3-028-747 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Reception of Ladies at the Tuileries on New-Year's Day, 1870. '"The day of the year", as the French call it, is kept by the whole of Parisian society with strict performance of the duties of visiting and being visited; of complimenting their acquaintance and receiving compliments. But the ceremonial receptions at the Court of the Tuileries are of supreme importance. The Emperor, with his little son beside him, first admits to his presence in the Salle du Trône the Ambassadors of foreign States, headed by the Papal Nuncio, to wish him "A happy new year!", followed by the members of the Senate, the Corps Législatif, the Conseil d'Etat, the grand dignitaries of the Empire, the Marshals, the Judges, and the Metropolitan Prefects. The Empress Eugénie, for her part, receives the greetings of a great number of ladies. They are, it need not be said, attired in a style becoming their rank and position in the world of fashion. The scene in the Imperial drawing-room...is the theme of much admiring comment among the female devotees of la mode. The Emperor and all his family are present'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.