What George III’s Clothes Reveal About His Life
18 Video Views·Jul 16, 2025
George III was born in 1738 and he reigned from 1760 until 1820. In this video, our experts look at two pieces of clothing worn by George III, at two very different stages of his life. A red velvet suit that was worn by George when he would have been in his early 30s. And a silk jacket worn
when he was 81 years old, in the very last days of his life, made in a very
fine silk damask pattern. Both items have been carefully conserved and protected by our conservators, and both reveal fascinating insights into this often misunderstood monarch.
Image Credits:
King George III by the studio of Allan Ramsay, based on a work of 1761-1762 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
George III was born in 1738 and he reigned from 1760 until 1820. You've probably heard of him
as the Mad King and this is because of the periods when he suffered from both physical
and mental illness. However, George III was so much more than his illness.
He dedicated his life to serving Great Britain.
The two items of clothing that we're looking at today were worn by George III at two very
different stages of his life. The first is this red velvet suit that was worn by George when he
would have been in his early 30s. This object would have been a beautiful bright red silk velvet and
it's made up of a jacket, a waistcoat and a pair of breeches. We acquired this object in 2006 and
the first thing that we noticed was a very distinct fading of the red colour in the velvet.
This fading is most likely from light damage. So when an object is displayed in an area that
doesn't have any restrictions on the light that's hitting it, it causes the fabric to break down
and the dyes to just be lost. The lining was the most damaged. A lot of the fibres had been lost
so it looked very shredded and tangled. So we used humidification to gently untangle them,
line them all up and then we introduced a patch fabric underneath that infilled the loss and lots
of lines of stitching done in a very fine silk. Because this was quite a complex treatment we
actually had three textile conservators working on this object at one time and it took us in total
four months of work. The pockets of the breeches are actually lined with leather and I think this
is because he might have been walking his lands and picking up pieces of soil. We know that
actually he was really interested in soil conditions. Agriculture was one of George III's
great passions. This jacket was worn when George III was 81 years old, in the very last days of
his life. In 1811 George III stopped being an active monarch. His son George became the Prince
Regent and reigned in his stead. We acquired this object from the family of the Reverend William
Drake. He was actually given it by John Gollop who was Queen Charlotte's page. It was quite common
for royals to give clothing to their servants because they had a certain monetary value,
but also garments were procured for collectors just like the Reverend William Drake.
So it's made in a very fine silk damask pattern. You can actually see that it's quite a dense weave
so there are lots of threads showing that this is damask of the highest quality.
The first clue that you can see from this object that shows you a little bit about George at that
time is the staining on the front. We're unsure where this staining came from but we think that
maybe it's from food that he's been eating, it might be due to sickness. So that's really key
evidence for us. Because it was worn by such a key historical figure we want to maintain this
evidence so that's why we won't be cleaning the object more fully. So other bits of evidence that
this object can tell us are that the top button has a very long shank and this allowed whoever was
dressing him to dress him more easily but I think it also shows a level of care for the king. It
would have made it more comfortable for him to wear. The most fragile areas on this object are
the top of the arms. There's these strips of thinner fabric that were put in place we think
to make it easier to dress George. This is the only area on the object that hasn't been lined
with a cotton. Although it helped him during his life that does mean that that is the area that is
the most fragile. So the treatment that we've done for this area is that we've introduced patches
into the silk and stitched these in place so that really holds that fabric together.
This object is now very very fragile and so our recommendation is to keep it in storage.
So it's a case of just monitoring the object in storage from now on.
Collecting costume is so important because essentially what you're collecting is a sort
of a shell for the body of the wearer. Especially at this date, the early 19th century, all the
pieces of clothing were bespoke. So you get a true idea of what someone's body was like at the time
that this object was worn and then for us that gives insights into the character and actually
into the well-being of the wearer.