1810 ca Spectacles Or Eye Glasses, British. Fashion accessories as worn by both men and women in the time of the Bridgertons and Jane Austen. via Museum Of London museumoflondon.org. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819


1810 ca Spectacles Or Eye Glasses, British. Fashion accessories as worn by both men and women in the time of the Bridgertons and Jane Austen. via Museum Of London museumoflondon.org. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819


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In Jane Austen’s times craftsmen created boxes and containers of precious metals, leather, silks, and decorated them with jewels. Boxes, Cases, Etui, Necessaire and everything else that was used to carry essential items for travel, sewing, medicine, writing, and toiletries. Containers were engraved to make exquisite and expensive items as well as practical carrying cases. books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases


1802 ‘The Cow Pock or The Wonderful Effects Of The New Inoculation’. By James Gillray. Caricature depicting the early controversy surrounding Dr. Edward Jenner’s cowpox vaccination program begun in 1796 in England. Recipients of the vaccine developing cow-like appendages. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)


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.


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.


How did people travel in Jane Austen and Bridgerton years? What did they take with them to make their long journeys easier? Travel by road, ship, canal, or railway all took a long time and had dangers so people learned to prepare. And then, in the nineteenth century, road improvements, inventions, and scientific developments made travel more pleasurable. Travel and Luggage By Suzi Love History Notes Book 10 books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel
Horse Power To Steam. Various alternatives to horse power were tested in London’s streets during the 19th century. Steam powered road engines and trams proved too heavy and damaged the roads. Stationary steam engines were used to haul trams attached to a cable but these were only really effective on hills that we too steep for horses. There were also experiments with trams driven gas engines and battery electric power. but was successfully developed. Petrol engines were still primitive and unreliable in the 1890s. In 1900 the reliable horse still dominated the streets of London but new technology was to revolutionize road transport.


1800-1817 ca. Black Wool Suit, British. An ensemble made from black wool has been the uniform of the middle-class professional – doctor, lawyer, clergyman, academic, merchant, businessmen – since the late 16th century. This tradition continued through the 19th century and well into the 20th. The sombre color of this suit befits the sober profession of its wearer, Thomas Coutts (1735-1822), the founder of Coutts Bank. The notched collar and cut-away front of the coat reflect early-19th-century fashions. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819
This is the sort of suit that professional men in Jane Austen’s times would have worn, doctors, lawyers and clergymen. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819


What did the lady of the house use to pen notes in Bridgerton and Jane Austen’s years? What sat on the desk of Jane Austen’s male contemporaries when they managed household and estate accounts? books2read.com/SuziLoveWritingTools. Writing Tools, History Notes Book 13.


1806 Silver and silver-gilt vinaigrette, Birmingham, England. Commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Rectangular with a hinged lid and a suspension loop. Gilded, pierced inner cover depicts HMS ‘Victory’ in relief inscribed ‘VICTORY’, ‘TRAFALGAR OCT 21 1805’. Via National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, U.K.
Vinaigrettes were used from the late 18th century through the 19th Century to revive a person who had fainted, having the vapors, or to mask unsanitary odors. Small containers, often a silver hinged box, held a tiny sponge dipped in an aromatic substance which had been dissolved in vinegar. The sponge was held beneath a grill or perforated cover so, by a flick of the fingers, the container was opened and the restorative substance held directly beneath a person’s nose. Jane Austen and her family and friends would have been very familiar with the use of vinaigrettes because Regency Era ladies were noted for having the vapors or fainting in hot ballrooms or dramatic situations. Ladies in the Romantic and Victorian Eras would have used them when tightly laced corsets became popular and ladies fainted because they were unable to draw in enough oxygen.
Both men and women used vinaigrettes in the late 1700s when people encountered foul aromas on a daily basis, but by the 1820s vinaigrettes were mainly used by women.These tiny containers were carried in a pocket, a reticule or bag, or suspended from the waist by chains as part of a chatelaine. Their sterling silver interiors were gilded to prevent discoloration from the acetic acid. Birmingham produced 90% of England’s silver vinaigrettes. As gold wasn’t affected by vinegar, craftsmen created some elaborate and decorative boxes on the container’s exteriors.

