1808 April Trio of Two Men and a Woman in Full and Half Dress in the Directoire and Empire period, or the Regency Era, or the times of Jane Austen. Two varieties of men’s pants, one knee breeches and stockings and one long pants worn inside high boots. One wearing a Bicorn hat and the other holding a top hat and both with yellow gloves. Woman wearing a pink pelisse, or coat, over a white walking gown with a train and holding a parasol. via Le Beau Monde, or Literary and Fashionable Magazine, London, U.K.
1810-1812 ca. Embroidery on Dress, Probably Spanish. Made of Embroidered cloth with Pina, or pineapple motifs. In Jane Austen’s times, pineapples were very much a luxury item. It became popular to sew items in pineapple shapes or to embroider pineapples onto articles. via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
1808 Walk in the Tuileries Gardens. A dandy of the Year VIII. According to Baudelaire, a dandy was, “no profession other than elegance…no other status but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons….The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live and sleep before a mirror.” Dandies tried to imitate the aristocracy in manner and appearance. This man wears short breeches, usually worn by the aristocracy, that were out of fashion and had been replaced by the ‘more-democratic’ ankle-length pants. His outfit and manners are a throwback to a pre-Revolutionary era. llustrations by François Courboin from Octave Uzanne’s Les Modes de Paris. Fashion in Paris : the various phases of feminine taste and aesthetics from 1797 to 1897, William Heinemann, London, 1898. (PD-Art) via Brown University Library.
Box Set combining Corset books 14-21 to give a complete picture of the progression of corset styles from 1700 through to the 1900s, including Jane Austen’s lifetime. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveCorsetBook22
This Box Set combines corset books 14-21 to give a complete picture of the progression of corset styles from 1700 through to the 1900s, including Jane Austen’s lifetime and the Bridgerton years. These books show how body wraps, stays, and corsets were worn through the centuries to create a variety of fashionable silhouettes through various historical eras. Corsets flattened breasts and accentuated rounded hips or pushed up breasts and showed off the bust line depending on the fashions of the time and the desired silhouette.
1816 August Back view of a lady in Evening Dress, English. White, high-waisted, dress with short bodice, long sleeves, frilled hem plus decoration above the frill, high plumed headdress, and reading music sheets. “A gown of white soft satin, cut low all round the back and bosom.The skirt gored, and a good deal of fullness thrown behind. The body, which is disposed in small plaits, displays the shape, as our readers perceive by print, to very great advantage; it is trimmed round bosom with a wreath of small white net roses, with a little tuft of pearl in the heart of each. Long loose sleeve, composed of white lace, and finished a la Parisienne with a rich double frill at the wrists.
The skirt is ornamented, in an exquisitely tasteful style, with a broad flounce of rich blond, surmounted by a wreath of roses and deep scallops of white net, the points of which are finished by bows of white satin ribbon. The effect of this trimming is uncommonly beautiful. Hair, cropped and curled full in the back of the neck, and dressed light, and much parted on the forehead: it is ornamented With a superb white ostrich-plume, at the base of which is an aigrette of diamonds. Neck-lace, ear. rings, and bracelets also of diamond. White satin slippers, and white kid gloves. We have to thank the condescension of a lady of much celebrity in the fashionable world, to whom we are indebted for a sight of the very elegant and tasteful dress from which our present print is designed.” Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
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
19th Century Snuff Boxes. Not only were boxes made to serve a purpose, but decorative boxes of all types were prized, especially in the 18th-19th Centuries 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. By the mid 1800s, snuff taking was no longer popular so these exquisite and expensive snuff boxes became decorative, rather than functional.
19th Century Shoe Snuffbox. via 1st Dibs Auctions 1stdibs.com19th Century Engraved Horn Snuffbox. Heart surrounded by flowers and leaves, sides with dove, symbol of purity and peace, brass hinge and setting. via 1st Dibs Auctions19th Century Carved Boxwood Snuffbox. Horse with saddle for a lid. via 1st Dibs Auctions
1804-1809 ca. Snuffbox in the Shape of A Lion, Moulinie, Bautte and Cie, Geneva, Switzerland.via Victoria and Albert Museum.1820 Snuffbox with scene of harvesting fruit. By Johann Wilhelm Keibel (master 1812; died 1862). via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org1810 ca. Jeweled Gold Snuff Box, Switzerland. Maker’s Mark Geneva. via Christie’s Auction Rooms. christies.com 19th Century Taking Snuff and Pretty Snuff Boxes In Bridgerton and Jane Austen Years. #bridgerton #RegencyEra #JaneAusten #Antiques https://www.books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases Share on X
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” Jane Austen Persuasion (1817) #JaneAusten #Quote
Music history from the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. Pianos, pianofortes, harps, viols, violins played during Jane Austen’s times. Musical Instruments were so important in most of the more affluent households in history that large industries grew all around the world to manufacture instruments, musical accessories, and to print sheet music. Musical instruction and encouragement could be found everywhere and both young ladies and gentlemen were encouraged to have musical appreciation. And of course, playing music was on the list of social requirements for all young ladies desirous of becoming a wife and homemaker.
London became Europe’s leading centre for the manufacture of scientific instruments and this led to the manufacture of more musical instruments as well as factories developed and rail transport helped the faster distribution of goods to regional areas. One of the first places that music was used to tell stories and to share enjoyment was in Christmas music. Because music was such an integral part of households, music was always a feature in Magazines. There were advertisements everywhere for musical instruments for sale, for sheet music, and for music lessons. And of course, of most interest to the ladies were the hundreds of fashion plates included in magazines where people were depicted with their musical instruments.
1800 ca. Sleeveless Chemise or Nightgown of white cotton and lace. Length just below knee. Gathered back and front onto yoke of lace and gathered fabric inserts. Gathers around neck by tape in casing. ‘Blanche’ embroidered centre front. Waist up to 50 in or more. via National Trust Collections, UK. nationaltrustcollections.org.uk
Definition Chemise Or Shift: Sleeveless, mid-calf length garment of white cotton or muslin was worn next to the skin under stays or corset. Called ‘Shift’ from early Georgian (1700-1750) until Late Georgian (1750-1790) to replace ‘Smock’. By 1800, name replaced by ‘Chemise’. Sometimes doubled as a nightshift, or nightrail. From around 1700, women wore a long garment, like a man’s shirt, next to their skin, day and night. ‘Costume In England’ describes this as originally a shirt or smock and adopted by women as an undergarment.
This undergarment fell from their shoulders to calves, and was called a chemise, shift, or vest. During the day, it was worn under stays, or a corset, and at night it could be worn as a nightshirt. Wealthier women could afford specific bedroom attire, but lower and working class women wouldn’t have had this luxury and so wore a chemise as both an undergarment and as sleepwear. The rich and the upper classes wore embroidered and otherwise decorated versions of this simple linen or cotton shift. Other classes of women wore a very simple version with little or no decoration as they had no time for decorative embroidery and no money to buy silk threads.
