From the NHG Library: How to curtsey

Loretta reports:

My latest favorite research book is The Lady's Stratagem: A Repository of 1820s Directions for the Toilet, Mantua-Making, Stay-Making, Millinery, & Etiquette. Yes, it sounds like a tall order, but the book comes through, all 755 pages of it. Herein you will learn how ladies dyed their grey hair, what they used to clean their teeth, and what cosmetics were available. You will find instructions for making several different  kinds of stays as well as how to unlace them.  Want to know how to make a hat?  Puzzled about the rules for mourning?  Wondering how a widow ought to behave?  Curious about etiquette at a dinner party?  It's all here, and more, much more.  The table of contents is 36 pages long.

Needless to say, I'm in love with this book.  I'm not the only one.  Over at the History Hoydens, Kalen Hughes provides a fine overview of the book as well as a look at the Controversy about Hair Washing.

My focus today is curtseys, which have played important roles in more than one of my books.  To my delight, the book offered illustrations as well as instructions:

"The Courtesy.  The following is the usual mode of performing the courtesy.  First bring your front foot into the second position. (In Fig. 1, B, C, D, E, and F respectively denote the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth positions of the feet.)  Then draw the other into the third behind, and pass it immediately into the fourth behind; the whole weight of your body being thrown on the front foot.  Then bend your front knee, your body gently sinks, transfer your whole weight to the foot behind while rising, and gradually bring your front foot into the fourth position.  Your arms should be gracefully bent, and your hands occupied in lightly holding out your gown.  Your first step in walking, after the courtesy, is made with the foot which happens to be fowards at its completion.  The perfect courtesy is rarely performed in society, as the general salutation is between a courtesy and a bow (see Fig. 1 G). —The Young Lady's Book."