Travel and Luggage By Suzi Love History Notes Book 10. How did people travel in Jane Austen’s times. In past centuries? 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. books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel
1715 ca. Rectangular Envelope Style Bag, French. Polychrome opaque and translucent glass beads strung with linen thread, held together by interlocking looping stitches (sablé). Design on white ground: woman playing table organ, woman seated, boy and girl flanking, urn with flowers right, two insects and curtain above (obv.); sun and phoenix of Louis XIV, ribbon above inscribed IE VIS SANS MOURIR, inscribed at bottom and right SI IE MEURS CE NEST QUE POVR REVIVRE (rev.); vegetative scene (flap). Gilt-galloon binding. Salmon figured silk lining and side panels. Cardboard foundation. via Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, USA. collections.lacma.org
1820-1840 ca. Reticule, Or Purse, France. Bag of plain weave white moiré silk embroidered in colored silks using satin, stem, knot and couching stitches. Shape is five-sided, flat, with a scalloped top. Borders of flower wreaths. Embroidered on one side with a greyhound and with a long-tailed bird on the other. Worked as two separate panels, joined. Lined in pale blue taffeta. Blue and white silk cord. via Cooper Hewitt, New York City, USA. collection.cooperhewitt.org
Definition Reticule: Bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket. So women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring. http://books2read.com/suziloveReticules
1863 Traveler’s Chest, French. Sewing Tools, Ruby Perfume, Aide de Memoire or Notebook, etc. Inside lid with theatre curtains. via Ruby Lane Antiques. rubylane.com
19th Century First Quarter Red Mesh Reticule, British. Small mesh bags known as reticules were the must-have “it bags” of 1800-1825. Too small for carrying much more than a few coins, reticules were often shown in satirical prints as a fashionable foible of women’s attire. Knit into an elegant lantern-like shape, this example survives with its original ribbon trim making it a particularly lovely and rare example of a short-lived fashion trend. via Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.C., U.S.A. metmuseum.org
Definition Reticule: Bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket. So women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring.
1817 February Pelisse, or Redingote, English. Carriage dress of white poplin with a deep blond flounce. Blue levantine pelisse or walking dress, or Redingote in France, shorter than the dress and edged with floss silk. Coburg cap of black velvet turns up on one side in front and is lined and edged with blue satin. The head-dress worn with it has a profusion of white ostrich feathers. Ruff is of plain blond, edged with narrow white satin ribbon, and a pink Indian scarf over the shoulders. An ermine muff, gloves and slippers of blue kid, complete the elegant dress. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
Definition Coat or Redingote Or Pelisse: Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. French word developed from English words, riding coat.
1805-1810 ca. High-Waisted White Muslin Evening Dress, Possibly Made in France. Embroidered in white cotton in French knots, with collars, border, and vertical stripe in chain stitch with a design down the front of vine tendrils and acorns. Low square neck with draw-cord, ‘stomacher’ front closing over inner lining flaps. Straight cut skirt gathers at back and fastens with tape tie. Long oval train, short sleeves with ‘vandyke’ trimming. An evening ensemble typical of the early 19th century love of Neo-classical where this high-waisted dress with short sleeves copies Greek and Roman shape and dress as seen in sculptures from the time. White muslin fabric was usually imported from India but in the case, made in Europe to imitate Indian materials. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1805-1809
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 Empire Style: Named after the First Empire in France, by 1800 Empire dresses had a very low décolleté, or neckline and a short narrow backed bodice attached to a separate skirt. Skirts started directly under the bust and flowed into the classical relaxed wide styles of Greece and Rome. This style of dress is associated with Jane Austen and her contemporaries as a simple cotton high-waisted dress was worn most days and accessorized according to the importance of the occasion.
Travel and Luggage By Suzi Love History Notes Book 10. How did people travel in Bridgerton’s and Jane Austen’s times? 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. books2read.com/SuziLoveTravel
1800 – 1820 ca. Bag, Or Reticule, Dutch. Cotton, glass and with drawstring. via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org http://books2read.com/suziloveReticules Because reticules were so popular, Jane Austen and her family and friends and the Bridgerton family would have made reticules for each other for gifts and carried these small purses with them whenever they went out.
From Historic Dress In America: ‘Reticules were so universally carried during the first part of the nineteenth century that they were called Indispensables, and a few years later ridicules. Miss Southgate describes one in a letter in 1802, ‘Martha sent me a most elegant Indispensable, white lute-string spangled with silver…’
Definition Reticule Or Bag or Purse: Often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket. So women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring.
• Beadwork: Attaching beads to one another by stringing with a needle and thread or thin wire, or sewing them to cloth. Includes loom weaving, stringing, bead embroidery, bead crochet, and bead knitting.
• Embroidery: Decorating fabrics with a needle and thread, or cloth, such as a needlepoint picture of a house or hand sewn initials.
Chatelaines and Chains History Notes Book 9 By Suzi Love. What do you know about Chatelaines and Chains worn in Jane Austen’s and Bridgerton times? Women in charge of households carried important items with them. History Notes Book 9 Chatelaines and Chains. books2read.com/SuziLoveChatelaines
Personal Necessities, keys, or chatelaines was a set of useful items hung from waist by decorative chain. Chatelaines and Chains. History Notes Book 9 By Suzi Love. Women in charge of households dangled long chains from their waists to keep essentials within easy reach e.g. keys, notebook and pen, watch, sewing items, vinaigrette or perfume, or magnifying glass. Early chatelaine were simple essentials. Later chatelaine were decorative and expensive. http://books2read.com/SuziLoveChatelaines
Definition Chatelaine: The word Chatelaine is French and means the keeper of the keys. Chatelaine” derives from the Latin word for castle. In Medieval times, the chatelaine was in charge of the day-to-day running of the castle. Women in charge of households dangled long chains from their waists to keep essentials within easy reach e.g. keys, notebook and pen, watch, sewing items, vinaigrette or perfume, or magnifying glass. Early chatelaine were simple essentials. Later chatelaine were decorative and expensive.books2read.com/SuziLoveChatelaines
What did a chatelaine do? Most important task was keeper of the keys. Also ordered supplies, did bookkeeping, supervised servants, taught castle children, and organized guests.