Descriptions

This brown wool jersey day dress was specially made for Yolande Stewart-Tyrer when she was about 7 or 8 years old. It may have been made to match her mother’s dress (57/1965/17) and perhaps was sewn at home. Magazines such as Weldon’s published patterns for embroidery motifs inspired by Ancient Egyptian imagery as part of the ‘Egyptian Revival’ spurred on by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.

The heiroglyphics embroidered on the dress in brightly coloured wools spell out the name of the Pharoah Tutankhamun, and two earlier royal names on the waistband. The side panels roughly translate as ‘Osiris, ruler of earth and heaven.’ It is likely that the designs were copied from inscriptions without any knowledge of their meaning.

Yolande grew up to become a teacher and travelled to Port Said as Foreign Office staff in the 1940s.

This object is not on display.