I’m assuming this is a 1930s wedding dress. Unfortunately there is a little shattering going on at the hip and along the seam on one shoulder. It’s an interesting dress though. In addition to your typical side snaps, it also has an attached front piece that hooks in the back and the lace you see at the back snaps in place. It’s a shame it’s so fragile but it was practically free so... There was a lace bridal cap and a handkerchief in the same box but I’m not entirely convinced they all go together. I’ll post pictures of those in a separate comment.
Wow, this is fantastic! We get estate sales here in Switzerland (but not a lot), but I've never paid attention to the ads in the papers, to be honest. Often they're during the week, so no chance for someone working fulltime, and then they focus on antiques, furniture, homewares. Mostly it's houses where they know they can sell good stuff, so people who had things that are worth something, but not exactly high-level antiques. And if it's a house full of things that aren't worth much, people will just call in one of those charities that will clean out the whole house and then sell the things in their thrift stores.
We have a lot of estate sales going on here. Usually they are on a weekend. This particular one started Friday morning at 9am and I was able to be there by 10am and lucked out because of it! I love this particular person’s estate sales. Other companies often get rid of the clothes before they hold it, which drives me crazy. I imagine those clothes probably end up in thrift stores. This guy’s sales are very down to earth. There is some arranging but he makes every room in the house available and it really is like a treasure hunt. It’s pretty rare that I don’t find something amazing at his sales, and his prices are incredibly reasonable. He doesn’t get rid of anything so you find all the little things you would you generally find in a person’s house. I used to feel a little weird about going through people’s houses but after finds like this, I got over that pretty fast. lol
I think I may have just learned something here (every day is a school day!) - that estate sales are run by 3rd party companies. I always thought they were organised ad-hoc by the family of the deceased. When I think of all the free time I've had on my many trips to America (I even used to work in San Francisco for a while) I could have easily bobbed along to one or two. Wasted opportunity - damn! lol
Yes! Always go to an estate sale when you get the chance! You just never know what you will find. Locally, there are at least 5 different estate sale companies that are hired by families to take care of it. Other times families will do it. I prefer the companies because families are emotionally involved and lacking in experience so they price things ridiculously high. We also have a store here that is basically an ongoing estate sale. He goes to estate sales that are over with and buys up the remaining contents of the house to stock his store. His store is crazy. One thing you could try, if you are on Facebook, is checking to see if you have local estate sale companies that you can follow and get updates. I do that and that’s how I was aware of yesterday’s sale.
Amazing! We dont have them in my area either. Yard sales with junk or thrifts with junk. When I used to visit my sister in VA, they had some every weekend. Now that is a business I wouldn't mind running.
So the hat would taken on that "dutch girl" cap look when you roll up the wire. Very pretty a lot of battenburg lace trim on the bib of the dress and on the cap.
Mary is spot on about the Dutch girl hat, the sides should be turned up. I am getting a strong feeling that this dress is using a mix of laces, perhaps from 2 ancestors wedding gowns. So the older (maybe Victorian) tape/Battenburg laces were incorporated into the satin dress, and the sleeves are a heavier Alencon type of lace. Interesting. You sure find great things.
I agree with Barbara abou the add on of the laces, the sleeves don't appear to be quite as old as the gown itself. Please let us see the "Dutch Girl" cap when you have it worked out. It's a little beauty!
That is a gorgeous cap! My mom wore something similar in 1944 - they were rural farm families, and chances are it wasn't the trendiest look for the time. And of course her hairstyle with the mini-pompadour bang required a shallower cap - I can just picture yours worn over a 30s marcel wave.
If the dress is 1931, which I suspect it may be, that year they are still doing cloche-like headresses for weddings:
