La Belle Assemblée facts for kids

La Belle Assemblée was a British magazine for women. It was published from 1806 to 1837. The magazine was started by John Bell. Its full name was La Belle Assemblée or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine Addressed Particularly to the Ladies.

Magazine History

The magazine was first called La Belle Assemblée. This name was used from 1806 until May 1832. After that, it changed its name to The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée. This new name lasted from 1832 to 1837.

In 1837, the name Belle Assemblée was dropped. The magazine joined with another one called Lady's Magazine and Museum. Together, they became The Court Magazine and Monthly Critic.

John Bell published the magazine from 1806 until he retired in 1821. From 1823 to 1829, G. & W. Whittaker & Co. published it. In between these times, the magazine was listed as being "Published for the proprietors."

What Was Inside?

La Belle Assemblée is famous today for its fashion pictures. These pictures showed the styles of the Regency era. But the magazine had much more than just fashion!

Until the 1820s, it also featured:

• Original poems and stories
• Articles about politics and science
• Reviews of books and theatre shows
• Novels published in parts, like Oakwood Hall by Catherine Hutton

Famous writers like Mary Shelley also contributed to the magazine. Readers were also encouraged to send in their own writings, and many were published.

The magazine usually had five pictures in each issue. One picture showed a member of the royal court or a fashionable person. Two pictures showed the newest fashions. The other two pictures provided sheet music and a sewing pattern.

Even though it had many fashion pictures, the magazine was not just about clothes. You could even buy parts of the magazine separately. One part had most of the articles and two pictures. The other part, called 'La Belle Assemblée', had the fashion pictures, sewing patterns, and descriptions of the latest styles from London and Paris.

In the 1820s, what people expected from women in British society began to change. Magazines like La Belle Assemblée started to focus more on fashion and home life. They had fewer articles about serious topics.

Until spring 1822, the fashion pictures were labeled for the next month. For example, pictures published in May 1810 would say "June 1810." Mary Ann Bell was a well-known person who helped create the fashion content for the magazine.

These changes in the early 1820s might have happened because John Bell retired around 1821.

Other Similar Magazines

There were other fashion magazines with similar names. These included The Penny Belle Assemblée or Maids, Wives and Widows' Gazette of Fashions (in the 1830s). There was also the Weekly Belle Assemblée and later the New Monthly Belle Assemblée (from 1847 to 1870).

See also

• Gallery of Fashion
• List of 18th-century British periodicals
• List of 18th-century British periodicals for women
• List of 19th-century British periodicals

Images for kids

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  Fashion plate, Nov 1806 (from Oct 1806 issue)

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  Fashion plate, Aug 1808 (from Jul 1808 issue)

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  Fashion plate, 1809

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  Fashion plate, May 1812 (from Apr 1812 issue)

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  Fashion plate, Jun 1814 (from May 1814 issue)

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  Fashion plate, Jan 1817 (from Dec 1816 issue)

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  Fashion plate, ballgown, 1818

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  Fashion plate, Jan 1820 (from Dec 1819 issue)

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  Fashion plate, Jun 1822

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  Portrait of the Rt. Hon. Harriet Charlotte Beaujolois, Viscountess Tullamore, engraved by John Cochran, 1826

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  Charlotte Percy, Duchess of Northumberland. Stipple engraving by T. A. Dean, 1829