From the archives: What's at the Makeup Counter in the 1820s

With deadlines looming, we've pulled this post from our archives to share again.

Loretta reports:

Thanks to Frances Grimble’s splendid compilation, The Lady’s Stratagem, (which I’ve referred to/raved about here, here, here, and here), I’ve discovered several terrific resources dealing with historical dress and manners in the early 19th century.  One was The Duties of a Lady’s Maid (1825).

Among other things, the book offers a clue to how matters stood regarding makeup.  The contents make it clear that it was acceptable for women—and not just actresses and harlots—to wear make-up.

Though the author recommends making beauty aids at home—and offers many dire warnings regarding toxic ingredients—ladies could and did buy them from their favorite perfumer.

One could buy rouge in dishes, of which there were two kinds, Portugal-made (superior & costlier) and London-made.  One could also buy small cakes of rouge-tinged Spanish wool (I’m picturing felt, but welcome explanations from our experts)—the London-made being superior to the Spanish-made.

There were also color papers.  One variety was rouge-tinged paper, “chiefly for the convenience of carrying it in a pocket-book.” Another, from China, came in fragile 3” diameter “large, round, loose cakes.”  The wool that holds the rouge is described as being “like carded wool,” and apparently, the color flaked off easily.

China also provided color boxes, which “contain each two dozen of papers; and in each paper are three smaller ones, viz., a small black paper for the eyebrows; a paper of the same size, of a fine green colour; but which, when just arrived and fresh, makes a very fine red for the face; and lastly, a paper containing about half an ounce of white powder (prepared from real pearl), for giving an alabaster colour to some parts of the face and neck.”

Mouse fur eyebrows not included.

Illustrations courtesy Wikimedia
Top: Katsushika Hokusai, A bowl of lip rouge, a mirror in a case, and a packet of face powder.

Bottom:  Mignot Parfumeur, illustration from Journal Universel 16 décembre 1854—by Monsieur Gilbert Randon.

A "Lady with a Scarf," c. 1820, Inspiring Sailors – and Perhaps Nathaniel Hawthorne

Isabella reporting,

Museums are like icebergs - very often what's on display for the world to admire is only a tiny fraction of what is actually in the collection, hidden away in storage rooms and warehouses.

This week I again visited one of my favorite historical spots in Boston, The Bostonian Society, located in the Old State House Museum. I was there at the invitation of Patricia Gilrein, Collections Manager, who brought out exquisite baby clothes from the exceptional 18th c. needle of Elizabeth Bull Price (I've already shared her wedding gown and neckerchief) that will soon merit blog posts of their own.

But I also had the chance to follow Patricia off into one of the Society's storage areas, and that's where I encountered this winsome young lady. Although she's posed like a figurehead, ready to lead a ship across the seas, she likely never saw a drop of saltwater. Instead she served as a shop display piece, a model to show off the skills of her maker: Isaac Fowle, an expert carver working from 1807-1832. His shop was at 53 Prince Street in Boston, and the business was continued by his two sons, John D. Fowle and William Henry Fowle, until 1869.

At 74" tall, the figure is larger than life. She's carved from pine, and she's painted white, perhaps to make her look more like a classical statue carved of stone. Unlike the seductive mermaids and idealized goddesses that were favorites of both 19th c. carvers and sailors, this figure looks more like a portrait of a real young woman.  Perhaps she was Isaac Fowle's own wife, sweetheart, or daughter, or a young woman who worked in one of the other shops on Prince Street.

Whoever she might have been, Fowle chose to show her fashionably dressed in a button-front gown, short boots, and lace-trimmed petticoats, and the way the fabric pulls slightly across the front of her bodice (and scandal! no corset!) must have made plenty of sailors sigh.  I love all the little details - the trim and border of her dress, her skirts rippling in the wind, even the brooch at her collar and the bracelet on her wrist – that make her seem almost alive.

But there's a chance she might have inspired more than shipowners and randy sailors. Tradition says this figure was seen by Massachusetts author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), and that she was the inspiration for his fanciful short story "Drowne's Wooden Image" from Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Tales (1846). You can read it online here (it's a very short story), and judge for yourself.

Many thanks to Patricia Gilrein for introducing me to this delightful lady! 

Lady with a Scarf, by Isaac Fowle, c 1820. The Bostonian Society. Photographs copyright 2014 Susan Holloway Scott.

Fashions for November 1810

Half Dress

Loretta reports:

This month’s fashion plates, from Ackermann’s Repository for 1810, show the high-waisted, “classical” style we usually associate with the Regency—although, strictly speaking, the Prince of Wales (later, King George IV) did not become Prince Regent until the following year.  However, social history, art, & architecture scholars generally use the term to cover a broader span, from about 1800 until Victoria came to the throne in 1837.  To save a lot of defining, qualifications, and the ensuing arguments pro and con, I try to stick with “early 19th century.”

Whatever you call the era, this is about as vertical as the vertical style gets.  What structure there is tends to be concentrated on the bodice.  Still, it’s by no means a plain style.  These dresses show some beautiful work on the bodice and neckline, and the scarves or tippets add drama.

Walking & Morning Dress

Dress description

You will note that plump cheeks are in fashion.


Images courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, via Internet Archive.
Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the captions will allow you to read at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

An 1835 Workbook of Needlework "Specimens"

Isabella reporting,

Last weekend I attended a wonderful conference at Winterthur Museum: The Diligent Needle: Instrument of Profit, Pleasure, and Ornament. The talks and workshops were devoted to the needlework of British and American women from around 1600 to the present, with topics that ranged from 18th c. samplers of the Carolinas to elaborate embroidered boxes from Stuart England, early 19th c. stuffed and stitched silk globes from a Quaker boarding school to the 1960s crewel work of Erica Wilson. In the museum galleries is also an accompanying exhibition, also called The Diligent Needle, of pieces from Winterthur's collection that will be running through July 5, 2015. Over the next weeks, I'll be sharing some of the things I learned and saw here on the blog.

This workbook was part of a workshop on the samplers and general needlework taught to girls in 18th-19th c. orphanages, asylums, charity, and model schools in Britain. The workbooks came from the collection of the workshop-leader, Rebecca Scott of Witney Antiques, Oxfordshire, England.

While middle and upper class girls studied fancy decorative needlework as a suitable "accomplishment" and produced samplers to be framed and admired by their doting family, the lower-class girls enrolled in a charity school (often orphans) were learning a much more practical kind of needlework. The goal was to prepare the girls for careers as skilled seamstresses, mantua-makers, and dressmakers, all respectable careers open to women, and ones in which they could become self-sufficient and even prosperous.

This workbook, printed in Dublin in 1835, was part of a rigorous program designed to teach students in model schools not only the basics of "plain needlework", but also crochet, tatting, fine lace knitting, darning, and elaborate embroidery stitches. The book's very lengthy title explains its purpose: Simple Directions in Needle-work and Cutting Out Intended for the Use of the National Female Schools of Ireland to Which Are Added, Specimens of Work Executed by the Pupils of the National Model Female Schools. (Whew!)

The first part of the book contained detailed directions for a series of lessons designed to teach various skills as well as the most economical ways to cut and produce garments. When the project, or "specimen," was completed and approved by the instructor, it was pasted in the special back pages of the book that were printed on sturdier paper, like a scrapbook. The workbook therefore became a record of accomplishment, a reference book for the future, and a portfolio to show to future employers.

On the pages (each about 8"x10") above, the specimens on the left demonstrate seaming and piecing, while the miniature nightshirt on the right shows gathers, hemming, narrow seams, and buttonholes. The pages below displays specimens of fine-gauge knitted lace, and examples of precisely executed herring-bone stitching on cotton muslin and on wool flannel. (As always, please click on the images ot enlarge them.)

Ms. Scott had several examples of these workbooks, each bulging with dozens of completed specimens. It was easy to imagine how proud each young woman must have been of her accomplishments when the lessons were complete and the back pages of the workbook filled: symbols of patience and skill, but also of hope for now-promising future.

Many thanks to Rebecca Scott for sharing her collection - please check out her website for many more examples of British samplers and needlework: www.witneyantiques.com.

Breakfast Links: Week of October 27, 2014

For your weekend reading pleasure - our weekly round-up of favorite links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, collected via Twitter.
• Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time: presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt attends a Salem "pageant" to watch witches being hanged in 1932.
• A lovely c. 1900 photograph of young sisters Jessica & Rosalie Wakefield by Horace Warner - and what became of the two girls.
• Cocaine wine: Coca Cola's sordid past was the fireball of the Victorian era.
• Sarah Bernhardt's aging was front page news.
• Image: "A Peep into Brest with a Navel Review": caricature of a late 18th c. fashion statement.
• Could your stuff be haunted? Ghostbusting the creepiest antiques.
• Three brave British Army wives from the American Revolution.
• In 1938, a kindergarten teacher made Los Angeles court room history by wearing slacks to testify in a burglary case; the judge sentenced her to jail for contempt of court.
• After the Boston Tea Party, colonists brewed bergamot and other herbs as substitute teas - try it yourself.
• Image: a 1920s printed souvenir fan for a society ball held at Palais Garnier.
• A history of Regency Royal Ascot (starring Wellesley-Pole.)
• Robert Fulton (1765-1815), creator of steamboats and submarines - and of paintings like Love's First Interview.
• London street names: ham sandwiches and the Hellfire Club.
• The origins of the Shroud of Turin.
• Image: The opening lines of James Boswell's draft of "Life of Samuel Johnson" in the Beinecke's Boswell Collection.
• The "western" techniques hidden in Chinese wallpaper.
• The evolution of women's dress in the workplace from 1900 to 2000.
• Video: Georgian delights in Kensington Palace's royal costume storage.
• Beautiful assortment of costumes from historical movies.
• Sweet Potato Pudding from 1827: the original recipe, plus modern adaptation for your Thanksgiving table.
• How an African slave helped Boston fight smallpox.
• Interactive map showing legacy of 18th c. landscape designer Capability Brown.
• Image: 1920s shoe: olive silk upper and silver and gold leather applique.
• World War One and women doctors: the work of American women's hospitals "over there."
• The tiniest places overseen by the National Trust: the best dolls' houses.
• Scandalous tales of the British Embassy in Paris.
• Image: At the end of World War Two, emergency stretchers were used in some districts of London as fences.
• Gallery of the world's most beautiful bookstores.
• When a 12 became a 6: a short history of standardized sizing in American women's clothing.
• The 19th c. Frenchman responsible for a gigantic fraud.
• Image: Just for fun: ghost fashions.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.