1808 Silver Wax Jack, Irish. By Robert Breading (active 1775–1822) Dublin. via suzilove.com and Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
How did Jane Austen seal her letters? Wax was melted by lighting the tip of a coiled wax length. This is called a wax jack. The melted wax blob was placed on the outside of a letter or document. A personal desk seal or a fob seal was pressed into the wax to identify the sender or owner of the document. Aristocrat families had their own coat of arms and others may have had their initials or their name on the seal.
1810-1815 ca. Salmon Pink Empire Style Dress, Norway. Typical Regency high-waisted dress. Long sleeves with puckered sleeve cap. Deep neckline with short shirred bodice. Long full skirt. via Digital Museum, Norway. digitalmuseum.no Regency fashion at its prettiest. The style of Empire style, or high-waisted, dress worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries.
The Empire waist gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given in France to the period when Napoleon built his French Empire. High-waisted, loose gowns were adopted by the aristocracy as a symbol of turning away from the fussy, elaborate and expensive clothing worn in the 1700s. Jean-Jaques Rousseau advocated copying peasants and returning to a simpler life and more natural fashions. Unrestricting clothing was part of the new Democracy in France and these simpler and flowing fashions were adopted all over Europe, including Britain and despite the continual wars being fought against France during the early 1800s. Not even war stopped fashions from being copied everywhere.
1819 January Red Redingote, French. Merino wool coat over a white dress with a high lace collar, matched with a black velour, or velvet, hat lined with white satin. Military style shoulder pads and front buttons. It was fashionable at the time to wear military inspired clothing to show support of all the men fighting in wars across the world. The type of outfit young Regency Era ladies would have worn if they were out shopping on Bond Street, walking in a park, or taking a carriage ride through Hyde Park. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Definition Redingote Or Pelisse Or Walking Dress Or Coat: French word developed from English words, riding coat. Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. Often left open at the front to show off the dress underneath. Sometimes cut away in front. Originally made with several capes and trimmed with large buttons. French fashion plates call these coats Redingotes and they are designed for women, men and children. English fashion plates call them a Pelisse, a walking dress, Promenade dress, or Carriage dress.
1819 January Red Redingote, French. Also called a Pelisse or Walking Dress in England. Merino wool coat over a white dress with a high lace collar, matched with a black velour, or velvet, hat lined with white satin. Fashion Plate via suzilove.com and Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1819 Red Merino Wool Redingote Or Coat With Matching Bonnet. #Regency #Fashion #FashionPlate #French https://www.books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819
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.
1812 Dress of Yellow Virginie, French. High waisted dress trimmed with lilacs, cashmere shawl, high white neck frill, high flowered bonnet. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costume Parisien.
Typical of the Empire dresses worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries. Low necklines and skirts that started directly under the bust and flowed into the classical relaxed wide styles of Greece and Rome. These high-waisted dresses were worn most days and cotton, silk or taffeta were the popular fabrics.
1814 April Morning Dress and Lace Cap. ‘”A petticoat and bodice of fine jaconet muslin, finished round the bottom in vandykes and small buttons. The Rochelle spencer composed of the same material, appliqued with footing lace down the sleeve, and trimmed at each edge with a narrow but full border of muslin. Double fan frill of muslin round the neck, very full, continuing round the bottom of the waist, where it is gathered on a beading of needle-work. Bourdeaux mob cap, composed of lace, with treble full borders, narrowed under the chin. A small flower placed backward, on the left side. Hair much divided in front, and in full waved curls on each side. Necklace of twisted gold and pearl, with pendant cross in the center. Spring Green kid slippers and gloves of the same.”
“This dress is from Mrs. Gill, of Cork-street, to whose taste and invention this work as well as the world of fashion, are under continued obligations.” Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Definition Van Dyke Points: V-shaped lace and trims named after a 17th Century Flemish painter, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, known for painting V-shaped lace collars and scalloped edges on sitters.
Definition Jaconet: Cotton fabric of medium thickness made in England, lighter than shirting and heavier than mull.
Definition Muslin: Thin fabric said to take its name from Mosul or Moosul, a large town in Turkish Asia where it was first made.
1814 April Promenade or walking dress of fine cambric with a high bodice and long sleeves, embroidered stomacher front and high collar, trimmed with muslin or lace, Tuscan border of needle-work the feet. A Cossack mantle of pink velvet lined with white sarsnet and trimmed with light sable, ermine, seal, or American squirrel. Short tippet of the same, mantle tied at throat with a silk cord and tassels. Pink velvet hat finished with narrow vandyke trimming and a small flower in the hair on the left side. Pink half boots and gloves of primrose kid or pale tan. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.1814 April White Spencer Over Morning Dress Of Jaconet Muslin Finished With Vandykes. #RegencyEra #JaneAusten #FashionPlate https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashion1810-1814 Share on XHN_27_D2D_fashwomen1810-1814
1812 August. Ball Dress, English. Dress with lower waistline than normal in the Empire period, pink laced bodice, with decorative sleeves, skirt with pink hem decoration, pink hat with pretty plume, and yellow gloves. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s ‘La Belle Assemblee’, London. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashion1810-1814
Regency Gentleman’s Sporting Life in the times of Jane Austen. By Robert Cruikshank via Google Books Races, bowls, sailing, fox hunting… all the sports enjoyed by people in Regency Era. From: 1826 The English Spy by Robert Cruikshank via Google Books (PD150)
1826 Doncaster Race Course for the Great St. Leger Race. Regency Sporting Life. via 1826 The English Spy By English Cartoonist, Robert Cruikshank.1826 Bowling Alley at Worcester, England. Regency Sporting Life. via 1826 The English Spy By English Cartoonist, Robert Cruikshank.1826 View of Berkeley Hunt Kennel, England. Regency Sporting Life. via 1826 The English Spy By English Cartoonist, Robert Cruikshank.1826 Casualties Of The Hunt.A Regency Gentleman’s Sporting Life. Regency Sporting Life. via 1826 The English Spy By English Cartoonist, Robert Cruikshank.1826 Race characters at the turf, Regency Sporting Life. via 1826 The English Spy By English Cartoonist, Robert Cruikshank.1826 Regency Gentleman's Sporting Life By Robert Cruikshank. #Cartoon #RegencyEra #GoogleBooks https://books2read.com/suziloveYGD Share on XRL_2_D2D_RetailerBuyLink_RL_2
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1811 White Dress, French. Worn under a white spotted tunic with yellow over dress with long sleeves. White gloves, shoes and hat with plume, or feathers, or aigrette. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Even though this is a French fashion plate, Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have worn long coats like these to keep warm when out and about, visiting, shopping etc. The thin muslin dresses worn in the early 1800s were little protection against European winters so warmth and color was added by tunics and coats in a huge variety of styles.
Definition Aigret, aigrette, egret: Plume of feathers or jeweled ornament in shape of feathers worn on head or hats. During the early 19th century., or Jane Austen’s lifetime, the favorite feathers were osprey and heron.
