Jaarboek Kostuum 2005
Table of Contents
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Mayke Groffen
A hat maker by trade
The Rotterdam Historical Museum has around 1500 hats in its collection. In 2002 it issued a DVD on the history of hat production in France, Great Britain and the Netherlands in collaboration with the Museum of Hatting in Stockport and the Musée du Chapeau in Chazelles-sur-Lyon.
In legal deeds from Rotterdam dating from 1568 onwards we find statements related to hat trades (hat makers, hatband makers, hat buyers) which give us an idea both of the quantities, prices and quality of materials used and the finished products.
The most important material for making hats is felt. It is made from wool, which felts easily, or the hair of for instance beavers, camels or rabbits, which needs undergo extensive chemical and mechanical treatments. The hat makers originally felted and shaped the hats by hand. Over the centuries this process became more mechanised, but it is still based on shaping the damp wool or hair under high temperatures and pressure. Chemicals are used to accelerate this process. For centuries hats made of beaver hair, the so-called castors, were considered to be the best and finest ones. Usually, however, the beaver hair was mixed with other kinds of hair or combined with wool.
The Amsterdam hat makers’ guild was founded in 1621. The Ordinances included regulations on the quality of the production, selling, and competition with hat makers from other cities or from abroad. From the early 17th century onwards hat makers suffered from competition caused by the import of hats from abroad.
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Jacoba de Jonge
Hidden beauty
An extraordinary chintz dressThe costume collection of the Amsterdam Historical Museum includes a chintz dress from circa 1795-1800. The dress is very fashionable for the period, but the chintz does not have the all-over pattern of tiny flowers which was popular at the time. The large floral motifs indicate that the fabric is older and therefore the dress must have been altered.
The dress consists of an overdress with a matching petticoat. The bodice has a low, round neckline, long sleeves and a slightly raised waistline. On closer inspection one can see that the fabric is not only painted in a continuous floral ornament, but also with special decorative borders. These decorations are reminiscent of the trimming on a robe à la française or sack, consisting of a meandering decoration along the front borders of the open dress and a decorated strip on the petticoat worn underneath.
In the present shape of the dress the decorations are hidden from view. The painted borders of the open overdress have been folded back inside and stitched in place. The beautiful front of the petticoat has been moved to the back. In addition to this the skirt panel has been cut in two and the bottom strip has been attached to the top, making sure that the original decoration could not even be seen when the wearer would sit down or raise her overskirt.
Although the dress has been in a museum since circa 1890, its provenance is not yet quite clear. It is certain that it is made of an Indian chintz. This gives rise to questions: who could have been the wearer of this dress, and how often would such pieces of fabric for dresses have been ordered? The decorations were made specifically to the shape of a robe à la française. However, the many surviving chintz skirts with a decorative border at the bottom are always made of fabric which was painted by the meter, with a special border along one selvedge.
This kind of fabric does not have a specific pattern for a garment. It might for instance also be used for curtains. So far we know of no other examples of women's clothes which were painted to shape in India. It was common practice for men's clothes though, especially for banyans and waistcoats.
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Saskia Kuus
A farmer and a farmer's wife from Saardam and other prints by Pieter van den Berge
This article describes a series of prints designed and engraved by Pieter van den Berge (1659-1737). The series consists of ten prints of villagers: the farmer and his wife from Saardam (nowadays Zaandam), the farmer from Schagen, the milkmaid from Waterland , the fisherman and his wife from the island of Marken, the farmer and his wife from Molkwerum, and the farmer and his wife from the island of Vlieland. The figures are large and seen from the front, which provides a clear picture of the clothes they are wearing. However, we cannot be sure how reliable the rendition of the costumes is.
The women's dresses consist of a shift, a vest or underjacket, a pair of stays or a jacket or a combination of both, a skirt and an apron. The stays were actually an undergarment, but it was typical for the lower classes to wear them visibly. It is impossible to ascertain whether the differences in costume may be seen as distinctive for the different regions, as we lack sufficient material for comparison.
The men’s clothes in the prints consist of a shirt, a waistcoat and a coat or two waistcoats worn over one another, breeches, tight-fitting stockings and shoes tied with a bow. Such garments were worn by a large part of the male population, both in the cities and in the country. It is even more difficult to decide whether the, often very subtle, differences between the clothes can be ascribed to regional customs, than it is for the women's clothes.
The engravings were printed by Pieter Persoy and published by two different publishers: Jacques Le Moine de l'Espine and Gerard Valck. Seven prints from the series were used as illustrations in a two-part book, Teatro Belgico, written in Italian by Gregorio Leti (1630-1701) and printed in Amsterdam by 'Gugliemo' de Jonge in 1690. Petrus Schenk (1660-1713) published a series of exact copies of the prints, which were engraved by Pieter Pickaert, or Picart.
Later Pieter van den Berge himself issued another series consisting of six prints. Some of the subjects are also found in the first series. However, the farmer and his wife from Molkwerum are replaced by a farmer and his wife from Friesland (Molkwerum is a village in Friesland). This series also introduces two new figures: the wetnurse from Waterland and the sailor returned from the East-Indies.
In the early 18th century two series of prints were published under the title Hollandse dorpelingen (Dutch villagers). A number of the figures in these are derived from Pieter van den Berge's prints. People who were interested in these kinds of prints had to accept that most of the figures were modelled after examples which were at least 25 years old.
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Ingrid Grunnill
Sundays she will go to church
The cornette in church and fashion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuriesThe starting point for this article was a print in an 18th-century Dutch fashion magazine of a lady in a cornette. According to all definitions a cornette in this period was a woman's cap of white linen or cotton which was fastened under the chin. However, the print shows a woman in a close-fitting black cap. The matter is explained in the text accompanying a costume print depicting two women, published by Maaskamp in 1803. Both women are actually wearing a black hood over their white cornettes. Together with a black shoulder mantle this was the proper wear for women in Dutch cities belonging to certain Protestant denominations when going to church. A bible with golden clasps and a fan to cover the eyes during prayer used to complete this outfit.
In the 1784 portrait of Aagje Deken and Betje Wolff, two woman friends who co-authored many books, Aagje is seen to wear a tight-fitting white cap fastened under the chin. On the other hand her friend Betje wears a large dormeuse over high-dressed hair. Aagje had been brought up as a radical Protestant whereas Betje was the widow of a minister of the Dutch Reformed church. The wearing of a tight-fitting cap in these decades of large hairdos was a signal that a woman rejected fashion and had her mind on higher things.
Several sources dating from the 1730s to the 1770s show us that it was customary for both men and women to wear black when taking part in Holy Communion. Pictures show that for ordinary church services women would wear some kind of black head covering. The richest would wear black shoulder mantles with attached hoods over brocaded gowns. The poorest, such as maidservants, came to church in plain white caps. By the 1780s the wearing of black hoods and mantles to church had become exclusive to women who were very strict in their religion. It has to be taken into account that many costume prints show pictures of customs which were disappearing by the time they were published.
By 1817 the cornette is no longer close-fitting. Maidservants also wore the cornette when it was fashionable, but went on wearing it when elegant ladies abandoned it around 1830. From then on the cornette became the signature of the maidservant, although it was worn by working-class women in general. This must have finally killed the cornette off as a cap to wear to church.
Mid-century the cornette was adopted in several types of regional dress. By 1880 the cornette had disappeared from the cities, but it lived on in regional costume, where it may still be seen at special occasions.
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Sigrid Ivo
An ode to the bag
From a passion for collecting to the Museum of Bags and PursesHendrikje Ivo had been an avid collector of bags for years when her personal fascination finally grew into the Tassenmuseum (Museum of Bags and Purses), situated in the Dutch town of Amstelveen. The history of bags, the variety shown in materials, shapes and decorating techniques, as well as the art movements they reflect, were all reasons for Hendrikje to collect bags.
From the earliest times bags and purses have been useful objects for both men and women. There has been a great variety of them since the late Middle Ages. There were bags and purses for daily use, for special occasions such as weddings, letter cases and purses for carrying alms, the Bible, money and miniatures or seals. Some bags commemorate a historical occasion or person, there is for instance a silver frame bag with the head of-the Dutch stadholder William V on the hook. The arrival of the first giraffe in France (1826) and the first steam boat crossing the Atlantic Ocean (1838), are historical occasions carefully represented on the first souvenir bags and purses.
In spite of the wide selection available in earlier centuries, the true precursor of the present-day handbag in all its shapes and materials, and also in the way it is carried, is found in the early 19th century. At that time, waistlines went up and dresses became sleek and were made of fine linen and muslin. It was impossible to wear the pockets ladies used to wear tied around the waist under the wide skirts of the earlier centuries. Women now carried a reticule over the arm. For several decades it remained fashionable to carry the bag like this, or in the hand. The Industrial Revolution brought new materials which were also used for this new handbag.
With the increase of travel in the nineteenth century an assortment of bags became available to the modern traveller. Small hand luggage for the train was a further development of the handbag. In the early twentieth century the emancipation of women, their entry into the workplace and increasing mobility called for more practical handbags. That century saw the development of many different models, such as the ’envelope’, the shoulder bag and the rucksack. In contrast to past centuries, when fashions in bags changed slowly and they could be used for years, the handbag has now become a fashion accessory, changing each season and dictated by the main fashion brands.
Thirty years of collecting and study resulted in a collection of approximately 3000 handbags which can be seen in the Museum of Bags and Purses, which is to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2006. Many of them may also be seen in Bags, a book about the collection published in 2005.
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Wieke Schultink
The fur on the Princess Isolde's cloak in Gottfried von Straßburg's Tristan romance, lines 10885-11020
The old story of the lovers Tristan and Isolde was a favourite in the Middle Ages and often retold. Gottfried von Straßburg 's version was written circa 1210, and in this article we concentrate on the fur on Isolde's mantle as described by him. Gottfried writes in detail about Isolde’s clothes in the section where the Irish nobles have come together in the great hall to give permission for the marriage between the Princess Isolde and King Mark of Cornwall.
Lines 10885-11020 describe Isolde's seductive beauty. Gottfried uses three overlapping images: a beautiful young woman, the goddess Venus and her son Cupid shooting his arrows. In Gottfried’s description Venus carries a falcon on her hand, as if she were a medieval noblewoman. For the medieval nobility this hunting bird was a popular status symbol.
Isolde's gown is made of a shiny, dark, probably brown fabric. It fits closely like a second skin and from the waist down falls between her legs and over her feet in many sleek folds. The cloak, which is what concerns us here, is lined with white ermine, and edged on the outside with sable. The hair of this much sought-after fur is two-toned, neither of the colours predominating. All those present are deeply impressed by Isolde's appearance, because of her graceful movements, the way she carries herself and her eyes. She looks exactly like an irresistible bird of prey, a falcon.
What does two-tone sable look like exactly? And when Gottfried writes 'bi zîlen geflottieret' (line 10920) when he discusses the ermine lining of the cloak, how should we interpret this passage? Conversations with several furriers allow the author to give the following interpretations.
The ends of the hairs in two-tone sable have a colour contrasting with the rest, described in the text as black with (silver)grey ends. As for the ermine lining of the cloak there are two possibilities. In analogy to the term 'flushing' in weaving, we may interpret Gottfried's word flottieren as floating free: it might refer to the black-tipped ermine tails which hang loose. This could be associated with the falcon's breast, which has dark speckles. If however we interpret the word flottieren as to fluctuate, as in Latin and old French, this might refer to curving seams. These occur when small pieces of fur are blocked in an A- or V-cut. The zigzag seam is either kept, or softened into a curving seam. Gottfried also uses the word zîle which here probably means 'horizontal strip', and bi zîlen, 'in strips'. The horizontal curving seams along the small pieces of fur might be associated with overlapping rows of feathers. The underside of the wings of some falcons are indeed almost white.
Both possibilities, with or without tails, would be a fitting illustration of the image of the costume the poet designed for Isolde in imitation of a falcon's plumage. The nobles see Isolde adorned as Venus' falcon.
