Tea at Trianon: Women’s Hoods 1600-1690

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Women’s Hoods 1600-1690

From Costume Historian:

In the first half of the seventeenth century the main linen headwear for women was the coif. The coif came in several forms but most were close fitting. Hoods were around from the beginning of the century and, from the 1640s to the 1680s, they slowly, but never completely, replaced the coif both as a fashion item and among the lower classes.

Another name for a hood can be chaperon, and this is the term Cunnington (1972) uses to refer to them. Cotgrave draws the term very wide, defining it thus ‘Chaperon, a hood, or French hood (for a woman); also any hood, bonnet, or lettice cap.” (Cotgrave, 1611) The OED has several references to chaperons from the first half of the 17th century including, most explicitly, this from 1623 “Their White Hoods or Chapperons.” (OED, 2016)

These earlier hoods may be different to the later ones. There are a few of survivals of early hoods, two in the V&A have been dated to 1600-1625, and 1600-1630, both have scrolling blackwork embroidery, as did some of the coifs of that period. Another hood in the V&A collection is dated to 1610-1620 and is of linen with insertion work at the seams and a bobbin lace edging, a detailed examination and pattern has been produced for this. (Lucas, 2011) There are also two hoods, that Janet Arnold took patterns from, in the Gallery of Costume at Manchester, they are dated between 1610 and 1625, one is of linen (accession no. 2003.73) and the other of fustian (accession no. 2003.74. (Arnold, 2008) In wear these might well look like the hood won in Vermeer’s painting the Procuress, 1656, they have no gathering at the back but are simply worn loose. There is also a hood in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, this they date to c.1640 and, it is very fine, almost transparent, cotton with a bobbin lace edging. There is very little further information on it, but the photograph of the back view gives an indication of the construction, which is very unlike that of the earlier hoods. (Read more.)