An early twentieth-century dressing set has become part of the Tsarskoe Selo collection.

The set is in a rectangular wooden case covered with red fabrikoid, which has a shoehorn and two button hooks inside.  Marks on the items show they were made by the British company W.J. Myatt & Co in Birmingham in 1901-1902.

The button hooks are of different sizes. The bigger one has a steel hook and a silver handle, while the smaller one is wholly silver. The metal shoehorn has a silver handle with rocaille and mascaron decoration similar to that of the hooks.    

Tsarskoe Selo did not have a dressing set like this one, which will grace any display or exhibition on topics related to the history of women’s clothing.

According to Ms Margarita Lopatenkova, Tsarskoe Selo precious metal s and stones curator, button hooks came in use in the eighteenth century and became widely spread in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although strange to a modern eye, they were indispensable in the time when women’s clothing and footgear items had numerous small buttons impossible to be fastened by fingers only. That’s where button hooks came handy, smaller ones for clothes and gloves and bigger ones for footwear. Their handles were usually made of wood or bone. Rich women could afford ornate silver items with precious stones. Button hooks came out of use during the 1930s and now have become collectibles.