#18th c.

[nothwell]

dear historical costuming tumblr,

assuming the person commissioning this suit is the suit-maker’s wealthiest and most powerful customer, how long would it realistically take to make?

and (since the suit pictured is apparently wool) if silk or satin were used instead, would this make it take longer?

(image source)

[jeannepompadour]

Robe à la française c. 1760

[revolutionarywig]

i want whatever gender and sexuality that is 18th century man

[ltwilliammowett]

Early Royal Navy Uniforms and dress of an Admiral - Vice Admiral - Post Captain - Lieutenant - Midshipman - Sailor, c. 1760, by unknown, c. 1913

[vincentbriggs]

My good fellow do I have a STORY for you! A while back, I saw your leafkerchief, went “that’s brilliant,” and promptly became unable to find it. “Ah, oh well,” thought I, leaning into the sour grapes fallacy to the best of my ability, “I probably wouldn’t have a place to wear it anyway.” But lo! This summer, I was to attend the ren faire with my friends, just the place for such a fine garment. And I. Could not. Find. The. Video. No search terms were enough—leaf bandana, leaf headscarf, leaf head covering, none of them worked. But this morning, I stumbled upon a reblog of your patchwork dressing gown. Something stirred in the back of my mind. Something old. Something ancient. Something that was actually maybe a year, tops, but still very pressing. “Wait,” a voice murmured inside my head. “Wait, he looks familiar. He looks… strangely… familiar.” After a quick rampage of clicking links, I found it! The leafkerchief! I would also like to say that I feel I have matured in the last several months, and can now say that I would enthusiastically wear a giant leaf around campus. Point being, I am very giddy and now know what I am making next. So thank you! I hope that you are having a splendid day.

Yay! Make a big leaf for your head, yes!!

I'm glad you managed to find it, it's so frustrating when that happens! I've gone looking for sewing blog posts I vaguely remember, and sometimes they're nowhere to be found, and sometimes the whole blog has been deleted in the intervening 8 or 10 years. Alas.

I am having a pretty nice day, yes, and I hope you are too!

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Sandals.

Period: New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty; Reign of Thutmose III

Date: ca. 1479–1425 B.C.

Place of origin: Egypt, Thebes, Wadi Gabbanat el-Qurud, Wadi D, Tomb of the Three Foreign Wives of Thutmose III

Medium: Gold sheet

[fakemichaelsheen]

-the bookshop ball-

crowley, impressed: you've outdone yourself, angel

aziraphale, pleased: oh, I couldn't have done this without you

crowley, smirks: we make a good team *raises his glass*

aziraphale, nods: *clinks crowley's glass* yes, I suppose we do *sips drink* I still think we should've at least considered a masquerade

crowley, adamant: no way. not after last time

aziraphale, sighs: for goodness sake, how many times? I. thought. it. was. you!

crowley, sulking: oh sssssure you did

aziraphale, shakes his head: I'm not going through this again. can't you at least be happy that he's dead now?

crowley, thoughtful: yeah, that does help

[anghraine]

“What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr Darcy!”

“It ought to be good,” he replied, “it has been the work of many generations.”

“And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are always buying books.”

“I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these.”

This conversation is intriguing because, as is often the case in P&P, there is so little narrative framing or comment that you have to make quite a few assumptions based on how you read the characters. We don’t even hear Elizabeth’s reaction to this interchange and don’t know how she takes it (though when Darcy later tries to talk to her about books, she’s sure that their tastes are so wildly different that they won’t have anything to talk about).

In any case, both fans and critics have come away with a lot of different interpretations of Darcy’s book-buying sprees and, in particular, what he means by “such days as these.”

I just read an article that dismissively characterized it as a stuffy civilization-is-falling-down-around-us-in-these-degenerate-times thing showing the basic conservatism of his mindset, and while that article was particularly hostile, it’s a pretty common reading. And you can read it that way, but frankly, it doesn’t seem the most natural reading in the context of either the scene or his overall characterization.

Darcy is repeatedly associated with books and reading and general intellectualism. The Pemberley library links his family pride and his sense of legacy with his personal inclinations—as an individual, he’s bookish, clever, and fairly cerebral. He reads, he buys new books, he enjoys philosophical debates, his response to Elizabeth’s assertion of their different tastes in books is “cool, then we can argue about them :D”, he encourages his teenage sister’s artistic interests and defends her disciplined approach to them when she’s not even there, he collects fine and apparently borderline-incomprehensible paintings, he’s dismissive about the expected accomplishments of upper-class women in favor of reading (partly bc Elizabeth has been reading, but it’s not surprising that a man responsible from age 23 for the education of a young girl has Thoughts on the ongoing female education debates of the time).

All of this is to say that Darcy is engaged with what was then contemporary culture and discourse. This is especially the case if you go with the time of his creation, 1796, but it doesn’t make a huge difference because these debates were still ongoing in the 1810s, and he rarely refers to specific figures and instead prefers more generally familiar concepts and arguments (or chooses to rely on those in conversation with women), and in any case, the English artistic movements of the 1810s owed a lot to those of the late eighteenth century.

And a big eighteenth-century debate was about the merits of modern art, especially literature, compared to ancient art. Historically, there was a lot of deference in English literature to ancient models and dictates, and controversy over newer forms like the novel (in English) but also in poetry and drama and essays. To some people, it seemed like art was going horribly astray by diverging from the ancients (despite the continuing strong influence of Classicism). Others thought the artistic movements of the time were fucking awesome valuable and important, which is generally Austen’s position (most famously in the defense of the novel in NA).

So when Darcy speaks of “such days as these,” I don’t think this is coming from snooty disengagement from the current literary zeitgeist, but rather, the reverse. He’s seeing all these ideas being hotly debated in various essays and treatises, and the English novel taking modern form, and poetry undergoing changes that will only become more drastic, etc etc, and thinks—this is important. Anybody with a family library should be adding the literature that’s coming out at this time.

TL;DR I think Darcy has an affinity for modern art/literature/culture in any case, but also, is so convinced of the importance of the literary “moment” he’s living in that he thinks he’d basically be shaming his ancestors if he didn’t include it in the collection that he’ll pass down to the next generation as it was passed to him.

[quatregats]

Was reminded of the existence of this random Cricinfo comment my dad sent to me like three years ago and I needed to draw them

Stephen: Tea, beforenoon drink, afternoon drink, lunch, postlunch tea: definitely cricket is a luxury game invented by British people.

Jack: Quite so, old fruit. What's the rush, what?

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Pharaoh Ramses II - Egyptian Architecture - Circa 1860

EGYPT: ABU SIMBEL Man standing on the colossal statue of Ramesses II at the great temple at Abu Simbel, Egypt.

  📷 Francis Frith, c. 1860.

[moonasketch]

ed and stede from a while ago <3 

[jeannepompadour]

Family group portrait by Martin van Meytens the Younger, 1730-31 Sweden

[teleport-warning]

[amphibious-thing]

I wanna see more 18th century inspired clothes tho. I'm so disappointed in the costuming this season its no fun :(

[notfromcold]

@ask-roach-questions is live XD

Probably don't follow if you have a medical squick...

[newbordeaux]

I made my ac girls in ts4 teehee

↪ giovanna "gianna" de' benci (b. 1456) ↪ darcy kane (b. 1756) ↪ françoise-gabrielle de régnier de guerchy (b. 1748)