19th Century Early Green Silk Stockings With Gold Embroidery, French. via Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.C., U.S.A. metmuseum.org

In Jane Austen’s times, women, men, and children wore silk stockings, often embroidered in silk. In the Eighteenth Century, clocks had fallen out of fashion, but they were still being worn by wealthy aristocrats during the early 1800s.

In 1815, Rudolph Ackermann’s Repository Of Arts had an advertisement for silk stockings. ‘The cheapest and by far the largest stock ever produced by any one house now on Sale at the Manufacturer’s Warehouse, 51, Cheapside. The patterns are of the richest and most elegant description, beginning at the extraordinary low price of 8 shillings, usually sold for 10 shillings and 6 pence, to the very best and finest quality at 12 shillings 6 pence, usually sold for 16 shillings.’