In the Eighteenth Century we seemed to veer from slavishly following French taste and fashion in all things, to ridiculing them as chattering scrawny monkeys!… Read More »How the English (through Gillray) viewed the French: Part 2 (or is it 72?).
A couple of prints sixty years apart, showing a late night drinking scene. In the first, by William Hogarth, we see the scene at four… Read More »Late-night drinking sessions – contrast and compare: Hogarth v Newton
I came across this print on the Lewis Walpole Library site – oddly enough while looking up prints showing Captain William Bligh. Apparently the dandy… Read More »Cruikshank’s view of the Bon Ton, c. 1817
Googling the word ‘refinement’ brought up a couple of interesting caricatures: I rather like this fashion print (courtesy of the British Museum) showing what the… Read More »Two versions of refinement – London Refinement, 1787 and the Refinement of Language, 1802.
There is no delicate way of putting it: my ancestor Richard Hall had problems with wind. He diarised ways of avoiding it (basically by not… Read More »Wind, or Flatulence, otherwise Oppression of the Stomach.
OK, so you want more on muffs. So as not to appear sexist I have to point out that Samuel Pepys had taken to wearing… Read More »More on muffs? You asked for it!
Arguments rage about whether ladies (and gents) generally went commando in the eighteenth century. Here, a caricature which suggests that knickerbockers were commonplace… The mere… Read More »Knickers or knickerless in 1799? The Virgin Shape Warehouse has the answer.
I have a confession to make: my attendance record with dentists has never been exemplary. It’s not that I don’t like dentists – lovely people,… Read More »A visit to Thomas Berdmore, dentist to His Majesty….
In my recent post I listed a number of prints – mostly Rowlandson’s – showing how artists of the day portrayed black servants, black prostitutes… Read More »More images showing how blacks were portrayed in 18th Century prints…
I hesitate to write anything which offends – but it does occur to me that rather than complaining about the inaccuracies in TV programmes such… Read More »Was London a mixed society 250 years ago? The view from artists at the time.