Children's election dresses on display for first time

Naomi Deller says the dresses were worn by two girls during their father's general election campaign

Two historic dresses worn by the children of a politician during the 1906 general election campaign are on display for the first time at his family's seat.

Known as the "election dresses", they were worn by the daughters of Capt Frederick Hervey, 4th Marquess of Bristol, during his successful campaign for the Conservative & Unionist Party in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Adorned with flags to represent countries within the British Empire and emblems of agriculture and British industries, the dresses are on display at Ickworth House, just outside the town, until 31 October.

Naomi Deller, the National Trust's senior collections and house officer at the estate, said: "It's so unique these little girls were basically being used as walking billboards for their father to show his family values."

The dresses are said to be adorned with pictures and emblems which promote Cpt Hervey's political views

The dresses, which are believed to be hand painted and designed by Lady Theodora, 4th Marchioness of Bristol, are decorated with symbols representing the policies and ideologies Cpt Hervey championed during his campaign.

The garments were made from tinned silk, meaning the fibres of the fabric were treated with metal salts in a process also known as weighting to create a distinctive shine.

It has taken five months to clean and conserve them so they did not disintegrate.

Ickworth House, with its famous rotunda, and its estate was the family seat of the Hervey family

The white dress, which was worn their seven-year-old daughter Lady Marjorie, features union jack and royal standard flags crossed in harmony, and symbols representing different counties of the Empire including an elephant for India and a kangaroo for Australia.

The other dress, which is pink, was worn by six-year-old Lady Phyllis and is decorated with emblems of industry and agriculture.

Ms Deller, said: "It's quite a heavy topic for a small child to be wearing.

"It's also part of Cpt Hervey's manifesto — his views on corn laws and agricultural laws that affected his constituents in this really agricultural area."

The tinned silk dresses, which took five months to conserve, will also feature in a new book by the National Trust

They are said to have been worn during Cpt Hervey's election campaign when he stood to be a Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds.

"He was this family man which is part of the reason these dresses were used in the election to show him as a man of these really strong family values and that his family were all involved and then he had the discipline and honour that came with being a man in the navy as well," said Ms Deller.

Both garments feature in a new book called "100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust", which was given the property, in Horringer near Bury St Edmunds, after the Hervey family gave it to the Treasury in the 1950s.

Due to their delicate nature, the dresses will be on display for a limited time until 31 October.