2-969-890 - /Heritage Images

Children's Fancy-Dress Ball given by the Viscountess Stratford de Redcliffe, at the British Embassy, at Pera, 1856. Party thrown by the wife of the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. 'An interest attaches to a children's ball in Constantinople unknown in the civilised countries in Europe. Were the 200 little creatures, who danced and laughed at Lady de Redcliffe's the other evening, to come in their every-day costume, the sight would still have been as varied as an elaborate fancy ball in England. There were real little Turks and real little Greeks, Albanians, Armenians, and Syrians, of every race. All were in their richest costumes, chattering each in their own tongue, and dancing after their own fashion. There were the children of diplomatists and of the French colony, dressed in every variety of picturesque costume, and speaking amongst them every language in Europe'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.