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This gala dress tells you all you need to know about the ingenuity of the French silk weavers. Graceful large and small floral rosettes on a blue and silver ground are flanked by a striking serrated border. When the fabric was cut, that border was cleverly used to emphasise the front panels, the cuffs, the pocket flaps and the slits. Just look at how subtly the button-holes have been matched to the pattern!

On the left-hand side of the coat, the skilfully embroidered star of the Royal Polish Order of the White Eagle has been appliquéd. If you look closely at the cross, you’ll see the Latin cypher of the order’s founder and grand master – August the Strong: PRO FIDE, LEGE ET GREGE. For faith, law and the people. All the other knights of the order had a slightly different cypher within the cross: PRO FIDE, LEGE ET REGE. For faith, law and the king.

When August the Strong founded the Royal Polish Order of the White Eagle in 1705, he orchestrated the act as the renewal of an existing Polish order of chivalry -- one originally established in 1325. At this stage of the Great Northern War, a politically charged phase for him, he was attempting to solicit the good will of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility and strengthen its solidarity with Saxony’s ruling class. Russian allies in the Great Northern War were also awarded the honour. Members wore the badge of the order, with the white eagle of Poland, on a blue ribbon. You’ll be able to see examples in the portraits in subsequent rooms.

The blue-and-silver dress is one of ten garments from the Royal Wardrobe that August the Strong personally selected as worthy of preservation. We don’t know the occasion for which it was created, but August the Strong probably wore it at one of the annual celebrations for the Order of the White Eagle.