Leopold in 1816, while her grandfather George III was still king, was considered one of the most important royal weddings of the era, the Royal Collection Trust said.

Her silver silk embroidered bridal gown is the only royal wedding dress that survives from the Georgian period.

However, it was significantly altered from its original form, in keeping with the Georgian practice of repurposing and recycling clothing.

The heir to the British throne later died after giving birth to a son, who also did not survive, in 1817 aged 21.

The exhibition, opening on Friday, will feature art, clothing, jewellery and accessories ranging from the practical dress of laundry maids to glittering court gowns.

This will include a full-length portrait by Thomas Gainsborough of George III's wife Queen Charlotte in a court gown, and Allan Ramsay's life-size coronation portraits of the couple.

Jewellery on display includes diamond rings given to Queen Charlotte on her wedding day and a bracelet with nine lockets, six of which contained locks of hair.

The exhibition will also explore the hair, cosmetics and grooming tools used by Georgian men and women, as well as 18th Century developments in eyewear and dentistry.

A silver-gilt travelling toilet service, which would have cost the equivalent of more than £20,000 is on display for the first time.

It was acquired by the future George IV as a gift for his private secretary and contains more than 100 objects including razors, combs, ear spoons and tongue scrapers, as well as tools for cleaning guns and making hot chocolate.

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