A Pomatum or Pomade for Glossy Hair

Loretta reports:

Isabella and I have had a few discussions about what women might have used to keep in place those complicated coiffures I showed last week.

Part of my problem in pinning things down, I realized, was thinking in terms of a specific product for a specific purpose, as we have today:  hair sprays, gels, lotions, creams, mousses, Moroccan oils, and so on.

What they had in the early 19th century were hair oils and pomades/pomatums.  Bear grease was a popular pomade, but it seems that not all bear grease in England came from bears.  If you want to make your own bear grease, though, Wild Edible will tell you how.

My recent research tells me the most popular pomatums were made from lard.  Certainly the exact same recipe appears in one publication after another.  As our loyal readers are aware, copyright was not protected, and publications stole freely from one another.

Parisian Pomatum was one I came across again and again, in all kinds of books and magazines.  I'm listing several here, to show both variations and the extent of "borrowing."

A New Supplement to the Pharmacopoeias of London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Paris: Forming a Complete Dispensatory and Conspectus; Including the New French Medicines and Poisons (1833).  Recipe here.

The Complete Servant, by Samuel and Sarah Adams (1826).  Recipe here.

The Art of Preserving the Hair (1825).  Recipe here.

The Art of Beauty (1825). Recipe here.

The Duties of a Lady's Maid (1825).  Recipe here.

Finally, in the London Magazine (1826) you’ll find this lovely rant about the advice offered in The Duties of a Lady's Maid.

 

When Reading Became Fashionable

Isabella reporting,

The Age of Enlightenment wasn't just about Diderot's encyclopedia and Johnson's dictionary. The 18th c. is also the first time when English and French women began to read.

Yes, I know, there had always been educated women in the elite classes who read and wrote and spoke languages both ancient and modern, but the 1700s mark the beginning of more and more women reading for pleasure (and not just the pleasure of the over-wrought romance reader I featured last week.)

Novels were still a relatively new invention, and an increasingly popular one, too. A growing middle class had the money and leisure for books, and though the men might twit the women about reading romantic novels, they still paid the bookseller bills of their wives and daughters along with their own. Women of fashion weren't afraid of being considered bluestockings because they read, and the perils of heroines like Clarissa, Evelina, and Serena were as avidly discussed over silver tea pots as they were in shops.

Where earlier generations of ladies might have held a nosegay or a bit of needlework when they sat for their portraits, 18th c. women were now shown reading, or with an open book as if they'd just been interrupted. From peeresses to young girls in the new United States of America, these ladies were proudly painted with their books.

When even Mme. du Pompadour, the royal favorite of Louis XV, was painted repeatedly with a book in her hand, you know books were one fashion that was here to stay. Jane Austen is just around the corner of the 19th century. .  .  .

Here are a handful of 18th c. ladies reading; I hope you'll click on the images to enlarge them.

Top to bottom:
Portrait of Madame du Pompadour, by François Boucher, c.1750-58. Scottish National Gallery.
Woman Reading by a Paper-bell Shade, by Henry Robert Morland, c. 1766.
Young Girl Reading, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1770. National Gallery of Art.
Sophia Drake, by Ralph Earl, c. 1784. Private Collection.
Emily, Marchioness of Kildare, by Allan Ramsay, c. 1764-66. National Museums Liverpool.
Serena Reading, by George Romney, c.1782, Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Ornamental Air Stove for September 1825

View online here

Loretta reports:

Though Isabella and I have posted about stoves and other warming devices before, and we know that several methods of heating were used, I was nonetheless taken aback by this "air stove" shown in Ackermann's Repository for September 1825.

Read online here

Read online here

Breakfast Links: Week of September 9, 2013

We survived Friday the Thirteenth unscathed, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of surprises in this week's Breakfast Links - our fav links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, all gathered for you from around the Twitterverse.
• Untangling the tale of the seven Sutherland sisters and their 37 feet of hair.
• Inside a Regency haberdashery shop.
• Storming the castle of love - a great scene on the remains of a medieval ivory mirror case from the 14th century.
• Recipes for 18th c. dogs.
• The WWII propaganda campaign that popularized the myth that carrots help you see in the dark.
• Nottingham in 1796: overrun with giggling, gambling spinsters?
• Ladies at the Columbian Exposition see Samoans (and bare flesh?) for the first time, 1893, Chicago.
• Turquoise, belts, buckles and garters tell a tale of chivalry & love in 19th c. mourning & sentimental jewelry.
• The sad tale of the body of James IV, killed at the Battle of Flodden September 9, 1513.
• Ale and beer in Shakespeare's time.
• Rapper's delight: a "spirit-rapping" humbug in Bridgeport, CT, 1865.
• Tansy time: an old medicinal and culinary herb used for everything from repelling flies to curing hysteria.
• First-person account of Sarah Deming, making her way out of besieged Boston in 1775.
• In honor of Fashion Week, fifty dresses that changed fashion history.
• "We had previously decided to jump into the water before she actually went down": Titanic escape plans.
• Likely as weighty as it sounds: 18th c. recipe for lumber pie.
• Here's a photo of a modern-made lumber pie, plus examples and recipes of historical "bake metes and mince pies."
• "I ought to have the right to control that window!" Etiquette in trains in 1878 and 1929.
• Whatever happened to snuff, that 18th c. vice? Apparently it never went away.
• A 1938 wedding in this NYC mansion features music by operatic stars, including diva Lily Pons.
• When did "chicken" become synonymous with being afraid/terrified?
• "A story of human wrong, suffering, sorrow, & succor": unwanted children of the 19th c.
• Why do some American college campuses look so Gothic?
• Pretty pincushions embroidered by British soldiers in WWI and sent to sweethearts back home.
• "Boil 20-25 minutes": taste-testing a mac & cheese recipe from 1894.
• From long-gone London: four streets off Hockley Hole.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily!

Friday Video: If "Monty Python & the Holy Grail" Were Marketed Like "Game of Thrones"

Isabella reporting,

Today's video clip has been whipping around the internet all week, but it's just too amusing not to share here as well - and besides, Loretta and I are die-hard Monty Python fans. This fake trailer gives the classic 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail the big-budget-Hollywood treatment reserved for an Epic Historical Blockbuster: all the swirling smoke, slow-motion tortured faces, sudden violence, and huge slashing swords. Yet every bit of it comes from the supremely silly Holy Grail. Hats (or helmets) off to Stéphane Bouley for this great way to begin the weekend!