Hi! I have this great military type cape and was wondering about dating this. Half length heavy boiled wool with black polished cotton lining. Name on the back of the neck is in gros grain ribbon. Covered buttons are from U B button co N.Y. with little stars like other military buttons. Velvet collar and front frogs? are haphazardly hand sewn so it may be a later addition. Thanks!
Thanks Maggie! Yes, it says H. Heath. The closest similar silhouette I've found so far are Nurses capes but those are navy from what I've seen. One possibility is someone added the embellishments to it after the war? It's wonderfully warm too!
Are you sure it is military? I had quite a few of black heavy wool capes from the Vict era. Very plain with only a large neck hook and eye. If you can, remove the collar and frogs. It detracts from the cape. at least collar does. I can't get my hands on any as of now, since they are in storage and No way am i going into an unheated area when it is 12 degrees, lol
Wonderful cape, Carla! I'm not sure if it's military, either. Velvet collar and such fancy cord frogs make me think otherwise, but it will be interesting to see what the experts here at VFG have to say. A garment can always be altered later and made to look less military for civilian attire.
Thanks everyone! I am not positive about it being military at all, the buttons were steering me in that direction. The collar and frogs were definitely added later.
That looks very warm indeed. Can you show a button to us? What looks odd is the lining and label/labels are all the same shade of charcoal black. Usually this indicates the garment or parts of it has been either dyed or the garment was laundered and the colors ran. Is the lining a cotton sateen as it looks in the photo? Or is it a heavier fabric or satin? This could be from a large costume company that catered to the theaters and also to masqueraders, Halloween etc. Back East, I used to come across more than my share of wool capes from theatrical costume suppliers.
I agree with Barbara, the blackened name tape shows that it has been dyed black. So it could have been Navy previously, or it could have just been a top up dye. I can only make out AE on the label with certainty. I used to crop difficult to read labels and put them into photoshop and play about with settings - reversing the polarity for one usually helped, as did changing contrast levels. I might suggest it reads (Initial.) Graeme?
