1800s French Palais Royal Sewing Box and Twelve Mother of Pearl Enamel Tools. This is the style of sewing box Jane Austen and her family would have used in the early 1800s, or Regency years. via via suzilove.com and 1st Dibs Auctions 1stdibs.com
Definition: Palais Royal: Name of an area around the Royal Palace in Paris, France, that specialized in making small and exquisite works of art during the 18th and 19th centuries. Palais Royal sewing tools were elaborate and usually feature mother-of-pearl, often intricately carved or engraved. During the 19th century, workboxes were often works of art with engravings, carvings, mother-of-pearl, and elaborate gilt metal mounts. Most popular were scissors with steel blades and gilt mounts, thimbles and needle cases which were often shaped like animals or other natural forms. Workmanship was exceptional and the tools almost too fragile to use.
1775-1777 ca. Snuffbox With Medallion, Russian. Made by Johann Baltasar Gass St Petersburg, Russia. Gold, silver, cut diamonds; chased, engraved and pounced. via liveinternet.ru
1775-1777 ca. Snuffbox With Medallion, Russian. Made by Johann Baltasar Gass St Petersburg, Russia. Gold, silver, cut diamonds; chased, engraved and pounced. via liveinternet.ru
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.
1816 Block Printed Quilt Panel made to celebrate the Marriage of Princess Charlotte to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.
Textile of block-printed white cotton in madder colours with pencilled blue. The cotton is printed with 9.5 octagonal panels intended to be cut out and applied to patchwork quilts. Each panels contains a bunch of flowers. Around the inner border is an inscription of Princess Charlotte of Wales married to Leopold Prince of Saxe-Coburg May 2, 1816. In the borders are three Prince of Wales feathers, the Royal Arms, and a crown on each side. At the end of the textile is printed a rectangular panel containing the manufacturers name and in a corner is the name ‘G. Swindels’.
This quilt has an excise stamp for 1816 and is inscribed ‘John Lowe and Co. Furniture Printers, Shepley Hall’, providing the name of the only identifiable manufacturer of these panels, although there are likely to have been others. John Lowe was a well-known firm of calico printers with large cotton factories and extensive bleaching grounds close to the River Tame near Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire.
Hand-quilting is done on a frame using needles called ‘betweens’. The stitches are executed with one hand; the other hand is kept underneath the quilt to feel for the needle. Small, uniform stitches (usually a ‘running stitch’) are taken through the three layers to form a decorative design. In ‘piecing’ or ‘patchwork’, small pieces of fabric are sewn together to produce a decorative design. The most enduring method in Britain is done by hand, and is known as ‘piecing over paper’. The pattern is first drawn onto paper and then accurately cut. Small pieces of fabric are tacked round each of the shapes, and then joined together from the back using overstitch. Most of the quilt top visible here has been pieced over paper, but in some areas the fabrics have been applied directly on to the earlier quilt that forms the wadding.
Craftsmen created containers of precious metals, leather, and silks and decorated them with jewels and engraving. Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have used writing boxes, linen boxes when travelling, boxes to hold their food and drink supplies while traveling by carriage, and decorative boxes to keep letters, ribbons, gloves, hairpins etc. Boxes, Cases, and Necessaires By Suzi Love, History Notes Book 11. books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases.
1820 ca. Writing Box, English. Rosewood and brass inlaid writing box by William Dobson, The Strand, London. Makers label, gilded candle holders, ink wells. via antiques-atlas.com. Portable boxes for writing materials existed for many centuries but in the last decades of the 18th century socio-economic circumstances in England necessitated the wide use of a portable desk in the form of a box which could be used on a table or on one’s lap. Hence “Lap Desk”.
1800 ca. Heptagonal Bag, French. Old rose moiré silk panels on steel cockade frame. Cut steel rosettes at rivets. Steel turn-key closure. White ribbon on steel rings. White silk lining. Credit: The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A. mfa.org
Reticule Or Bag: As the silhouette of dresses became more form fitting and fabrics lighter and more transparent, pockets could no longer be hidden in the folds of skirts or underwear. Something else was needed to hold a lady’s essentials. Small purses, like men’s money pouches, were used by women to carry money for gambling, sewing necessities, and women’s daily requirements such as combs. A bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery was called a reticule, or ridicule. They came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have purchased or hand made reticules, or bags, for each other for gifts and carried them with them whenever they went out.
Are you a reader or writer of Regency Romance? Love Jane Austen’s books? Want to know more about the mourning, riding, underclothing and other Regency Era women’s fashions in Regency romances? What was fashionable for women in Jane Austen’s times? Mourning, riding, daytime, evening clothing, plus underclothing, corsets and accessories. This book looks at what was fashionable for women in Jane Austen’s times, or the early 1800s, or the Regency Era in Britain. Wars were being fought around the globe so women’s fashion adopted a military look in support of soldiers. Fashions, like the lifestyle, became progressively more extravagant and accessories went from colorful to over-the-top.
What was fashionable for women in Jane Austen’s times? Mourning, riding, daytime, evening clothing, plus underclothing, corsets and accessories. Wars were being fought so women adopted military looks in support of soldiers. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashion1810-1814 History Notes Book 27 Women’s Fashions 1810-1814.
These are the types of outfits worn by Jane Austen and contemporaries in English magazines, where French fashions were obsessively copied despite the two countries being at war for many years. In Jane Austen’s years, she and her contemporaries spent a lot of time walking outdoors. People were encouraged to partake in outdoor pursuits to maintain good health. Fragile slippers were worn for balls and evening events but for walking sturdier shoes were needed, In the early 1800s, these were typically made of leather, had a very small heel, slightly rounded toes and were laced up on the top.
1827 ca. Gentleman’s Dressing Box, London. Mahogany box with brass carrying handles, lid opens to velvet and leather interior with twelve engraved silver topped bottles, all with an engraving of an oak tree. Top tray lifts out to another tray of tools.
1827 ca. Gentleman’s Dressing Box, London. Mahogany box with brass carrying handles, lid opens to velvet and leather interior with twelve engraved silver topped bottles, all with an engraving of an oak tree. Top tray lifts out to another tray. via Antique Tea Caddies, U.K. 1827 ca. Mahogany Gentleman's Dressing Box With Silver Topped Bottles, London. #Regency #Antiques #London. books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases Share on XHN_11_D2D_Craftsmen created containers of precious metals, leather, silks, and decorated them with jewels to make exquisite and expensive items as well as practical carrying cases. books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases
