3-028-802 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A State Ball at the Tuileries Palace: the Grand Vestibule, 1870. 'The invitations, which...are nearly a thousand in number, specify that it is imperative guests present themselves in uniform, rendering the display, in conjunction with the brilliancy of the feminine toilettes, unusually resplendent...the Grand Vestibule...[is] ablaze with light, and hung on each side with tapestry at the foot of the two staircases, with a crowd of beautiful women floating onward, to the right hand or the left, in bewildering clouds of vaporous-looking draperies, and the richness and variety of the uniforms and costumes du cour dazzling one's eyes with their brilliancy. Servants in green and gold liveries encumber themselves with cloaks, and holders of white tickets proceed to ascend the staircase to the right, while the favoured possessors of coloured cards, such as members of the Imperial family, grand dignitaries, Ministers, members of the Corps Diplomatique, and other privileged persons, with the ladies accompanying them, ascend the staircase to the left, every step of which is lined on each side with Cent Gardes in the brilliant blue and gold uniforms and polished steel breast-plates of the stately corps, and who stand impassive as statues...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.