Barbara Johnson 18th c. Album

I just found out through the wonderful At the Sign of the Golden Scissors blog that the 18th century Barbara Johnson Album is online at the Victorian and Albert Museum.

Barbara Johnson Album page - from Victoria and Albert Museum

From the description, "Album with textile samples and fashion plates, compiled by Barbara Johnson, England, 1746-1823.".  This book is an incredibly valuable resource for looking at what an upper-class woman in England wore throughout much of the 18th century.  In many cases Barbara Johnson records what she bought, how much she bought, what she paid and sometimes what she had the fabric made into.  The book spans a large portion of her life and there are a large variety of dresses and a couple mourning periods, for relatives or the King, and she records what she wore for those periods as well. 

The album has been reproduced as a book.  It is quite large and very nice.  But, it is also out of print and extremely expensive.  My local library, SF Public, has a copy at the Reference Desk, and I've made color photocopies of some of the pages while doing research on specific costumes.

I'm very excited to see that it is available online, even if the images are small, and I hope it inspires other costumers as well.

It makes me wonder if in 200 years costumers will be looking at everyone's what-I-wore blogs and using those to put together their early 21st century events!
(Let's have an IPO-theme party, everyone dress hipster and we'll pretend to tweet....)

SFO International Terminal Lace Exhibit

On my way back Into SFO I stopped by the rotating exhibit in the International Terminal to look at some fabulous lace. I missed 2 BART trains after a long flight, but it was worth it.

Introduction to the Marmotte Carnivale costume

 

Another post in my series on costuming for the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild Bal di Carnivale.

 

Last year I read The Dreamstress's post on "Marmottes and the Savoyarde Style", which said "In the 17th & 18th century peasants from the alpine region of Savoy would train marmots and dance with them as street entertainment." and had some fabulous research on both peasants and noble women dressed in the savoyarde style.

 

Savoy peasants from Petits métiers, cris de Paris
 (Street vendors of Paris), Claude-Louis Desrais (1746-1816)

She has a hurdy gurdy, he has a box to keep his marmot in.  How cute!

yellow-bellied Marmot from Wikipedia

I adore marmots.  As an ecologist I'm sure the wild ones are cranky and bitey but they are so incredibly adorable I would really love to snuggle them!  My local species is the yellow-bellied marmot, found in the Sierra Nevada and easily observed at Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  Occasionally found hitch-hiking to the City.  Many years ago I was at Yosemite hiking in the High Country and we stopped at the Tuolomme Meadow visitors center and I purchased a yellow-bellied marmot plush.  It has been hanging out on my bookshelf ever since, occasionally dressed in medieval hoods and other fine attire.

 

As soon as the event was announced for the GBACG Bal di Carnivale (tickets still available!) I knew I wanted to dress as a Marmotte.  But I also knew it was a swanky event and I didn't want to be a peasant.  Fortunately Leimomi had a couple paintings of Nobility dressed as marmottes, including one with the actual props of a hurdy-gurdy-playing peasant.

Countess Christina Margareta Törnflycht Augusta, Countess Wrede-Sparre of Sundby (1714-1780) dressed as a marmotte, 1739, Gustaf Lundberg, sold at auction via The Dreamstress

I like the Countess' props, this is probably a hurdy-gurdy and not a box to keep you marmot in. But I prefer a mid-late century costume for this event.  I was thrilled to see this fashionable Savoyarde style on the Dauphine of France.  She doesn't have the propos

Marie-Josèphe of Saxony in the Savoyarde style, 1750-51, Jean-Marc Nattier. Palace of Versailles. via The Dreamstress

 

 

Acrostic Jewelry

I recently came across a fabulous informational blog, Regency Redingote. Written by a former curator, it has fantastic in-depth articles on many facets of English Regency life. One post was on Acrostic jewelry, a type of sentimental jewelry where the first letter of a gemstone name is used to spell a word. This type of jewelry became popular in the early 1800s and continued to be made throughout the century.

 

For instance:

R - Ruby

E - Emerald

G - Garnet

A - Amythest

R - Ruby

D - Diamond

Common English acrostics are REGARD, DEAREST, ADORE and LOVE. Acrostics were popular in France as well. Napolean commissioned acrostic bracelets for his family commemorating at least one of his conquests. 

 

Check my Pinterest Board on Sentimental Jewelry for more.

 

Acrostic ring REGARD

To make my acrostic jewelry I used glass flat-back rhinestones (4mm) and modern metal findings. It was difficult to find round settings with 6 places, so I was limited to spelling Dearest for round settings.  I also tried a couple of straight line settings glued to plain bands.

 

Acrostic jewelry making supplies

 

Rhinestones spelling DEAREST lined up and ready to glue

 

DEAREST - Diamond, Emerald, Amythest, Ruby, Emerald, Saphire, Turquoise

Adjustable ring back glued on

 

 

DEAREST in prong setting with Topaz instead of Turquoise

 

Selection of acrostic jewelry
From left to right: DEAREST, REGARD, LOVE, and DEAREST

More Savoyard with Marmots and Hand Organs

Savoyard with Marmot, painted by Jean-Antione Watteau, in 1715-1716 now in the Hermitage Collection.  The marmot is sitting on the box and the savoyard boy is carrying what is described as a flageolet, an oboe-like instrument.  Looks like in some of the depictions of these itinerant musicians the box is a hand organ and sometimes they play other instruments and the box is for the marmot.

Here's a later print from a mid-19th century fancy dress plate.  The female savoyard is holding a hurdy-gurdy.  Notice that a distingishing feature of her costume is a cap that ties under the chin and an apron.


Also while rummaging around on the internet to see where one even acquires a hurdy gurdy these days I found this undocumented history of the street organ, and a fascinating TED talk by Caroline Phillips, "Hurdy-Gurdy for Beginners"

Bauta mask for Bal di Carnivale

Another post about my preparations for GBACG's Bal di Carnivale on February 8th in San Jose.  Tickets still available!

The Bauta is one of the oldest Venetian mask styles. Although worn mostly by men, it was allowed to be worn by all citizens. Paintings by Pietro Longhi, such as The Ridotto, painted in the 1750s, show both men and women wearing the Bauta.

The Ridotto by Pietro Longhi, 1750s Venice

The Bauta is worn with a short cape an a tricorn hat. Hal sculpted his simplified leather Bauta at the GBACG leather mask workshop.  It is made of vegetable tanned leather that is dampened and then sculpted by hand. When the leather dries it retains to sculpted shape.

The paintings by Pietro Longhi provide a number of details for the hood construction. They appear to be of two pieces, one an opaque hood over the face and head down the neck, and then a longer lace drape to about the elbows.

To come up with a pattern I draped muslin over my willing victim and then added the mask and tricorne.  I then used a felt time marker to draw where I thought the cutting lines should be.  The bauta specifically doesn't cover the mouth to allow a person to speak and eat unimpeded.
 

The first cut was way too large

Some subsequent strips made the opening much smaller.  The too large hole gaped open in an oval rather than retaining a rectangular shape.

 

 

And some pictures of the final garment.  The hood is made of a light weight black silk taffeta and the drape is synthetic lace.

Marmotte Carnivale Jacket

Bal di Carnival happened and it was fabulous. Mia and Catherine did an amazing job with the rooms and decor. The acrobats and dancing were wonderful. 

I spent most of the time before the event frantically sewing the marmotta jacket. It was inspired by several contemporary European jackets. These jackets have an open front filled by a stomacher, fairly long skirts, and most have some sort of ruched trim.

Caraco made of mustard yellow printed cotton, blue checked linen lining, c. 1750-1775, combined with a silk satin ruby red matelassé skirt, c. 1740. Collection Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Inv. no. 8922 and 6466. - See more at: http://europeanafashion.tumblr.com/post/68966752430/once-a-big-hit-in-the-low-countries-several#sthash.g5OwUcSr.dpuf

French 1750s http://trouvaillesdujour.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/18th-century-back-in-

Janet Arnold Patterns of Fashion

CF Griffith did a nice version of the Janet Arnold Jacket

http://www.cfgriffith.com/costumes/the-yellow-rose-jacket/

J.P. Ryan has a jacket pattern that is similar to what I ended up making. Mine is closest to jacket B with a stomacher front and longer skirts. Mines has full length sleeves.

J.P. Ryan Pattern:View A is cut with a long skirt, center front closure, and sleeves with winged cuffs, suitable for the 1750’s.View B has a long full skirt, open front, stomacher and cuffed sleeves, as was worn in the 1760’s.

The final jacket was in brown silk with scalloped salmon silk trim that I pleated instead of ruching. Next time I'll sew the trim on while the garment is flat rather than after I've set in the sleeves!

And the inspiration image again: