![]() ![]() Meanwhile the Independent Chronicle judged: “The Countess Dowager of Waldegrave … wore a dress richly trimmed with beads and pearls and was truly elegant.” ![]() ![]() A ticket from one masquerade at London’s Carlisle House reminded participants to Muto, non ciecho – see all but say nothing. Once the fashionable bodies moved from the gilded frames of their carriages and sedan chairs into the safely guarded space of the masquerade venue, however, the evening’s frivolities stayed behind closed doors. The mob was beyond all belief they held flambeaux to the windows of every coach and demanded to have the masks pulled off and put on at their pleasure, but with extreme good humour and civility. Noted gossip and socialite Horace Walpole relayed his experience to a friend writing: The route to a masquerade was regularly lined with spectators who watched and judged the costumes as they passed. The masses, however, were essential to the success and cultural weight of the masquerade, just as fans and social media are essential in supporting or cancelling today’s celebrities. This, plus the expense of transportation and a basic costume raised the price to at least three guineas, further marking the masquerade as a watering hole of the glitterati, not the masses. Author provided (no reuse)ĭuring a time of widening access to consumer goods and increasingly commercialised leisure entertainments (pleasure gardens, coffee houses and theatres), masquerade parties provided a place to flaunt status, taste and wealth through ostentatious and creative outfits.Īs an elite social space, the masquerade was controlled through strict subscription lists and extortionate prices, not unlike the Met Gala’s invitation-only policy.Įven with your name on the tightly guarded subscription list, according to my calculations the cost of a masquerade ticket averaged two guineas, (approximately £450 in 2023) which limited access to the top 4% of the population. The Chinese House, the Rotunda and the Company in Masquerade in Renelagh Gardens by Carington Bowles (c.17500. ![]()
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