First Court

More than a thousand ladies were presented to Their Majesties in Buckingham Palace, last week, at the first two Courts of the present London season. The 22 U. S. citizenesses who curtsied low before the King-Emperor, rose, glided two steps to the right, and curtsied to the Queen-Empress were:

Miss Elizabeth Houghton, daughter of U. S. Ambassador to Great Britain Alanson Bigelow Houghton; and her friend Miss Genevieve Sullivan, whose home, like that of the Houghtons, is at Corning, N. Y.

Mrs. Alfred J. Brosseau, President of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who later said: "I went in early, and I was in the Throne Room from the very beginning of the ceremony."

Others: Miss Jane Olmsted of Harrisburg, Pa., daughter of Mrs. Vance C. McCormick; Miss Elizabeth Bliss of Manhattan, granddaughter of onetime Secretary of Interior Cornelius N. Bliss; Miss Evelyn Bigelow Clark, granddaughter of that aged and eccentric writer of memoirs about royal personages, Poultney Bigelow (TIME, Jan. 23, 1927); Mrs. John B. Stetson Jr., wife of the U. S. Minister to Poland; Miss Marion Dixon (Chicago); Miss Dorothy Gillespie (Philadelphia); Miss Frances McKee (Washington); Mrs. John G. W. Husted (Manhattan); Miss Ruth Pruyn (Albany, N. Y.); Miss Virginia Both (Detroit); Miss Katherine Bullock (Denver); and Miss Diana Rockwood (Indianapolis); Miss Ellen Borden (Chicago); and Mrs. Anson W. Burchard (Manhattan).

Finally there were presented from the diplomatic circle: Mrs. John R. Thomas Jr., wife of the Military Attache at London; Mrs. John C. MacArthur, wife of the Assistant Military Attache; Mrs. Hugh Dewitt Butler, wife of the Assistant Commercial Attache; Mrs. Wainwright Abbott, wife of the Second Secretary of the American Legation at Dublin; and Miss Maude Hunnewell of Boston, fiancee of Counselor Ray Atherton of the U. S. Embassy at London.

White and bluish pink were the colors most favored this year for Court gowns, and in consequence harmonious bouquets of orchids were numerous. The most striking jeweled ornament to be worn was a $150,000 diamond sunburst originally presented to Admiral Lord Nelson by the Sultan of Turkey, and now owned by Mrs. G. Eyre-Matcham of Salisbury, England. The sunburst, operated by clockwork, revolved slowly, emitting dazzling rays which visibly attracted the attention of Their Majesties.