
Honiton lace veil
Mary Tucker's wedding dress
Anne Bromfield
1864
Silk
Mary Tucker wore this simple and elegant silk for her marriage to Henry Ford on 6 December 1864. It was made by Miss Anne Bromfield of Branscombe. The wedding was a high-profile occasion for Branscombe: the Tiverton Gazette called it a ‘festival’. The couple provided the poor of the village with ‘a beautiful dinner and tea’.
Visual description: The wedding dress is made of white silk, cinching in at the waist before flowing out into a full, floor-length skirt. It has long sleeves that taper at the wrists and a high neckline. The dress is simple, with minimal decoration or pattern.