The Devonshire House Ball or the Devonshire House Fancy Dress Ball was an elaborate fancy dress ball, hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, held on 2 July 1897 at Devonshire House in Piccadilly to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Due to the many prominent royals, aristocrats, and society figures who attended as well as the overall lavishness of the ball, it was considered the event of the 1897 London Season.
Guests in Costume Photographed by the Lafayette Studio of Bond Street, London.
Lady Randolph Churchill (1854-1921)
as Empress Theodora of Byzantium
Lady Randolph Churchill, née Jennie Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill, was reputed to be "one of the most beautiful of the many beautiful American women who have married Englishmen of rank."
By 1897 she was already a widow and it was said that she had been a mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. Her discretion about this affair was summed up in her own memoirs: "...there may be some to whom these Reminiscences will be interesting chiefly in virtue of what is left unsaid."
Info by Wikipedia and http://www.rvondeh.dircon.co.uk/
