#double duchess

"Hungry" by Fergue featuring Rick Ross from Double Duchess, 2017

The Duke of Marlborough and other attendees - Devonshire House Ball 1897 [2/3] :

While the Queen did not attend, almost all of the British royal family attended the ball and nearly every other European royal family was represented. The New York Times claimed in September 1897 that the ball was, "to a certain degree a duplicate of the Bradley Martin ball" which was held at The Waldorf Hotel in New York City on 10 February 1897.

The Duke of Devonshire invited the London photographic firm of James Lafayette, who had been awarded a Royal Warrant ten years previously, to set up a tent (in the garden behind the house) to photograph the guests in costume during the Ball. In 1899, the studio of Walker & Boutal published 286 of the Lafayette photographs.

Following the ball, The Duchess received a letter from Francis Knollys, Private Secretary to the Sovereign, indicating that the Prince, later King Edward VII, who arrived after 11 o'clock, thought the party a success.

One of the most expensive costumes was worn by Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough who went as the French Ambassador to the Court of Catherine the Great (see the first picture). The velvet costume was made by the House of Worth and was embroidered in silver, pearls and diamonds with a waistcoat made out of gold and white damask. The price of the costume, which cost 5,000 francs, reportedly even shocked the Duke, who had famously married American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt in 1895.