3-021-370 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

State Ball at the Tuileries [Palace, in Paris]: presentations to the Emperor and Empress before the Ball, 1869. Party in '...the Salle des Maréchaux, a vast saloon...This hall is the largest in the Tuileries; but, despite its size, the crowd is frequently so great that dancing becomes an impossibility...His Imperial Majesty invariably wears a blue dress-coat with gold buttons, knee- breeches, stockings, and the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour. The Empress, on a recent occasion, wore a dress of rose-coloured gauze, spangled with gold and trimmed with festoons of flowers, a wreath of flowers intermingled with diamonds being twined in her hair. The quadrille of honour, the persons taking part in which are always designated by the Emperor, is usually danced in the throne-room, a reserved space being kept by the exertions of a body of honorary chamberlains...At midnight the supper...is announced...the retirement of the Emperor and Empress...is the signal for a terrible rush on the part of the rest of the company, a rush which, despite all the efforts of the various officials, frequently becomes a most undignified scramble'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.