The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-16 00:00:00

NEW INVENTIONS IN DRESS AND

USEFUL LUXURIES.

The forms and varities of costume, and the multi-
plicities of elegant articles of personal and house-
hold luxury, have attained to such hiqh artistic per•
fection, that one can hardly, with justice, refuse to
the inventors the merits and honours hitherto
exclusively accorded to the professors of what are
designated, par excellence, the fine arts. The utilita-
rianism of the age is beginning to make little dis-
tinction between the creators of what is ideal
or abstracted, and what is real or of positive use, un-
less it be in favour of the latter. People now
argue—lf the sculptor require. genius, to dispose
gracefully the drapery around marble images—if
the painter must be gifted with divine inspiration, to
give beautiful shapes and brilliant colours to the ac-
cessories of his paintings—must not he who clothes
the living man with classical and tasteful garments,
or he who invents new and exquisite articles of re-
finement for daily purposes, be equally endowed with
the highest mental attribute ? Sculpture, painting,
poetry, and music will not much longer be allowed
to monopolise the fame and glory of the fine arts—
they must condescend to share them with the other
branches of creative genius. At this moment, visit
the capital of the Russian empire, admire the fault-
less form of some fascinating princess, as she passes
you on her prancing steed, the chances are you will
be told she is indebted, for more than half her ele-
gance, to the Messrs. Nicoll, of Regent-street, who
are the artificers of her splendid riding-habit. See
the Emperor himself in his sable pelisse, looking, as
he does, every inch a monarch—you will be in-
formed that he too has received the embellishments
of his outer man from the same London fashioners.
To the Prussian metropolis, likewise, Prince William
bears with him many samples of the perfect taste of
these artists, while the young and handsome Due de
Montpensier is about to astonish the Parisians with
novelties in dress derived from the same source. Talk
of poets and painters—here is indeed a substantial
European reputation. Take another instance. Enter
the boudoir of some fair aristocrat ; note the rare col-
lection of superb bijouterie that surrounds you on
every side, the glittering albums, the fancifully em-
bellished writing-desk, the gorgeous inkstands, the
matchless vases of Bohemian glass and other crystals,
the innumerable nick -nackeries, brilliant and beautiful
beyond expression—with each and all of these the
name and fame of Messrs. Barry and Son, of the
Egyptian Hall, are linked as indissolubly as those of
Corregio and Raffaelle with the Magdalene and the
Saint Cecilia. Examine the perfumed notes of invi-
ration and the visiting cards that adorn your drawing-
room table, and mark the admirably-emblazoned
crests of the fair senders engraved and painted
thereon; these, too, proclaim the art and skill of these
inventors of all that is brilliant in such articles of
luxurious fashion. Upon taking up Mrs. Postan's
agreeable work, " Facts and Fictions," the other day,
we were much amused with a description of the
anxiety and impatience evinced by the ladies of Bom-
bay, on the arrival of each vessel from Europe, to
possess themselves of the latest inventions of the cele-
brated modistes, Mesdames Herbault Nieces, of the
Rue Menard, Paris. Not a pelisse, nor a mantelette
nor even a ribbon, would one of them select until she
had heard the last fiat pronounced by these oracles of
extreme gout. Here is a fame, not merely European
but universal. The renown of Alexander the Great
reached not so far eastward as that of these famous
Parisian milliners. Remark any strikingly delicate
richness ; or admire any of those most stylish
green, porcelain blue, or dahlia-tinted silk, of surpass-
ing richi
combinations of tartans, woven into the loveliest tex-
tures of unnumbered dies—infallibly you will be
answered that they are the produce of the looms of
Lyons, and that they have issued from the magazine
of Messrs. Gay and Denis, Rue de la Vrillire, Paris.
The inventors of novelties in dress and useful luxuries
have no right to complain of any want of appreciation
in the present generation.

DEATH OF THE DUCHESS OP MARLBOROUGH.—
We regret to have to announce the decease of the
Duchess of Marlborough, at Blenheim Palace, on Satur-
day last. Her Grace had only returned home the pre-
ceding evening from a lengthened visit to her sister,
Lady Feversham, in Yorkshire. Her Grace is known to
have been long in a feeble state of health, but not the
slightest apprehension was entertained by her medical
adviser of her being quite equal to the journey. A
sudden and unexpected change occurred on the Saturday.
Dr. Wootton, of Oxford, was immediately called in, but
her Grace expired in the presence of the Duke and Lady
Louisa Churchill the same evening. This melancholy
and unlooked for event has placed the whole of her
Grace's family in the deepest affliction. Her Grace,
who was born on the 29th March, 1798, was eldest
daughter of George, eighth Earl of Galloway, and was
married to the present Duke on the 11th of Jan., 1819.
CATASTROPHE AT HASWELL COAL-PIT.---The Lon-
don public may be considered as the cause of this
lamentable occurrence. Why ? Because they are so
eager to purchase coals, that they raise the price, and
induce the pit-owners to work their pits on the double-
shift system, a second set of men entering the pit before
the first is out, leaving no time for a due examination.
It is notorious that coals of late years are cheaper in De-
cember than in June, and dearer in October than in any
month of the year. Yet in this month are there twice as
many orders given as in any other month, and at its
close coals always decline. The last week in November
they are lower than the first, and the close of the year
f►nds them cheaper than during the previous three months.
(There are 927 ships in the coal trade, being nearly
double what are required as an average number.)
DEATH OF A PROPHETESS.—On Saturday Mr. W.
Baker, Deputy Coroner, held an inquest at the Coach
and Horses, Homerton, on the body of Rebecca Paine,
aged 60. The deceased lived in Cross-street, and in ad-
dition to her labours as a charwoman, she had for some
years lived upon the credulity of the superstitious
females of Hackney, by the exercise of her assumed
power of divination. Although not a duly initiated
member of the " nut-brown" fraternity, her character
as a prophetess brought her many dupes ; and there are
numbers of the fair sex now living in the vicinity of
Hackney, whose practical experience of the mutations of
connubial life have led them to revile, in no measured
terms, the fortune-teller of Cross-street, by whose en-
chantments they were led to surrender the charms of
maidenhood. Last Thursday morning a little girl living
in the house with the deceased, lit her fire, and on pro-
ceeding to awake her, found that she was dead. Medi-
cal aid was obtained after a lapse of two hours. The
Jury returned a verdict of " Natural death." Runham,
the summoning officer, stated that owing to the vagaries
of the deceased, her husband had for many years parted
from her. He had written to him, but had received no
answer ; he (Runham) had therefore disposed of her
property for the purpose of defraying the expenses of
the funeral.