Waterloo Study Day- 9th May 2015

I have just returned from the Waterloo Study Day organised by the Costume Society in Bath, to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. As you can see from the photograph several members dressed in circa 1815 outfits for the day. The day was split with talks from Rosemary Harden, curator of the Fashion Museum Bath, and Nigel Arch, former director of Kensington Palace for the Royal Historic Palaces in the morning, and a demonstration of dressing an early 19^th century lady and gentleman in the afternoon.

Rosemary Harden spoke about the Duchess of Richmond’s ball, which took place in Brussels just days before the Battle of Waterloo. She gave information on the ball itself, on the fashions in ball gowns around 1815, and finally on two ball gowns in the collection of the Fashion Museum, which were reputedly worn at the ball.  A photograph of the two dresses can be seen on the Costume Society’s page for the event. She spoke about the dresses, and the research she has done since an article on them was published in Costume. (Byrde & Saunders, 2000). The family history the donor was that the dresses were worn by the sisters of a Mr. Perceval, and there was an Hon. Mr Perceval on the invitation list for the ball, but he cannot be pinned down, and nothing can be proved, though the dresses are the right date and style.

Nigel Arch spoke about the battle itself, and the uniforms that were worn at the time, describing them as fashionable, magnificent, but not practical. He described how certain elements of central European dress ended up in western European military uniform, the shako, the sabretache, and hussar uniform. He explained how the different armies wore different coloured uniforms, and why this might have come about. Nigel has written in the past about the use of the red coat as a brand for the British army. (Arch, 2007)

In the afternoon we had the on stage dressing of two people from the shirt out in the case of the gentleman and from the shift in the case of the lady. The two can be seen fully dressed to the left. The gentleman’s outfit was based on an original in Salisbury Museum, a militia coat that had belonged to a Captain John Swayne. The lady’s outfit was based on a morning dress of c.1798-1805, also in Salisbury Museum, and re-created from the pattern taken by Janet Arnold (1977).

Arch, N., 2007. The Wearing of the Red: The Redcoat and the British Brand. Costume, Volume 41, pp. 99-104.

Arnold, J., 1977. Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860. London: Macmillan.

Byrde, P. & Saunders, A., 2000. The "Waterloo Ball" dresses at the Museum of Costume, Bath. Costume, pp. 64-69.

The old laundry at Killerton

Figure 1

 This is not early modern but a nineteenth, stretching into early twentieth century laundry. It is a reminder that before electricity laundry techniques had changed little for centuries. The notes in the laundry indicate that on Mondays the laundry was collected, sorted, and entered into a laundry book. So they had a record of what had been laundered.

Figure 1: There is a wash copper heated from below, you can see were the coals were put in underneath to heat the water. To the right is a dolly tub with a dolly stick in it. Before the use of galvanised steel these tubs were made of wood. Garments were pounded using the dolly stick.

Figure 2

 Figure 2: This, according to the half vanished label, is a washing machine. A hand powered agitator would have fitted into the slot that can be seen at the back, and you can also see a drain tap at the bottom.

Figure 3

 Figure 3: Alternatively items could be washed in a sink using a washboard. Killerton sinks are distinctly up market as they have hot as well as cold taps.

Figure 4

Figure 4: After washing items could be mangled to get out the excess water. I have early memories of my mother and grandmother using one of these in the late 1950s, just before we purchased an electric washing machine with an integral mangle mounted on the top, so you could take the washing straight out of the water and put it through the mangle. 

Figure 5

Figure 5: Killerton being a grand house washing could be dried indoors in bad weather, in a drying cupboard. The drying racks pull in and out on runners, and the bottom of the cupboard has heated pipes to aid the drying.

Figure 6

Figure 6: Less up market families dried items on clothes horses in front of a fire.

 Figure 7: After drying comes ironing, and here is a selection of the flat and box irons, and a goffering iron on display at Killerton.

Figure 7

Several other stately homes have similar laundries which are on display to the public, for example Kingston Lacy in Dorset, Llanerchaeron in Ceredigion and Berrington Hall in Herefordshire

Report on Dressing the little dears – WECS study day 15th March 2014

Had an excellent study day in Bristol, provided by the West of England Costume Society, entitled Dressing the little dears, and covering children’s wear from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Ninya with the Tudor Tailor display

Our first speakers were Jane Malcolm-Davies and Ninya Mikhaila from the Tudor Tailor, ably assisted by their live model, Ninya’s daughter Minnie Perry. Their presentation Counting cuffs and analysing aprons, was subtitled a statistical approach to children’s dress in the sixteenth century. Much of the information was drawn from their recently published book The Tudor Child. They had, in order to get their information, trawled through nearly 16,000 wills with over 30,000 bequests of clothing, only 357 of which were for children, and vast numbers of images, limited to north west Europe. They spoke about swaddling, and once the babes were a little older, half swaddling, where their arms were free. Lacking a real baby, they are notorious uncooperative, they had a baby sized baby doll you could use to practice swaddling. There was much talk of “slavering clouts” that is bibs. They then moved on to small children, and the problems of guessing the gender of the child, with coats for boys and gowns for girls. Minnie was dressed in an outfit copied in part from a child on the Oglander family monument, with a kirtle on top of her smock, and a russet gown over her kirtle. The book is recommended. (Huggett and Mikhaila, 2013)

Huggett, J. and Mikhaila. N., 2013. The Tudor Child. Lightwater: Fat Goose. £25

 

Second speaker was Noreen Marshall, who was previously a curator at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. Her talk, What will baby wear, covered the history of baby clothes and started with the sixteenth century. She too spoke about swaddling, noting that the bands were quite deep 2-4 inches, and she had a photograph of a 1575-1600 band from the collection. Noreen talked about chrisoms, the cloth that was used when the child was christened, and how these do not survive. Chrisom children were those who died within the first month. Noreen stated that the ppins used for swaddling were normal open ended pins, and layette pincushions with the pinheads spelling out mottos such as “welcome sweet babe” were common presents for new mothers. Noreen showed a christening set dating to 1650-1700 which consisted of a cap, forehead cloth, bib and mittens, heavily decorated with lace, and a bearing cloth of about the same date, which she described as small tablecloth size. We moved on through 18^th and 19^th century christening robes to the revolutions of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Terry for nappies appeared at the end of the 19^th century, and we were shown a pilcher (nappy cover) of circa 1909 in oiled silk, creating an early waterproof.  Liberty bodices were introduced in 1908, with a wrapover style by the 1920s. Barracoats made their appearance as open garments in the 19^th century but a closed style by the 20^th century. Romper suits appear for older children from around 1900, but were being used for babies by 1925.

Examples from Alasdair Peebles collection

After lunch collector Alasdair Peebles talked about Suitable dress for boys, examining the boy’s suit not only with illustrations, but with examples from his collection and covering from 1770 to the 1940s. He started with photographs of a 1770s suit he had purchased when Brooklyn Museum deaccessioned some of their collection. He then looked at the nankeen skeleton suit of unbleached cotton (far left in the photograph). This style was worn from the 1780s to the 1820s. The breeches button to the jacket. Next a tunic suit (second from left in the photo), these were popular in the 1830s. Next came a suit based on the pattern of the French Zouave uniforms, an original survives in the Chicago History Museum. The outfit Alasdair owns (second from right in the photo), is not as flamboyant as the Chicago example, but is of similar cut. The boy’s sailor suit needs no introduction. The young Prince Albert Edward was famously painted wearing this style in 1848, the original is in the National Maritime Museum.  Alasdair explained how those that have survived are mainly from the 1920s and are of cotton jean, wool versions having succumbed to moth. Alasdair then produced a little kilt suit, which unfortunately I did not photograph. These were popular in the 1880s and 1890s. He wondered why it had little black rosettes on the kilt, but no one was able to offer an explanation. He then moved on to the Norfolk suit, which by 1900 was ubiquitous, but survivals of children’s versions are now incredibly rare. Finally Alasdair looked at the Eton suit, worn in private schools until the 1930s or later, and comprising black coat and waistcoat, striped trousers, stiffened collar and top hat. 

A Ladybird dressing, which someone gave to our speaker.

Our final speaker was social anthropologist Dr. Kaori O’Connor, who some people may have seen recently on the Great British Sewing Bee talking about how Lycra changed fashion. Her talk was entitled The Ladybird, the dressing gown and a golden age of British childhood. Kaori spoke about how the comfortable, safe, secure image of the child’s dressing gown was formed in the inter war years by things like images of listening to radio stories with Uncle Mac, and the Ovaltineys. In 1932 Eric Pasold, whose family had a long running textile manufacturing business on the continent, established the British base in Langley. The firm specialised in machine knit garments and at the beginning was mostly producing underwear. During the war the factory went over to producing parachutes. Kaori pointed out that during the Second World War dressing gowns were an item of clothing that was not produced. After the war Eric decided on a new label for children, Ladybird, and he started with the underwear and with the dressing gown. Eric also produced a book about his family’s story The Legend of the Scarlet Ladybird, and a strip for the comic Swift entitled  The Sign of the Scarlet Ladybird. In the stories Ladybird clothes, such as tee shirts, help to get the children out of trouble or scrapes. When fashions for children stared to change in the 1960s Pasold sold out to Coats Patons, who continued to market the Ladybird range.

Dress of Ordinary People Study Day at Bath

Yesterday I spent the day in Bath for the WECS study day the Dress of Ordinary People. The first speaker Barbara Painter explained the work and thought behind dressing the interpreters at the Weald and Downland Museum in the clothing of the 1620s and 1630s to fit with the two houses they are interpreting. The clothes have all been made by volunteers under the direction of Barbara, much of the cloth is also dyed on the site and the stockings knitted from wool spun on the site. Second speaker was Rachel Worth on rural dress in the novels of Thomas Hardy, interesting was his comment on the change in rural towns in the second half of the nineteenth century from the white and drab of the smock frock of the labourers to the grey and black of off the peg town suits, a visible sign of a changing life style. Our third speaker was Claire Watson of the Yorkshire Fashion Archive who have collected ordinary people’s dress, mainly from the second half of the twentieth century, together with their stories about the clothing. It’s an invaluable insight into social mores, as in the lady who talking about a photograph of herself at the seaside as a child, said they wore their school uniform because it was the only smart clothing they had. Our final speaker was Jennifer Thomsom on the Hodson Shop Collection at Walsall. Flora and Edith Hodson turned the front room of their house into a drapers and dress shop in the 1920s and traded from there until the early 1970s. On Flora’s death the collection came to the museum, and on first going into the house it was discovered that the sisters had never thrown anything away. The museum has over 3,000 items dresses, blouses, underwear, stocking, haberdashery and magazines covering the whole period, there is a searchable database with about 1,000 items having photographs, online at Black County History. A good day.