Marriage Shirt
Marriage Shirt
Marriage Shirt
Marriage Shirt
Marriage Shirt
Marriage Shirt

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Marriage Shirt
Late 18th c

This is a less elaborate marriage shirt with a more modest frill, clearly owned by the same gentleman, initials IPS.

The buttons on this shirt are Dorset wheel buttons, which is the most usual type of covered button. The town of Shaftesbury was the centre of the covered button trade.  Originally, they were made on a disc cut from the horn of a Dorset Horn sheep, which was covered with needle-worked thread. By the early 18th c wire was imported by wagon from the Midlands, then twisted into rings and soldered, which replaced the horn. Ring making was carried out by children working as 'Twisters' who formed the rings, 'Dippers' who soldered them shut and 'Stringers' who tied them into strings for distribution to the button makers.

The shape of the cuffs are most unusual and aesthetically very pleasing. Could they be a nod to the Incroyable style fashion of the 1790s?  The sleeve shape intrigues me because there must have been a fashionable purpose to reduce the volume of fabric from the classic rectangular shape. I think it is cut specifically to be worn under the fashionable shape which you can see in the plate attached (c.1799). A coat with a very tight sleeve shape which extends over the knuckles. My thanks to Natalie Garbett for her comments*

 

Description

The full cotton shirt with high collar 2 in; 5 cm fastened with a Dorset button and buttonhole, the body of the shirt tightly gathered into the collar, the linen  frilled front 3 in; 7 cm wide, also tightly gathered, A heart embroidered at the base of the frill with needlelace insert, a band from neck to shoulder with side insert triangles, T shaped sleeves with dropped shoulders, shaped concave cuffs with Dorset buttons, the skirts with side splits, initalled IPS 2 embroidered in red cotton, the back tightly gathered into the collar, back neck to hem 31 in 79 cm. Underarm 58 in; 1.48 m.

Condition

Needs a good wash! There are slight light brown markings here and there. I would imagine a conservator could reduce these. Ask for photos.

Comments

see The History of Underclothes Cunningtons, Dover edition. p 103 where it talks about a wedding shirt having a double heart with needlelace in Norwich museum, 1795-1800 worn with tight buckskin breeches.

*Natalie Garbett  A History of Fashion 1790-1820,
(To be published 2017 by Pen and Sword Books)

M de Garsault . L'art de la lingerie , Neuchatel 1780 ( reprint oof original 1769 ) To make a shirt.
http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/maenner/18hemd.shtml

Colonial Williamsburg have a shirt with very fine pleating which they described as pattern-ironed pleats. I guess this means that some pattern / grid was marked on the fabric before starching and ironing. The same method must have been used on the our shirts and seperate sleeves.

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