Rigid Body And Stomach Room For The Court In Droguet Maubois - France Louis XV Period

Circa 1740-1760 France Rigid body with busk and eyelets in two parts laced on a curved stomach piece and adorned with silver lace. Cream background in silk lampas with floral honeycomb designs called Droguet Maubois, in vogue at the beginning of the Louis XV period. Set entirely boned with baleen and sheathed on an ecru linen lining. Small crenellated basques underlined with a fine braid of pink taffeta. Rear laces and ribbons. Very slight variation in color of the silk, a halo in the back and some stains in the lining. The pink taffeta ribbons slightly threadbare in places. Very good condition of color and conservation for its age. Piece exhibited and cataloged at Villa Rosemaine in 2022. Dimensions: Equivalent to French size 34-35 (now a 12-year-old girl). Height 55cm, chest 92cm, waist 64cm, hips 81cm, shoulders 32cm. Stomach piece: 41cm x 41cm x 30cm. This rigid body and its whalebone stomach piece is the most rigid version, made for a formal occasion or for the Court. Their cut corresponds exactly to the descriptive plates of the Encyclopedia of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert published in 1751. Montaigne in his Essays 1 describes it as a real instrument of torture. The boned body accompanied by the farthingale creates an artificial silhouette corresponding to an ideal of beauty. The boned body flattens the chest and refines the waist while the baskets widen the hips 2. 1. Montaigne, Essays, book I, chapter XL 2. Denis Bruna, The mechanics of underwear. An indiscreet history of the silhouette, Paris, Les Arts Décoratifs, 2013, 1 p., p.118