1810 ca. Silk Dress, Probably French. High-waisted, or Empire line, dress with long straight sleeves, back opening, embroidery on neck frill and multiple rows of embroidery on the hem. via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. ~ metmuseum.org
1809 Blue Redingote, French. Back view of walking coat with military style trim, upstanding collar, white hat, black shoes and a handkerchief. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Redingotes or Pelisses were needed to cover the flimsy dresses made of lightweight fabrics of the Regency years to provide warmth and some protection from windy conditions when gowns might lift and cause modesty issues. Jane Austen and her contemporaries often walked to places and so would have needed the warmth of a Pelisse or coat in the cold British winters.
In Europe, a Redingote was a coat or robe like garment worn both indoors and out, indoors left open to reveal a dress while the outdoor version was made of heavier materials and of darker colors than the type worn indoors. The name comes from the term ‘riding coat.’
1806 Two Ladies In White Walking Dresses, French. Puffed sleeves, extra long gloves, bonnets tied under chins and decorated with flowers, walking boots, green cashmere shawl. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. These fashionable ensembles with a variety of fashionable and practical accessories would have been worn by Jane Austen and her family and friends during the day when out walking in the park or visiting village shops. Hats were a necessity to protect fair skin from the sun and scarfs and shawls added color and warmth to an outfit.
1804-1815 ca. Wedding Dress. Silk dress with square bodice and very small bodice, short puffed sleeves, beautiful train decorated in gold. via Palais Galliera, or Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. City of Paris Fashion Museum, formerly Musée Galliera. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1805-1809
18th Century Snuff Boxes. Not only were boxes made to serve a purpose, but decorative boxes of all types were prized, especially in the 18th Century when everything decorative and extravagant was in vogue and taking a pinch of snuff was fashionable. Snuff is made from ground or pulverized tobacco leaves and is sniffed from a pinch of snuff placed on the back of the hand. Flavorings were added to the tobacco to give a fast hit of nicotine and a lasting scent. Snuff began in the Americas and was used in Europe by the 17th Century.
Snuff became popular from the mid 1600s to the mid 1800s and was more popular than smoking. Inhaling snuff, or snuffing, was first seen by a European missionary in 1493 in Christopher Columbus’s new world within Haiti’s indigenous Taino. Until then, tobacco had been unknown to Europeans, but its use spread quickly throughout Europe during the 1500s. By the second half of the 17th century, ornate boxes started being produced to keep the precious powder dry and an entire industry making accessories blossomed around the fashion of taking snuff. Noblemen, and some women, carried extravagantly decorated snuff boxes with them at all times and would offer a pinch of their own particular blend to friends and family. Therefore, these boxes were always on display and so it became a competition to see who could have the most bejeweled or expensive box possible. books2read.com/suziloveFashMen1700
From 1700 until the early 1800s, pockets with waist ties were worn by women to keep essential items on their person. Generally of linen or some other cotton fabric, they were often quilted, or embroidered and gifted or handed down to others. In the 18th century, women’s pockets were not sewn into their gowns. Instead they were attached to a tape and tied around the waist as separate garments. Worn under the hoops and petticoats, they were accessed through openings in the gown and petticoat seams. By the early 1800s, round gowns were both flowing and almost transparent so pockets could no longer be worn under dresses, so ridicules, or bags, or reticules were carried instead. Jane Austen and her female friends and family would have worn pockets under their out layers.
From the Curator Victoria and Albert Museum, London: Quilting was a popular form of decoration for a variety of garments including pockets. However, hand-quilting was a time-consuming method of decoration. The increased demand for quilted petticoats, waistcoats and pockets led to the invention of woven quilting.
1700-1725 ca. Pair of Linen Twill Women’s Pockets With Crewel Embroidery and Waist Ties, British. Embroidered in yellow, green and pink worsted thread with chain and stem stitches, design of flower pot with flowering plant, bound with green worsted tape and sewn to linen tape tie. Designs are similar but not identical, suggesting both hand-drawn and possibly work of an amateur. Pockets may have been handed down to another person who found them too small as each pocket has been extended at top by 4 cms. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
collections.vam.ac.uk.
1750-1800 ca. Woman’s Pocket With Waist Ties, New England, America. Linen plain weave, cotton plain weave, wool embroidery. Dimensions 39.5 cm x 27.5 cm. Polychrome crewels on cotton and linen, vine with buds, flowers and leaves and initials M.W. in center. In 18th century, women’s pockets were tied around waist with tape as separate garments, worn under hoops and petticoats, accessed through openings in gown and petticoat seams. via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A. mfa.org
1660-1700 ca. Green Velvet Gaming Purse, Probably French. Trimmed with Copper-Gilt Thread, probably French. This purse was designed especially for gaming, or gambling, and would have held money, or counters, and is of a different design to other 17th-century purses. The base is a flat circle and the sides are gathered on a drawstring to stop money or gaming counters from spilling out, and to hide how much a gambler had in the purse. The bag’s plain look was probably a deliberate move to fool other gamblers into thinking the owner had little money.The purse is quite plain, with no embroidery and only a twist of copper gilt thread, gilt being a cheap substitute for gold or silver thread.
Playing and betting on card games was a socially acceptable pastime for the wealthy in the late 17th century. Along with dancing, riding and the theatre, it was an amusement for those classes that did not have to work. A gentleman or lady who did not participate in games such as ‘Quadrille’ and ‘Basset’ would have been considered ‘low-bred and hardly fit for conversation’ according to ‘The Compleat Gamester’, published in 1674. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
1805 January Two Ladies In White Paris Dresses, English. Two interesting bodices, long gloves, necklaces, shawl, fan and adorable hats. Fashion Plate via The Lady’s Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, London. These are the types of outfits worn by Jane Austen and contemporaries and were seen in English magazines, where French fashions were obsessively copied despite the two countries being at war for many years.
A sedan chair is a portable enclosed chair for a single passenger. It was generally carried by two “chairmen” holding poles attached to either side of the chair. Sedan chairs were fashionable in England and Europe during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries and were an important part of the social life of the times. They were very useful for negotiating crowded, unsafe, narrow, winding and often filthy streets and were particularly used by “invalids, ladies and party goers”. Sedan chairs had the advantage of being able to be carried up and down stairs and could deliver the passenger from inside their own home to inside their destination without having to step outside.
1784 Sedan Chair. ‘The return from a masquerade. A morning scene.’ A young lady dressed as shepherdess with staff slumps in a sedan chair. Asleep or drunk her head and shoulders hang outside window. Two porters smile and dwarf chimney sweep carries a mask.’ By Robert Dighton and Cari.
The 19th century English author, Elizabeth Gaskell, described the use and function of the sedan perfectly in her novel “Wives and Daughters” when she reminisced how the Browning sisters chose to be transported to a ball by sedan chair, which ‘came into the parlor, and got full of the warm air, and nipped you up, and carried you tight and cosy into another warm room, where you could walk out without having to show your legs by going up steps, or down steps.’
The Bath Chair was invented in Bath, England, in the mid 18th Century to transport the wealthy and the sick around the city. It could be steered by the passenger and rivaled and then outdid the Sedan Chair as only one chairman was needed to operate it. The last Bath Chairman retired in 1949.
Typical 1700s, or Eighteenth Century Sedan Chair. Portable enclosed chair for single passenger usually carried by two chairmen holding poles attached to either side of chair. Fashionable during 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries when needed to negotiate crowded, unsafe, narrow, and dirty streets. Used by invalids, ladies and party goers. The sedan chair comprises a small kiosk with a curved timber roof which is covered with leather and studded with brass nails. The front and side panels are painted in green with floral decorations of cherubs and flowers. The back panel is of plain timber. Access to the chair was via a hinged door at the front. Inside, the chair is upholstered in silk and features padded upholstered arm rests. The windows have raw silk curtains which are gathered with tassels. The present brackets and poles are reproductions made in 1986 prior to display in the Transport exhibition. The total length of the new poles are 80 inches. The sedan chair door lock features the initials “V.F.” and a set of crossed keys with the wording “PARIS” and the number “34”. Via Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.
Typical 1700s, or Eighteenth Century Sedan Chair. Portable enclosed chair for single passenger usually carried by two chairmen holding poles attached to either side of chair. Fashionable during 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries when needed to negotiate crowded, unsafe, narrow, and dirty streets. Used by invalids, ladies and party goers. The sedan chair comprises a small kiosk with a curved timber roof which is covered with leather and studded with brass nails. The front and side panels are painted in green with floral decorations of cherubs and flowers. The back panel is of plain timber. Access to the chair was via a hinged door at the front. Inside, the chair is upholstered in silk and features padded upholstered arm rests. The windows have raw silk curtains which are gathered with tassels. The present brackets and poles are reproductions made in 1986 prior to display in the Transport exhibition. The total length of the new poles are 80 inches. The sedan chair door lock features the initials “V.F.” and a set of crossed keys with the wording “PARIS” and the number “34”. Via Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.
The longest journey recorded in a sedan chair was made by Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of King George III, who in 1728 was carried by 8 chairmen working in reliefs from London to Bath, a distance of 172 kms (107 miles). This sedan chair door lock features the initials “V.F.” and a set of crossed keys with the wording “PARIS” and the number “34”.
18th-19th Century Sedan Chair Travel In Jane Austen's Times. #JaneAusten #BritishHistory #Travel #GeorgianEra books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel Share on X
19th Century Early. Gilt and Patinated Bronze Inkstand , or Encrier, or a little reservoir of ink. Rectangular base mounted with a round lidded ink pot with a porcelain container and a sand pot, each raised on winged lion feet, centered by a palm decorated columnar carrying handle, with two pen holes. via 1st Dibs Auctions 1stdibs.com
The type of inkstand that households woulds have in Bridgerton and Jane Austen households for writing letters and keeping track of estate matters.
