We glance briefly this month at the Royal Worcester Corset company, maker of Bon Ton, Royal Worcester and Adjusto corsets.
The Royal Worcester Corset company was established by David Hale Fanning in 1861 as the Worcester Skirt Company (manufacturing cage crinolines). At its height, it had twelve hundred seamstresses at work, and its corsets were distributed around the globe before the company closed in 1949.
Marion shares what she's discovered about the company, patents, corsets and where you can learn more about the company.
I started hunting for information about David Hale Fanning and the Royal Worcester Corset Co. (RWC) after seeing a skeleton corset that a friend purchased through eBay a few months ago (in a few months she'll share it with us here on FR). However, soon I ran into a dead end.
At Christmas-time, my mother-in-law handed me a newspaper clipping for an exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum. Bound by Fashion unfortunately closed before I had a chance to get to it, but the clipping was invaluable since it mentioned that Worcester, Massachussetts was the home of the Royal Worcester Corset Company. Several corsets from that company were on loan from the Worcester Historical Society.
The Royal Worcester Corset Company offered a variety of styles and sizes in an effort to match the right corset with the right physique. Prices ranged from $1-3 for the Royal Worcester corset and $3-5 for Adjusto to $3-15 for the Bon Ton corsets. In 2010, those prices would roughly equal $24.41 to $366.16.
I have contacted the Worcester Historical Society, and they have a few Royal Worcester Company corsets in their collection and several other mystery corsets that they know nothing about, and these are available for study by appointment. (If you're interested, contact me).
The Brooklyn Museum has some interesting items relating to the RWC, including two award medals, 1880 and 1893, as well as an extensive collection of corset catalogs, price lists and photos. As the Brooklyn Museum and Metropolitan Museum merge costume collections, perhaps more RWC corsets will come to light?
In the meantime, here are even more goodies that I've discovered.
The World's Corset King, the Bon Ton Corset Shop's 60th Anniversary (PDF - FR Downlod)
A thirteen-page special feature, written in 1921, on the history of the company, David Hale Fanning as a person and how the company took good care of its workforce. A good read if you want to know more about the workings of the company.
Excerpted from: New Outlook, Volume 128 By Alfred Emanuel Smith (1921) May 8 1921, Bon Ton 60th Anniversary p 113 - 124
Photos of the Factory
1903 photos (all zoomable!)
- Main stitching room
- Royal Worcester Corset Company: Laundry
- Royal Worcester Corset Company: Workroom
- Royal Worcester Corset Company: Packing and Shipping
- Royal Worcester Corset Company: Dining Room
Corset Patents
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| Improvement in Skeleton Corsets, Patent number: 99871 Issue date: Feb 15 1870 | Improvement in Corsets, Patent number: 100278, Issue date: March 1 1870 | Corset, Patent number: D4367, Issue date: Sep 27, 1870 |
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| Corset, Patent number: D4617, Issue date: Jan 31, 1871 | Littells Living Age, March 25, 1871 | The Atlantic Monthly, 1870 |
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| Corset, Patent 159753, 1875 | ||
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| Corset Patent 208517, 1878 | Pattern pieces from patent | |
Corsets
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| 1907 Bon Ton corset model # 852 "Princess Hip" | Circa 1907 Edwardian Corset - Royal Worcester Corset Style #409 with a 24" waist | Royal Worcester (WCC) corset style # 444 with a 23" waist |
Other Examples of Royal Worcester Corsets:
Karen Augusta, Dowager Corset c. 1890-1900
Blue Sateen Corset, 1890-1895, Columbia College, Chicago
Early Edwardian Corset, 1902-1903
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In the picture labeled "Laundry 3" (for there is a notation that looks like a "3" on the hand-written label) there are some interesting things to note. I am guessing that this was called the "Laundry", but there are no soap, brushes, drains in the floor, sinks or other water sources to be seen! There is one round tub to the far right, and what look like huge piles of already-cut work in the right side of the frame. Perhaps they are "spot-cleaning"?
