Shades of Victorian Fashion: Cerulean, Mazarine, Navy, and Blue
During the nineteenth century, blue was considered a versatile color, as suitable for elegant evening gowns and demure day dresses as it was for fashionable bonnets, slippers, and parasols. In shades ranging from the palest cerulean blue to the deepest navy, it adorned women of every age and every station, harmonizing with a wide range of hair colors and complexions. In today’s article, we look at some of the loveliest examples of the color blue in Victorian fashion.[…]Continue Reading
Overzealous Research Lands Cross-Dressing Victorian Writer in the Dock
Just before midnight on June 25, 1891, a police detective encountered two women strolling arm-in-arm down Regent Street. One of the women struck him as being rather odd in appearance. He approached to investigate, but when he attempted to raise the heavy black veil on the lady’s hat, she firmly knocked his hand away. It was then that the detective realized that the lady was, in fact, a very elderly gentleman in women’s clothes. He promptly arrested him.[…]Continue Reading
A Proposed 18th Century Tax Bill Targets 27-Year-Old Spinsters...And Their Cats!
‘As the supply alluded to is to be levied upon all old maids, beyond a certain age, and intitled to certain yearly or other income; I make no doubt but both Houses of Parliament will speedily manifest their hearty concurrence thereto.’
The London Magazine, 1777.
(Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium)
The 1777 edition of the London Magazine includes an interesting letter to the editor in which a gentleman—who signs himself as ‘A Friend to the Community’—has appended a proposed bill to levy a tax of ‘6d. in the pound’ on old maids. He claims that this tax will generate revenues of nearly £300,000 per annum, a sum which could then be used to help fund the British war against the American colonies. The proposed bill begins by stating:[…]Continue Reading
Never Bring a Dog into a Drawing Room: The Etiquette of Paying Calls with Pets
“Favorite dogs are never welcome visitors in a drawing-room.”
Martine’s Hand-Book of Etiquette, 1866.
(National Gallery, Prague Castle)
In the Victorian era, etiquette books offered very specific advice on how to conduct oneself when paying a social call. In some cases, this advice differed from book to book and decade to decade, but in one respect all the etiquette manuals throughout the Victorian era seem to agree. When paying a call on a friend or acquaintance, one should never bring along one’s dog. As the 1840 book Etiquette for Ladies states:[…]Continue Reading
Victorian Advice for a Dry January: Alcohol Fasts v. Drinking in Moderation
“What have I done? Given my word not to touch any stimulants for a whole month. By Jove! what a long month it will seem.”
Bound by Fetters; or The Evils of Drink, 1887.
Though the Victorians may not have been familiar with the term “Dry January,” the custom of abstaining from alcohol for a short time each year was nothing particularly new. Medical books and journals of the day often recommended the practice to cleanse the body and clear the mind. For example, in his 1864 Manual of Diet and Regimen for Physician and Patient, Dr. Horace Dobell advises that:[…]Continue Reading