1845-1865 ca. Cream Silk Evening Slippers, British. Cream evening shoes with ankle ties and lace trim. Trim is unusual because mid 19th Century ladies’ shoes were often plain as only toes showed beneath fashionable long skirts. Designed By Hobbs, famous London shoemaker, and with a label attached to lining with a regal crest to show maker’s royal patronage. via Metropolitan Museum, NYC, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
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”.
1855 ca. Napoleon III Grand Tour Influenced Travel Writer’s Box, Or Ecritoire, French. Double inkwell with rear stationery box, Gothic style brass accents and Grand Tour souvenir hand painted eglomise scene, the Palais de l’ Industrie from the 1855 Paris World Exposition! Figured veneers, ebonized edging, feet and pen tray and brass or bronze accents. via 1st Dibs 1stdibs.com
19th Century Set of Damascened Calligrapher’s Tools, Turkey. via Sotheby’s Auctions. sothebys.com
books2read.com/SuziLoveWritingTools
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 would have in Bridgerton and Jane Austen households for writing letters and keeping track of estate matters.
1805-1810 ca. Evening Dress, French. Empire style, or high-waisted, cotton dress, short sleeves
and long train. Gold metallic thread embroidery. via Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.C., U.S.A.
“The more I know of the world the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!” Jane Austen ~ Sense and Sensibility (1811)
1819 White Dress With Short Sleeves, English. Styled after the Court of France. Yellow skirt with long train decorated with flowers. Flowered headdress, long white gloves, necklace.Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
1804 London Hairstyles, Gorgeous Gold Hats. via Fashion Plate via Fashions of London and Paris, Published By Richard Phillips, St. Paul’s Church Yard, London, UK. These styles of hats and hairstyles would have been worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries as hats were an essential fashion item during the Regency years.
1815-1818 ca. Cocoa Silk Figured Dress with Spencer. High-waisted, Empire style, dress with long sleeved Spencer, decorated shoulders, bodice and hem. The Bridgertons, Jane Austen, and their family and friends would have worn this style of dress and Spencer. via Whitaker Auction whitakerauction.smugmug.com Spencers 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 the transparency of gowns might cause modesty issues. Jane Austen and her contemporaries often walked to places and so would have needed the warmth of a Spencer over her dress in the cold British winters.
Definition Spencer: Short jacket said to have originated from an accident to Lord Spencer’s coat when hunting and tails were torn off.
