Yay or Nay? Archduchess Maria Josefa

I've been mourning the loss of one of my old favourites, Project Runway. The summer just isn't the same without waiting every week to see which outlandish designer is "out" and which are "in" for another week. Well, many readers who grace this blog enjoy fashion, so let's have our own little historical fashion show. I will post a painting and you determine whether it's a "Yay" or a "Nay." Heck, you can even deem it as a "Great Merciful Mother, no!! What are you thinking?"

Anton Rafael Mengs paints Archduchess Maria Josefa (1765) in a mantua of orange and blue. Yay or Nay?

Tart of the Week: Hester Santlow

Hester Santlow exuded so much class during her lifetime that she just barely meets my qualifications as a tart. She is a fascinating woman just the same, and spent years wowing audiences with her skills in dance at a time when most ballerinas came out of Italy or France.

Like many of our tarts born out of the aristocracy, I cannot tell you much of Hester's early beginnings. She was born around 1690. By her early teens she was on stage dancing and by 1706 she had made it to the big time as a dancer on Drury Lane. Hester's rise to the top was based purely on talent and not other naughty means. The lady had some fancy footwork! Of course, it was more difficult to see her skill with her feet due to the dress length, but that is where those ballerina leaps and twirls may have come in.

Those leaps and twirls attracted many fans an admirers. One of Hester's first intimate admirers was John, Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough who made her his one and only mistresses (for the time being, anyway). The next in line of intimate admirers was James Craggs the Younger, who was much closer in age to Hester, and much better looking, me-ow! Don't think this was just a quick fling either, James cared very much for Miss Santlow. One night, while at the theatre, Hester was enjoying herself in her private box when a gentleman thought it a good time to join her in order to for some intimate conversation. Well, after listening to his idle chatter for long enough, Hester classily informed her suitor that she would much rather listen to what was on stage than him, thankyouverymuch. The man, apparently not used to rejection, began to berate her in ways no lady should ever hear. He didn't cease either, until Hester gave him the look-of-death (I'm good at that too!), and only then did he retreat to his seat. However, at her next performance, the man made sure he was there to heckle her in the audience and caused a huge disruption. Insulted over the dishonor done to his lady-fair, James demanded satisfaction and a duel was fought in Hyde Park. Hester was a woman worth fighting for! A child, Harriot, was another result of the relationship before the two lovebirds parted ways.

Hester not only danced but turned into a celebrated actress on Drury Lane. She eventually settled down with manager, Barton Booth and the two married in 1719. The stage was her life and she continued on it up through old age. She lived to see her daughter, Harriot marry into aristocracy and prosper well. Hester died peacefully in 1773 after many successful years on stage.

Ballerinas

There's some beautiful images of dancers (and dances) of the eighteenth century. I couldn't possibly remember them all, but here is a selection of some of the famous ballerinas of the age who enchanted audiences with their grace and beauty.

Giovanna Baccelli, 1782 (Gainsborough)

Barbara Campanini, 1745 (Pesne)

Marie Sallé, 1734

Marie Camargo, 1730

Marie-Madeleine Guimard (Schall)

Hester Santlow (Ellys)

More 18th Century Commercials

Blogging and waiting for your nails to dry at the same time is not a good idea, but I couldn't wait to pass this on. The lovely Johanna at 18th Century Blog just posted these icecream commercials which, strangely enough, could be clips from my daily routine! Enjoy them below and be sure to pop over and visit Johanna and thank her for putting the commercials on Youtube!

Gout

Gout was as common among aristocracy as the plague was among the poor. Through the years, kings and nobles alike fell prone to this crippling disease and it mentioned numerous times in texts of the ages. But what exactly is gout and does it still exist?

Gout was known as a rich man's disease for the simple reason that it came about from eating plenty of rich food. That is why Henry VIII suffered from it for years. I will quote WebMD here, "Your chances of getting gout are higher if you are overweight, drink too much alcohol, or eat too much meat and fish that are high in chemicals called purines." Too much alcohol and meat? That doesn't sound like eighteenth century aristocracy at all! But all sarcasm aside, alcohol and meats were the main staples of western diets throughout the centuries.

All those purines in the food would cause extra uric acid in the blood, which is fine in small quantities but really bad, in large because it crystallizes in the joints. Ouch! In most cases this begins at the big toe (as Gillray displayed in his artistic interpretation of gout) and can move up the leg. As you can imagine walking is very painful; gout is put into the same category as arthritis.

Nowadays when a doctor diagnosed gout, you can get a shot and take some painkillers. Back in the Georgian era the common diagnosis was to take a trip to Bath for some of the "healing waters" which did little except maybe relax you. Unless there was some corticosteroids in that tap room water you drank, you were out of luck!

Tart of the Week: Hannah Humphrey

Hannah Humphrey is one of those women who is amazing in the sense that she was a self-sufficient female who managed to be one for most of her life, and come out unscathed. I can't tell you much about dear Hannah's beginnings (possibly born around 1745) but I can tell you her brother, William was a publisher and print seller on Gerrard Street in London. Hannah likely learned the tricks of the trade from her brother and decided to begin her own print shop where she would publish as well. This was quite a risk for a woman in London, on many accounts. In order to protect her reputation, Hannah did as many actresses tended to, and went by Mrs. Humphrey, for a married or widowed woman with a business was much more acceptable than a single one.

Hannah established her print shop on Old Bond Street. The storefront was black with gold lettering which read, Humphrey's Print Shop. A large Bay window was covered from head to toe in all the prints Hannah published. The inside of the shop was just as posh, with mahogany counters. People would stop, gawk, and giggle over the storefront and be enticed into spend a few shillings on a satirical print. The shop was one of the most successful print shop in London and it even attracted customers like the Prince of Wales, who was usually on more than one of the prints in the window. One of the decisions Hannah made as a print seller was to exclusively sell (usually bawdy) satirical prints and to exclude prints made after paintings. This was another risk, but Hannah was looking for a certain clientele.

Hannah's shop not only attracted a particular clientele but a particular artist. James Gillray knew Hannah through her brother, who published some of his prints. In 1791 Gillray exclusively published with Hannah, so if you wanted to buy one of his prints there was only one place to get them. Above the Humphrey's Print Shop was apartments where Hannah took residence. Gillray also conveniently moved into a room above the shop. Now I would be the last to start rumours here, but isn't it a little suspicious to have a single man and woman living in such close proximity? There were many rumours going around about Hannah's and Gillray's "professional" relationship, especially when he followed her when she moved her shop to New Bond Street and then again to fashionable St James Street. It is said that Gillray thought of proposing to Hannah numerous time, and even did one day on their way to church. But that could just be the talk of romantic gossipers.

Hannah was with Gillray up until his death. Poor Gillray went insane after a bout of depression and failing to commit suicide and was looked after by Hannah for the remainder of his life (six years after producing his last print). Hannah, herself died a few years later in 1818. She died a respected and extremely successful businesswoman.

To be Fashion-Offensive or to See?

Ah glasses, the burden of many a fashion-conscious and budget-conscious person. I've been shopping around for a new pair and it seems the best deal for an attractive set is $200! Well, would you believe that was about the same asking price for them in late 18th century America as well? Spectacles were pricey!

Spectacles have been around forever but they underwent some of the most important changes in the eighteenth century that have given us the glasses we have today. One of the biggest issues with spectacles was how to keep them on your face. It was in 1730 that a London Optician, Edward Scarlett came up with the genius solution of creating sidepieces that could rest atop a person's ears. Before that there were balancing acts on noses and ribbons going every which way (the Chinese took that Western aspect and added weights to keep them on). By 1752 the glasses now had hinges thanks to another British Optician, James Asycough. With these adjustments, Spectacle sales increased.

Spectacles could be made with clear or tinted glass. After Georgiana went through the trouble with her eyes she would wear spectacles of black crepe to keep the light out of her sensitive eye. Lenses were available in a variety of colors, usually blue or green in England. You might think, with all these fabulous color combinations that Spectacles could be trendsetting, they weren't. People were extremely self-conscious about wearing glasses in public. Think teenagers going to the grocery store with mom in complicated orthodontic headgear. The fashion-conscious French were especially notorious for their hatred of spectacles; they would much rather walk into a door at Versailles than be seen in spectacles. When Princess Sophia needed glasses, she fretted about wearing them to the opera, worried about what the newspapers would say. Her sister Augusta scolded,

"...What...can they say? That Princess Sophia wears spectacles! Well, and what harm can that do her? Would it not be better they should say it, than she loose all sight of the performers?"

I think Augusta and I would get along.

Yet another improvement in spectacles came in 1784 from America when Ben Franklin was getting frustrated reading one night. Franklin had two sets of spectacles, one for his near-sightedness and one for his far-sightedness. He found himself constantly switching from one set to the other. He sliced both sets of lenses in half, glued (so to speak) them together, and thus created the bifocal. Clever Ben!

So it is safe to say that the modern glasses as we know it, is strictly an eighteenth century invention. This invention comes with the same price and the same occasional insecurity about how one looks in their glasses. You would think after a couple of centuries of improvements in ophthalmology we would finally be rid of the glasses stigma!