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Bernberg Museum Of Costume
Johannesburg, Gauteng,
South Africa
Get a fascinating glimse into the history of women's costume over the last two centuries. The Bernberg Museum is a branch of MuseuMAfrica, but in a separate building.
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Fashion and frippery from a more gracious age.
The tiny Bernberg Museum in Forest Town, Johannesburg, is dedicated to the finery of yesteryear, offering visitors a fascinating glimpse into the history of women's costume over the last two centuries.
Not many people tend to notice the rather modest building that houses the Bernberg Museum, even though it is situated just a stone's throw from busy Jan Smuts Avenue, not far from the Johannesburg Zoological Gardens. Even fewer people actually visit the museum, as a glance at the visitors' book will reveal. This is a pity, because - tiny though it is - the Bernberg Museum has a rather special charm.
The rooms of this little old suburban house are crammed with a wide variety of period costumes, jewellery and accessories, a collection that reveals much about the way women dressed before the advent of cheaper mass-produced goods; about an age where clothes were made by hand, stitch by perfect stitch, and where fine workmanship mattered a great deal.
Women's dresses, dating from the Victorian and Edwardian periods, comprise the greater part of the collection, although there are a few men's and children's garments on display, along with a small collection of hats, fans, shoes, purses and the numerous other small objects that any well-dressed lady once carried on her person.
The museum owes its existence almost entirely to the generosity of the Bernberg sisters, Anna and Theresa, avid collectors of antiques who were also devoted patrons of the arts. They bequeathed the little house and its contents to the Africana Museum in 1960, and by 1973 the house had been refurbished and had opened its doors as the Bernberg Museum.
Several of the rooms were furnished in period style using furniture and ornaments from the Bernberg bequest; other items were drawn from the Africana Museum's collection or were donated by the public.
Lovers of trinkets and other frippery will be delighted by the collection of jewellery and accessories exhibited in the foyer area of the museum. To your right as you enter is a display case containing a comical collection of disembodied legs, each of which wears a single shoe.
Exhibits include a Victorian button-up leather boot, made to fit an impossibly dainty foot, and - the oldest item in the display - a very elegant cream-coloured satin shoe, circa 1740, complete with embroidered stocking and gilt buckle.
The jewellery display case nearby contains some very fine pieces of Victorian craftsmanship, but it is the collection of 'hair' jewellery that is particularly intriguing to visitors. These pieces are made from, or contain, human hair - this form of jewellery having been quite popular in the late 19th century. There is something rather grisly about the intricately plaited hair 'necklaces' and the lockets containing the fair curls of infants and lovers, perhaps because the original owners of the hair they preserve are so long dead.
In this display case you will also notice some formidable pieces of filigreed steel jewellery. During the Napoleonic Wars, English women who presented their gold jewellery to the state were given items of steel jewellery such as these in exchange; any lady who felt a pang of regret at parting with her precious jewels was no doubt consoled by the knowledge of her patriotism.
Further into the foyer is a very charming collection of babies' dresses and bonnets, each one delicately pin-tucked and exquisitely embroidered. The fact that these fragile garments have lasted for more than a century is testimony to the artistry and skill of the women who laboured for so many hours to make them.
Nearby is the museum's valuable collection of fans - some jewel-bright and gaudy, others delicate and subtly coloured. A particularly beautiful item is a French fan, circa 1760, on which is painted a romantic garden scene and which has mother-of-pearl sticks that are carved, lattice-pierced and decorated with gold pigment.
The first garment that will catch your eye as you wander towards the back of the museum is a Voortrekker dress, plainly made from serviceable sprigged cotton. This is one of the museum's most valued exhibits, as Voortrekker dresses are extremely rare.
In the next display case is another precious exhibit, a delicate wisp of a dress worn in 1919 by Princes Alice, Queen Victoria's granddaughter. It is made from ivory-coloured Brussels appliqué, with a tiered skirt and elegantly dropped shoulders.
Further down the passage to the left is a large case displaying a variety of period dresses arranged in chronological order, the most recent being Edwardian dresses, dating to 1910, with their curious hobble skirts (these being cut so narrow at the ankles that ladies were forced to take small, mincing steps). The next case houses displays which are changed every few months, and here the various fashions of later, more modem periods are generally shown.
A bit further along the corridor is the first of the period rooms, furnished in the Edwardian style. It shows a group of ladies enjoying a dainty tea-party, all dressed in the elegant fashion of the era, with its extravagant feathered hats and slimmed-down silhouettes.
Some intimate ladies apparel, including corsets and bloomers, is exhibited for all to see in the next room, furnished in the style of a lady's boudoir.
An unusual item in this display is the turquoise maternity gown, a garment not often seen in public at the turn of the century. Nearby is a case that is the museum's only real concession to masculine fashion - a variety of pipes on display, along with several tasselled velvet smoking caps. Three very beautiful old wedding dresses are grouped a little further down the corridor, including one that looks as if it were made for a child.
Further along, on your right, you will come to the last period room, a Victorian kitchen containing a mannequin in a kitchen-maid's uniform and another wearing the formidable attire of a cook.
A rather amusing and unusual item to be found in this room is a 'moustache cup' made with a little china bridge just inside the rim, the purpose of which is to prevent the large moustache of a gentleman from dangling unbecomingly into his tea and getting wet - thus causing the moustache's blacking to run.
You can easily make your way through the museum in 20 minutes or so, but if you would like to learn more about the history of the exhibits, and the various stories relating to them, guided tours are offered by arrangement.
How to get there
Corner Duncombe Rd and Jan Smuts Ave, Forest Town, Johannesburg
Tues - Sat: 09:00-13:00; 13:30-17:00
The museum is temporarily closed. Please check with Museum Africa (Tel: 011 833-5624 or 011-646-0716) when opening.
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Location: Johannesburg,
Gauteng |
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