Fashions for August 1831

Loretta reports:

A few more examples of fashions from the time period of Last Night's Scandal.

 ~~~

FASHIONS FOR AUGUST, 1831. 

EXPLANATION OF THE PRINTS OF THE FASHIONS.

English Fashions.

Morning Dress.

A White jaconot muslin dress; the corsage square, and gathered round the top into a band, which is lightly embroidered at each edge; the fulness disposed in small plaits, arranged en cœur. The sleeve is an improvement on the imbecille form, very large at top, and wide, but not extravagantly so at the wrist. Two deep flounces of rich embroidery, placed one immediately above the other, go round the border, and reach rather above the knee. The apron is of changeable gros de Naples, lilac shot with white: it is arranged in bands, disposed en cœur before and behind; and ornamented on each shoulder, and at the back of the ceinture, with nœuds of ribbon to correspond. English lace cap; the caul of moderate height; the trimming of the front light, short at the ears, and partially drooping over the left side of the forehead: it is trimmed with knots of cut ribbon to correspond with the apron; the brides fasten in bows and ends on the right side.

Evening Dress.

A Dress of mousseline de soie, white figured in gold colour; the corsage cut plain and square behind, and in crossed drapery and very low in front. A guimpe, that is a plain standing up tucker of blond lace, is seen in the centre of the bosom only Béret sleeves, of the usual form. The hair is turned back in a low soft bow on each side of the forehead, which is ornamented with a gold ferronière, and disposed in full bows on the summit of the head. A blond lace scarf is arranged in the lappet style round the bows: it is attached by a bouquet of roses placed in front, and another behind. Neck chain, bracelets, &c., gold, of rich but light workmanship.
—La Belle Assemblée, 1831

Breakfast Links: Week of August 1, 2011

Happy August! We celebrate the last month of summer with a fresh serving of Breakfast Links – our weekly round-up of favorite links to other blogs, sites, pictures, and articles gathered from around the Twitterverse.

• Free British Museum iPad App: "The Historical Collection": http://wp.me/pGJsu-1JS

• Gorgeous 18th c French clocks, including recordings of their chimes: http://bit.ly/oKIIL0

• Living Room Installation at The Jewish Museum Evokes Everyday Life in 1930s Berlin: http://bit.ly/ntWKvD

• A sumptuous silk coat by designer Yves Saint Laurent, who would have turned 75 on August 1: http://met.org/mXTdX3

• Women at Sea giving birth upon wave; a brief history of children born at sea: http://bit.ly/pTJZXx

• Rome's Pantheon may have been built as a massive sundial, researchers reveal http://tgr.ph/oZPlMU

• Brooches and bouquets: two high-profile senders of symbolic messages http://bit.ly/ohcBF2

• "So common-minded, so salacious & so illiterate": Georgette Heyer on Barbara Cartland after repeated plagiarism: http://bit.ly/nW99ze

• Architect Barbie's dreamhouse (with a closet on every floor of course!): http://bit.ly/rmORw9

• Mysteries of the Catacombs in Paris http://bit.ly/puRuQe

• A Revolutionary War Story of Intrigue at Hilton Head Island, SC, by http://bit.ly/q2f7lB

• Video of Jesse Owens' incredible victory in 100m at 1936 Berlin Olympics on 3 August: http://bit.ly/qOMu0M

• Beautiful! Bride tells story of her 127 year old family heirloom wedding dress - http://bit.ly/q5E48w

• Russian icons dated from the 16th-19th c. discovered at St. Catherine's Monastery in impeccable condition: http://bit.ly/ocZIAy

• Why did so many of Jane Austen's men choose the life of a clergyman? http://bit.ly/r5UDtc

• Mrs. John Winthrop, 1773: Amazing grace & dignity in a portrait: http://bit.ly/roudqg

• Tsar Nicholas II and his family arrived on the Isle of Wight on August 2nd, 1909 http://dlvr.it/dpjDg

• Great online exhibition from the Bodleian Library - A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera 1654-1860s: http://bit.ly/q9NZHQ

• 'An Account of Miss Rosco & Miss Osborne, actresses at the Crow-street theatre, Dublin 1759-60' http://bit.ly/fV4dKN

• Greyfriars Bobby who kept vigil over his master's grave for 14 years was 'a publicity stunt': http://dlvr.it/dyZcR

The Last Living Witness to the Lincoln Assassination, 1956

Susan reporting:

Most of the videos we've featured here have their share of silliness mixed into the history. This one, however, isn't silly at all.  It's just plain amazing.

Consider it a double-dose of real history. Filmed in the Golden Age of television game shows, it's a clip from the popular series I've Got a Secret. The game was simple enough: regular folks with surprising careers, experiences, or histories – their "secrets" – try to stump the celebrity panel, who ask a limited number of questions.  This elderly gentleman's secret, however, is far from usual. Samuel J. Seymour is 96 years old, and as a five-year-old boy attending Ford's Theatre as a treat on April 14, 1865, he saw John Wilkes Booth assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. It's one more reminder of how relatively short American history is, and a poignant one at that.
Many thanks to Patrick O'Neil, Assistant Professor of History, Methodist University, Fayetteville, NC for sharing this video with us.

A Gothic Dairy

Loretta reports:


Dairies on country estates could be beautiful things.  This gives some insight into hygienic measures.
~~~

HINTS ON ORNAMENTAL GARDENING
PLATE 7.—A GOTHIC DAIRY

The annexed design represents the decorated elevation of a picturesque building, suitable to a bay or garden recess, in which they are appropriately situated, and always pleasing: its interior embellishments should be of marble, relieved by glazed tiles; and if painted in the Gothic forms by which the spandrels of some of our cathedrals are tesselated, it would be in good taste and character; and the windows being judiciously ornamented with painted glass, the whole would be brilliant and agreeable.
 

The requisites for the perfection of a dairy are, coolness and the most delicate cleanliness, a perfect ventilation, and an aspect that will permit the sun to enter the apartment until its altitude would render the dairy too warm; for the damps which remain from the night cannot be too soon or too thoroughly evaporated ; and even the moisture consequent on the morning ablutions should be speedily removed, to prevent the effects of that degree of heat and moisture which in a hot day would else be consequent upon such neglect: on a similar account, this building ought not to be embowered too much by trees and shrubs, and care should be taken that no trees may be placed in its neighbourhood that can impart unfavourable tastes or scents to the milk and cream,which readily adopt incongruous flavours, and are very tenacious in retaining them.

A double roof is essential to the dairy, and a free current of air should pass between them, or no means will prevent the excess of heat, which in hot weather is fatal to its purposes, particularly if the floors are wet or very damp at the same time.
 

Although part of the above observations are at variance with the usual practices in the business of the dairy, a little reflection will shew the propriety of adopting them. 

—Ackermann's Repository, August 1821

A Bride with Wedding Night Jitters, c. 1750

Susan reporting:

Doubtless fueled by pictures of primly dressed cardboard Thanksgiving Pilgrims, many modern Americans believe that their forefathers & mothers were chaste and modest, too busy creating a new country to give way to impure thoughts, let alone actions.

Not so. The years directly before the American Revolution showed a record number of premarital pregnancies and babies born soon after marriages - records that in some cases weren't equaled until the 1960s. Despite the warnings of the colonial church, sex was not only practiced outside of marriage, but freely discussed and joked about, too. This bawdy story comes from the diary of John Adams, and while it might have been embellished a bit for the audience, it shows that even in supposedly straight-laced New England, a good jest with double-entendres was considered an excellent way "to raise the spirits" - and it also seems that the new Mistress Bicknal enjoyed herself, too.

"Last Thursday Night, at Cranach's Wedding, Dr. Tufts, in the Room where the Gentlemen were, said We used to have on these Occasions, some good Matrimonial stories, to raise our spirits. The story of B. Bicknal's Wife is a very clever one. She said, when she was married she was very anxious, she feared, she trembled, she could not go to Bed. But she recollected she had put her Hand to the Plow and could not look back, so she mustered her Spirits, committed her soul to God, and her Body to B. Bicknal and into Bed she leaped and in the Morning she was amazed, she could not think for her Life what it was that had scared her so."

Many thanks to John Bell for reminding us of this passage - and please check out his excellent Boston 1775, a blog devoted to history, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts.

Above: Detail from Illustration for 'Wedding Proposals', print by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726-1801), 1780, Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Talpis, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

A Lady's Nécessaire

Loretta reports:

According to an exhibition catalog listed in Les boutiques de musées, nécessaires—boxes containing necessities of one kind or another—started out holding eating and food preparation utensils.  By the 18th century they’d developed into elaborate cases for all manner of items, including scientific equipment.

This late Rococo example, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, was made in 1766.  The accompanying sign reports that the materials are "agate, gold and silver gilt; gold mounted bottles and implements in silver, ivory, mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell.”  Though inspired by French goldsmiths and probably made by a German craftsman, the box, we are told, is “a distinct London type.”

What the sign at the V&A didn’t tell me was what was inside.  Happily, there is an entry at the website with more information:   “The contents include five bottles with stoppers, a pencil and an ivory writing tablet, scissors, a mirror, a comb, a brush, toothpicks, a tongue scraper, a bodkin combined with a spoon for ear wax, and a file combined with a pair of tweezers.”

Unhappily, though offering several views in sharper focus than mine, the V&A did not take the objects out of the case and photograph them for curious Nerdy History Persons.  This is a pity, as I know we'd all like to see exactly what milady's necessities looked like.

Historical Fashion & Alexander McQueen (1969-2010)

Susan reporting:

The high-fashion world of the late designer Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) rarely makes its appearance on this blog. But I recently braved the record-breaking crowds for Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, the exhibition/tribute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, and I was struck by how history so obviously inspired and influenced this unique designer. Fellow nerdy-history fanatics can be found everywhere, even on a London runway.

The show arranged examples of  McQueen's garments (like the ones shown here) in roughly chronological order, including pieces that McQueen made for design school assignments.  These were inspired by Jack the Ripper and 19th c. London, and already displayed his respect for historical dress and people who wore it. His work wasn't about sticking lace and a bow on the skirt and calling it Victorian. Instead he was fascinated by the structure of clothing of the past, how it shaped the body to conform to various ideals. He appreciated how the older clothes were constructed, a crucial step before he could take them apart, deconstruct them, and recreate them in another, more modern guise.  

Boned bodices, Scottish tartans, frock coats, corsets, Napoleonic uniforms, bustles, padded hips, wire crinolines, leg-of-mutton sleeves, courtesan platforms, Regency white, and medieval armor: all appear in his collections as quotations from the past, translated by his imagination into something new and fresh and uniquely his own. He could back up his imagination, too. Throughout his career, McQueen also demonstrated masterful tailoring, and an attention for the smallest details of beading, embroidery, and applique that would have earned him the approval of the finest 18th c. tailor or mantua-maker. He was a story-teller who used clothing to tell his stories, with each of his collections reflecting characters that were often based in historical fact. Other designers might be inspired by Hollywood jet-setters; only McQueen could create a collection inspired by the widows left by the 1746 Battle of Culloden – clothes so viscerally beautiful and moving that my eyes filled with tears as I stood in the gallery.

"I believe in history," McQueen told British Vogue in 2002. How tragic that Alexander McQueen is now part of the history he loved so well, but how fortunate that we have his clothes as a lasting legacy of his imagination.

Here's a video tour of the exhibition, produced by the Met, but without the three-hour wait in line.  The catalogue to the exhibition is a gorgeous hardcover book filled with color photographs and thoughtful essays.  If you love breathtaking clothes of any era, don't think twice: you'll want this book.

Top photo: Ensemble, Alexander McQueen, autumn/winter 2008-9; Coat of red silk satin; dress of ivory silk chiffon embroidered with crystal beads, courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Left photo: Ensemble, Alexander McQueen, autumn/winter 2000-2001; Dress of beige leather; crinoline of metal wire, courtesy of Alexander McQueen.
Right photo: Coat, Alexander McQueen, autumn/winter 1996-97; Coat of black wool felt embroidered with gold bullion cord, from the collection of Isabella Blow courtesy of the Hon. Daphne Guinness.
All photographs © Sølve Sundsbø/Art+Commerce, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art