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Kitty Calash

~ Confessions of a Known Bonnet-Wearer

Kitty Calash

Tag Archives: women

Black and White World

06 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by kittycalash in Clothing, Research

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

19th century clothing, art, art history, Fancy, Federal style, portraits, women

Isn’t she grand? She’s on offer elsewhere; I came across her while narrwing down a date for a very different portrait.

She reminds me of a Tamara de Lempicka, if Tamara and Ammi Phillips had set up easels next to each other. From her forthright, slightly sulky gaze to the exuberant folds of her gown bodice to the hints of style in the details, we can learn a lot from this painting. There’s a kind of provincial Hepplewhite sideboard behind her, set with a colorful garniture; the copper hot water or tea urn places us in a parlor. The painting frame has a shell in the center of the bottom rail, the chair a turned knob on the back upright– we are on the edge of fancy, the moment when neoclassicism really gives way to exuberance (think canary yellow rose-painted china, big puffy sleeves on printed gowns, and fancy-painted chairs).

Below, an earlier entry in the black and white world. This lady was sold at auction recently. She’s earlier than our near-Tamara above, plainer in dress, sulkier. She is certainly more academic, and somewhat better painted, in addition to being set in a vaguely classic scene, in a very neoclassical chair, draped with a fine shawl.The artists is definitely showing off some skill in the “painting transparency” department.

The lady in black is firmly set in the neoclassical period. Restraint and moderation are watchwords– despite what you may think of that hair, which is recalling Greco-Roman precedents–much the way certain factions in the Revolutionary period were driven by piety and discipline. Politics and national ethos or mood are embedded visual culture then as now, and even in these portraits, simple as they seem.

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Frivolous Friday: Flip your Lid

05 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by kittycalash in Clothing, Frivolous Friday, History, Research

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

18th century, 18th century clothing, authenticity, bonnets, Events, fashion, hats, Research, style, women

Print. Drypoint by John Theodore Heins, Jr. 1747-1771. British Museum 1858,0417.362

Drypoint by John Theodore Heins, Jr. British Museum 1858,0417.362

Bonnets. Who doesn’t like them? They’re the cupcake of costuming, just enough sugar to be delicious, not enough trouble to count. I know I have far too many, they fall from the hall shelf nearly every time I get my coat.

But I started asking myself questions about bonnets when a friend asked me questions about bonnets: shape, color, and how they’re worn (rakish angle? pulled down low?).

We’re planning on going to an event in March, and I’ve been thinking about head wear, especially bonnets. Now that the question’s been asked, I don’t want to randomly cram black silk taffeta on my head and call it a day: I’m back to “don’t know mind.” Time to start looking. So far, I’ve searched the Tate, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery UK, the Lewis Walpole Library, the Yale Center for British Art, the Met,  the V&A, and the BBC’s Your Paintings site.

I started at the British Museum. Here are the results for a collections search using the term bonnet and the production dates 1765-1772.  Hmm. No classic black bonnet. Dammit, actually, because I really like mine.

Print made by James Caldwall, A Ladies Maid Purchasing a Leek, 1772, Line engraving and etching Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. B1977.14.11105

James Caldwall, A Ladies Maid Purchasing a Leek, 1772, YCBA, B1977.14.11105

Yale Center for British Art, same search parameters. I know you know this print.

Man, this is a pain, right? Where are the bonnets? 1772 is actually too late for my purposes in this instance.

The Lewis Walpole Library Digital Collections lack a feature for limiting or sorting by date, but they tag bonnets in their prints. Still: no big black bonnets in early prints.

I’m starting to think it’s lampshade or saucer for the 1765-1770 period. You remember lampshade, don’t you? One of my post-operative slightly narcotized creations based in part on the Marquis of Granby (Relieving a Sick Soldier).

The Marquis of Granby (Relieving A Sick Soldier) Oil on canvas by Edward Penny after 1765 (c) Royal Academy of Arts

The Marquis of Granby (Relieving A Sick Soldier) Oil on canvas by Edward Penny after 1765 (c) Royal Academy of Arts

Lampshade seems pretty fashionable in 1760. There are more portraits at the National Portrait Gallery (UK), but bonnets are scarce in them, primarily, I suppose, because they are not indoor wear.

Anne (née Day), Lady Fenoulhet by Richard Purcell (Charles or Philip Corbutt), after Sir Joshua Reynolds, mezzotint, (1760) National Portrait Gallery UK D1939
Anne (née Day), Lady Fenoulhet by Richard Purcell (Charles or Philip Corbutt), after Sir Joshua Reynolds, mezzotint, (1760) National Portrait Gallery UK D1939
Nelly O'Brien by Samuel Okey, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, mezzotint, circa 1765-1780 (circa 1762-1764) National Portrait Gallery UK D19911
Nelly O’Brien by Samuel Okey, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, mezzotint, circa 1765-1780 (circa 1762-1764) National Portrait Gallery UK D19911

Lady Fenoulhet is wearing a lampshade. Nelly O’Brien is wearing an interesting, more hat-like device. Her imprint is ca. 1765-1780, but other impressions are dated ca. 1760. The 1762-1764 seems plausible. But that’s still early for my purposes. The lampshade really is, too; Mrs Mary Smith of Portsmouth may be wearing one, but considering that the artist who drew this plate died in 1766, I think we can place this form in the 1750s to early 1760s. Lampshade is too early. The”Lady’s Maid buying a Leek” is too late.

Next, please.

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Hot Topic

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by kittycalash in Art Rant, Clothing, History, Living History, Research

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

18th century, 18th century clothes, 18th century clothing, dress, engravings, fashion, gowns, Research, style, women

I’m of an age (none of your beeswax, thanks for asking) where most of the clothes in the shops are simply not for me. Not only am I picky about labor standards, fabric and construction quality, the styles aren’t for me. I’m too old. I create enough havoc walking (falling) down the street as it is that I do not need to look like the mid-life crisis I’m having involves a desperate search to recapture my youth through H & M or Hot Topic or whatever-the-kids-are-wearing clothing. I’ve achieved “a certain age,” and as with my everyday closet, my living history wardrobe has to reflect my age as well. Pity, really.

Following the Fashion. Hand colored etching by James Gillray, published by Hannah Humphrey, 1794. British Museum 1851,0901.706

Following the Fashion. Hand colored etching by James Gillray, published by Hannah Humphrey, 1794. British Museum 1851,0901.706

But more’s the pity here: I don’t have a clear idea, really, how age was perceived in the various decades I interpret. I have a clearer idea of how different body shapes and class levels were perceived and taunted, though sometimes body shape is an analogue for age.

Is this my daughter Ann? Pen and ink print study by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1774. British Museum 2011,7084.56

Is this my daughter Ann? Pen and ink print study by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1774. British Museum 2011,7084.56

There’s a classic image that juxtaposes age and youth.  Here’s how the British Museum describes this image:

‘Is this my Daughter Ann?’; satire on fashion. A street where, before a house [on the right], over the door of which the name ‘Love Joy’ is written, a sedan chair has been brought, in order to carry away a young lady, who, in a towering toupée, and other articles of fashionable attire of this period, is leaving the house in company with a young soldier, who caresses her as they go; she looks fondly at him. An old woman, in what was then an ‘old-fashioned’ costume is interposing to prevent the departure of the damsel. 1774

Okay… “An old woman, in what was then an ‘old-fashioned’ costume.” You will note that the old woman is wearing what we typically wear here in New England to represent everyday clothing for middling and lower sort American colonists for most of the 1770s. I don’t want to put too much stock in the cataloger’s description, because I’m not sure that print curators or curatorial assistants always know as much about material culture as they think they do. And we know that six weeks is not six years when it comes to transmitting fashion changes and updates across an ocean. I think “old fashioned” might not be exactly or entirely right as a descriptive phrase.

What does the old woman’s clothing really signify? That she’s rural and not urban? That’s she’s poor? That she’s old? How ‘old fashioned’ is that costume by 1774… in a context other than London courtesan couture? And how do we translate the clues we have trouble deciphering into a dress code for living history?

Is this my Daughter Ann, mezzotint by James Watson after S. H. Grimm, published by Sarah Sledge, 1774. British Museum J,5.104

Is this my Daughter Ann, mezzotint by James Watson after S. H. Grimm, published by Sarah Sledge, 1774. British Museum J,5.104

Well, happily, there’s a verse under the image in this print.

Is this my Daughter Ann

The Matron thus Surprised exclaims,
And the deluded Fair One Blames
But had the Mother been as Charming

She had Thought the Mutual sport no harm.
This Moral’s an undoubted Truth
Age envies Still the Joys of Youth

So this print is not about fashion. It’s about sex. (Well, duh. You were wondering when I’d bring that up.) It’s also, in a way, about hypocrisy, isn’t it? But the verse gives us the clue that the mother’s clothes are meant to be matronly.  “Conservative because of her age” might be a better descriptive phrase than “old fashioned” in that catalog record.

But does that mean that those of us who have achieved “a certain age” might also consider whether we, too, should be dressing in a more “conservative because of her age” style? I don’t really know.

But look here: Zoffany, ca. 1762.

David Garrick and Mary Bradshaw in David Garrick's "The Farmer's Return". Johann Zoffany, ca.1762. YCBA B1981.25.731

David Garrick and Mary Bradshaw in David Garrick’s “The Farmer’s Return”. Johann Zoffany, ca.1762. YCBA B1981.25.731

Here we’re looking at a rural woman ten to twelve years before “My daughter Ann.” The costumes are very similar; maybe the mother in Ann really is just old fashioned.

Here’s another version of “My daughter Ann,” this time more clearly fashion focused, without the sexual overtones.

Print made by Francis E. Adams, active ca.1760–1775, British, Heyday! Is This My Daughter Anne!, 1773, Mezzotint and etching on medium, moderately textured, cream laid paper, YCBA, B1970.3.820

Print made by Francis E. Adams, active ca.1760–1775, British, Heyday! Is This My Daughter Anne!, 1773, Mezzotint and etching on medium, moderately textured, cream laid paper, YCBA, B1970.3.820

Yale helpfully provides a transcription of the verse at the bottom:

HEYDAY! Is this my DAUGHTER ANNE! | Heyday! the country Matron in surprize, | Is this my Daughter thus bedizell’d? cries. | To Town she lately went a Damsel plain: | But scarcely now is to be known again. | That City to its Vanities has brought her, | And banish’d the good Housewifery I taught her. | Why, Child you’ll frighten here our honest People: | They’ll say you’ve on your Head a London Steeple.

My best guess is that this print is skewering both Anne and her mother: Anne, for being so outlandishly fashion-forward, and her mother, for being so far behind. But again, that’s only a guess.

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Camp Followers or Women of the Army?

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by kittycalash in History, Laundry, Living History, Reenacting, Research

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

10th Massachusetts, 2nd Rhode Island, common people, common soldier, living history, Reenacting, Research, Revolutionary War, women, women's history

Soldiers and Camp Followers Resting from a March. Jean-Baptiste Pater, 1730. private collection. used from Wikimedia Commons.

I prefer woman belonging to the army, or “regimental woman,” which sounds like Mick Jagger or Roy Orbison could sing it, but one could have a pretty lively discussion of which term to use. Camp followers has a connotation–prostitute–that doesn’t reflect the full reality of army life for women in either the British or the Continental armies.

Were there prostitutes who took advantage of the proximity of a large customer base? Yes, undoubtedly. In the John Robinson Waterman Papers there is an unusual letter from Col. William Battey dated October 28, 1812 with a sketch of the army camp near Albany and a description of camp life. This description includes the treatment of a woman accused of prostitution and summarily banished from camp. I think she was beaten and half-drowned, so the army took the no-prostitutes-whatsoever dictum very seriously.

As far as cooking goes, a commenter elsewhere explained that women would have been cooking, at least for themselves. Typically, they did not cook for the soldiers’ mess, unless they were being paid to. This must have been a difficult situation for the Continental Army: when women were present, it made excellent sense to assign them all possible non-combatant tasks to ensure the maximum fighting force. But could discipline be maintained? Not always, given Bridget’s temper.

A soldier and his girl. Henry Bunbury, ca. 1794. Lewis Walpole Library, Drawings B87 no. 8

A soldier and his girl. Henry Bunbury, ca. 1794. Lewis Walpole Library, Drawings B87 no. 8

Rolling back a bit and trying to consider the army’s structure and camp layout, what are the mechanics of handling rations for women with the army? How are they fed? And did it vary, unit by unit? There is probably far more variation than we credit, that will only be illuminated by careful attention to the documentary record. That means finding as many victualing rolls and returns as possible, looking for women. It means reading all the orderly books that can be found, looking for women.

The best secondary source I know for the Continental Army’s women is with Holly Mayer’s book, Belonging to the Army. (And I’ll admit I haven’t read it in two years, so it’s time to re-read it.) If you’re British, I’m not in a position to help you as much, but there is Don Hagist’s work on Women of the British Army. For a more granular understanding of women in all armies, you have to turn to primary sources, and what’s available varies from unit to unit, state to state. There is a handy index of orderly books,  and while these vary in their utility, they are a good place to start. In fact, the whole RevWar 75 site is useful (though it is not loading at the time of this writing).

Soldiers’ diaries and accounts are also useful. Jeremiah Greenman of the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment recorded his experiences throughout the entire war, starting in 1775, when he joined Arnold’s expedition to Quebec. There were two women on that expedition, attached to two different companies. While there is not a plethora of detail about the women, it is clear that they were strong and able, and in one case, more able than her husband.

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Lovers & Fighters

24 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by kittycalash in History, Research

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

10th Massachusetts, 18th century, common people, common soldier, Revolutionary War, women, women's history

The wife of Bob Munn, Keeper at Sandpit Gate. Paul Sandby, Royal Collection Trust  RCN 914337

The wife of Bob Munn, Keeper at Sandpit Gate. Paul Sandby, Royal Collection Trust RCN 914337

On Sunday,  Mr FC mentioned that they knew the names of at least two of the women of the 10th Massachusetts, including one notorious woman, Bridget Mahoney. I mentioned this in an email to Mr HC, and got back four solid paragraphs of information. I sincerely and earnestly wish I had those retention skills, but embedded in one paragraph was that they knew of a woman in Wallcott’s company, because the brigade chaplain, Enos Hitchcock, had baptized the child of a soldier in Wallcott’s company.

Enos Hitchcock was the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Providence, and I happen to be fairly familiar with his pastel portrait and his diaries. The Rhode Island Historical Society published his diaries in 1899, and they can be read online thanks to the Open Library.

Here’s what I found, reading and searching:

April 25, 1779
Baptized child of Richard Northover, Soldier of the Train, by the name of Mary.

May 5, 1779
Married Sgt Bates and Mrs Lucy Gun

May 9, 1779
Baptized Lydda, daughter of George Wilson and Letty, his wife, of Capt. Buckland’s Train—Baptiized Adaulph, son of John Degrove of the above company

May 31, 1779
Sent for to go aboard the Lady Washington galley to marry John Thompson and Abia Chase

June 21, 1779
Married Henry Smith and Phebe Cockswain, late Brewer’s Regt.

Three baptisms and three marriages in just over 8 weeks: that’s a busy regiment.

Of course, they did their share of fighting, and not just on the field. I did not witness the fight instigated on Sunday morning by Mr FC, against the New York troops in which there was shoving, the beating of Mr S with a hat, and the deflection of Mr McC, who upon arriving with a shovel, was put to work digging.

September 17, 1777. Enos Hitchcock diary.

September 17, 1777. Enos Hitchcock diary.

In Hitchcock’s diary, I found an account of a quarrel near Stillwater, NY on September 17, 1777. This was intramural knife-thrusting, but clearly, the 10th Massachusetts were very busy men.

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