PORTRAIT D’UNE FEMME EN BUSTE, by FRANCOIS-HUBERT DROUAIS ca. 1757
Boston keeps me busy, along with a few other things, but as a means of wrangling the project information, I made a free website. You can visit it here to see how it progresses. Yes, I could have used wordpress, but this navigation seemed better for the intended audience. Of course, all this just makes the list of things I want to make longer, for example, this lovely gown.
Do I care that she’s French? No, all I care about is that she’s plaid, like the oyster seller. Somewhere I have brown and white cotton plaid…and a long list of other things to make!
Hot diggity! I’m in constant, faithful search of a credible 18th century South Carolinian source describing a tartan gown. Any time there’s a plaid sighting, it’s a good day. (Though I question her choice of flesh-colored pearls. Nothing says “goiter chic” quite like flesh-colored pearls.)
The earliest ad I found: https://kittycalash.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/3-8-1783.pdf
It’s in the March 3, 1783 issue of the South Carolina Weekly Gazette contains, on page 3, an ad for James Gregoire, No 26 Church-Street, selling “Linen and Cotton Check, Stripes and Bed Ticks,” and “Plain, striped and check Muslins.” The earliest papers from SC in America’s Historical Newspapers are all 1783.
Not that goiter chic wouldn’t be appropriate for someone doing an 18th century rendition of a Carson McCullers story…too tempting, so luckily too time-consuming.
Newspapers and runaway ads ought to turn up cross-barred fabrics. I think there is another name for plaid than cross-barred, which can also seem to mean windowpane check, but it’s lost to me for now.