Winged & Four-legged Dragon in Wine Hedgehog and pearls on the bodice

and pearls on the bodice and sleeves

This hand-stitched paper dress is based on an English day dress from 1835-1840

Simmonds & Sons of Haymarket

a French gown from 1775-1780

Nepalese paper in gold scallops on black stands in for black cotton adorned with a profusion of tiny metallic and black glass beads

Winged & Four-legged Dragon in Wine Hedgehog and pearls on the bodiceThis is no ordinary dragon; it is based on an illustration described (in Latin) thusly: This is that winged and four legged dragon, memorable to all ages, which Deodatus de Gozon, a knight of Jerusalem, cut down on the island of Rhodes by the stratagem we have described, and who, because of the beneficence bestowed on the island, was afterwards created a great master of the order. The book I found it in, by Athanasius Kircher and dating from 1678, has