The Victorian Era

The Victorian Era refers to the time of Queen Victoria's'  reign in England. The Queen was attributed to starting the fashion for brides to wear Orange Blossoms at their weddings. Although Orange Blossoms were worn well before the Queen's wedding, the Queen was the one to changed the tide of Wedding fashion.  Orange Blossoms give off a wonderful aroma as well as looking pretty. Wearing Orange Blossoms depicted wealth and status letting all who attended the wedding you could afford such an extravagance. When the flowers were out of season or when a Bride with less financial means was not able to have the real thing the Victorians did what they do best. They started making them. They got creative and made the most wonderful headpieces from wax. Victorian brides were wearing them in their hair, and on their dresses. The Groom and attendants wore them as their boutonnières. Few remain today that hold their beauty due to their fragile state and  improper storing. 

     The making of waxed flowers is a  lost art. Brides trying to find a Vintage Wax Headpiece often discover that they are hard to find and less then perfect when found. The wax flowers unfortunately over the years show their age. It is difficult to find them without yellowing, broken , and melted flowers. The ones that have survived are usual not as old and are coated with a varnish, with a feel of  plastic. Over time they have started flaking. The very old wax flowers contain white lead and other ingredients.  Here is an excerpt from a book written on the subject in the 1800's ( spelling as appears in book.) 

"THE DANGER OF MODELLING IN WAX.__ Few persons, especially, perhaps, of the many young ladies who are now practising the very pleasing art of modelling fruits, flowers, &c., in wax, at all suspect the great danger in which they are placed from the poisonous nature of the colouring matter of the wax which they handle so unsuspectingly. The white wax, for instance, contains white lead; the green, copper; the yellow, chrome yellow and vermilion__ strong poisons all; while many other kinds of wax are equally poisonous, and, therefore dangerous. There are very many persons who are aware of the intense sufferings, for very many years past, of Mr. W. Bally, phrenologist and modeller in wax, in which latter branch he has laboured for 24 or 25 years, three of them as teacher of the art, at the Manchester Mechanics' Institution. Mr. Bally has been at times completely  paralysed, and is now and has long been very nearly so, especially in the hands and arms; and he has also been afflicted with extensive ulceration of the throat, and has almost totally lost his voice. Both himself and his medical adviser, after a long attention to his symptoms, are satisfied that the primary cause of his affliction is the extent to which the subtle poisons in the wax with which he has worked have been absorbed into his system through the pores of his hands, while the disease has been generally strengthened, and one part of it accounted for, by the occasional application of his fingers to his lips while at work. Mr. Bally says, that he has known several cases in which young ladies have been attacked with partial paralysis of the hands and arms, after having devoted some time to the practice of modelling; but at the time he had no suspicion of the cause.

     In today's world we have so many contaminates, our wedding veil should not be one of them. We use only natural products with no additives. Our Headpieces are not pure white. That you can only accomplish with chemicals. We do have waxes that are very close to white when the impurities (honeycomb particles, etc.) are remove from the wax.