Subject: aristocratic gentleman
Culture: English
Setting: Georgian period, England / British empire 18thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources,Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Plumb 1980 p8
"Increasingly from the last quarter of the seventeenth century in Britain there was a change in man's attitude to himself and to the world about him. Men and women felt that happiness was to be found on earth as well as in heaven, that the works of a bountiful creator were to be enjoyed, not shunned. Indeed, this attitude strengthened so powerfully that Thomas Jefferson embodied in the Declaration of Independence the pursuit of happiness as an inalienable natural right, on the same terms as liberty and life. Even if enshrined as a social goal, happiness, alas, is often elusive and usually expensive in its pursuit. It can, of course, be achieved without money, but the ecstatic happiness of a hair-shirted saint had little appeal for men and women of the eighteenth century. They were religious, certainly, often with a deep sincerity rather than mere conviction, but their religion was socially orientated. They felt a need to reconcile their increasingly powerful desire to enjoy the fruits of creation and the world about them with a sense of moral purpose. Happiness could not be derived from license, nor from dissipation, nor from idleness. Happiness was deepest when linked with self-improvement, either through the social arts or through the enjoyment of nature in all its manifestations -- not only its beauties, but also its secrets -- for where else was the purpose as well as the goodness of God the creator to be found?
"For the men, women, and children of eighteenth-century England, at least those beyond the borders of poverty, the world became increasingly radiant. There were more things to possess, more activities -- intellectual, artistic and sporting --to enjoy; the passions of the mind, the heart and the body could be more easily and more socially indulged. 'More socially' is important to stress: happiness became less private, less a state of the soul, a personal relationship with God, than something visible to one's neighbours. The pursuit of happiness was entangled in social emulation; it therefore became competitive, and competition requires money and time as well as desire."
* Redford 2008 p1
"Dabbling in Rome, drifting in Bath: from the early nineteenth century to the present, 'dilettante' has been a deprecatory or even pejorative term, connoting the sloppy, the second-rate, the superficial. Its opposite is the encomiastic 'professional.' Yet throughout eighteenth-century Europe, 'dilettante' and its cognate 'amateur' defined a cultural ideal. The etymology of both words epitomizes their significance: 'dilettante' derives from the Italian dilettare ('to delight'), itself descended from the Latin delectare; 'amateur' comes from the French aimer ('to love') and ultimately from the Latin amare. To be a dilettante is to exhibit diletto -- pleasure, delight -- just as being an amateur is to act out of love. Implied in both terms is the idea of energetic, enjoyable, wide-ranging curiosity -- curiosity that crosses what would now be called 'disciplinary boundaries.' The rapid fall from grace of the dilettante or amateur that occurs during the period of the Napoleonic wars (1803-15) helps to mark the great divide separating us from the Enlightenment, when all fields of knowledge seemed to compose 'an interlacing pattern.'"
Costume
* Cole/Lambert 2021 p104-105
"Highly decorated, somewhat stiff and relatively unfitted clothing remained the norm until the late eighteenth century, and often such garments manifest considerable presence, almost independent of the wearer: 'the beauty of the costume, not the man' as Anne Hollander puts it. ....
"Embroidery represented the most costly, and thus most elite, of decorative techniques, long established and prescribed for male court wear. Often the work of professional French embroiderers, in the eighteenth century it could be breathtakingly elaborate, naturalistic and colourful. Costume collections include disproportionate numbers of these bold court coats and suits because they look too remarkable and decorative to be tossed out, and because, if they have survived the rigours of the subsequent fancy dress ball or the 'dressing up chest', they have had relatively little heavy wear. Some of the examples are breathtakingly beautifully stitched, with naturalistic coloured flowers embroidered lavishly over the fronts of the coats in deep broad curving borders reaching well across the chest and with deep borders to the cuffs. The associated waistcoat was usually embroidered similarly with a sympathetic and matching, but not identical, design, providing further creative opportunity. Indeed, waistcoats remained the preferred garment for lavish decoration well into the nineteenth century. Such ensembles were intended to inspire careful examination and admiration (for the embroidery is most intricate) while also demonstrating a clear aristocratic social superiority.
"Embroidered outfits could be even more visually arresting when contrasting colours were utilised in the body of the coat and in the costly, exuberant embroidery. The most extreme and mannered British male fashionistas in the 1760s and 1770s were dubbed macaronis to indicate a form of 'ultra-fashionable dressing' within an urban and privileged context. Having, in many cases, experienced the continental 'Grand Tour', these men returned home seemingly seduced by all things Italian, including macaroni pasta. Their costume silhouettes were deliberately narrow and sharply fitted, pared with towering hairstyles; decorative emphasis was on block colours rather than on pattern; and when embroidery was employed, it was often supremely delicate and finely professional."
* Manchester Art Gallery > Dandy Style: 250 Years of British Men's Fashion
"During the 18th century, fashionable British men dressed as extrovertly as women. Highly decorated clothing remained the norm for those men able to afford it until around 1800. Embroidery represented the costliest of decorative techniques and still provides a rich source of creative inspiration for recent designers such as Versace and McQueen." ....
* Breward 1995 p122-123
"Whilst the rural, equestrian style of the English gentleman proved an effective fashionable export in the latter half of the eighteenth century, it would be simplistic to claim that the flow of influences was one-way only. In terms of metropolitan style, the standing of London as a cosmopolitan centre of display, together with the rise of the European grand tour as a prerequisite for the education of the elite or aspirational male, ensured that masculine dress also reflected continental tastes. The Macaroni, a focus of satirical criticism from the late 1760s on, was lambasted principally for his ostentatious adoption of Italian and French style. Whilst his extravagant make-up and coiffure and choice of bright colours formed a subcultural badge, pitted against sober ideals of 'Britishness', the tightness and brevity of Macaroni dress, revealing the male physique, announced the later and wider popularity of buff-coloured breeches and short waistcoats amongst all levels of male society in the 1780s and '90s. To these items of dress were added a more relaxed 'Augustan' treatment of the hair, resulting in the gradual rejection of the wig for all but the most formal events. The dark enveloping frock-coat, lacking trimming other than the addition of velvet collars and large metal buttons, with a cut-away front and tails at the back by about 1790, epitomised the supposed grace of English patrician style. The arrangement of high cravat and stiff shirt collar allowed for a degree of individual expression otherwise denied by a code of dressing that was rapidly anticipating the inexpensive but apparently 'democratic' masculine uniform of the following two centuries."
Sword
* Fryer 1969 p67
"Small-sword The successor of the rapier worn in the late seventeenth and through the eighteenth centuries. It was both a civilian and military weapon. The hilt usually had a double shell guard, short quillons, knuckle-bow and spherical pommel. Many hilts were elaborate and were finely pierced or chiselled in silver, gilt metal or steel. The blade was frequently of slender triangular section and often of colichemarde type."
* Higgins Armory Museum > Story of the Sword
"Smallswords The civilian sword became an item of gentlemanly jewelry
The smallsword evolved from the rapier in the late 1600s. French swordmasters designed it to deliver lightning-quick stabbing attacks, rarely cutting with the edge. Some smallswords had no edge at all.
"As dueling and streetfighting declined, the smallsword became a male fashion accessory. Swordmakers and jewelers collaborated to produce weapons of exquisitely carved steel, silver, and gold, sometimes adding porcelain or precious stones. Hilts could be traded in and out to allow for changing fashions or special occasions.
"Eventually the smallsword itself became a victim of changing fashions. By 1800, swords went out of style as a civilian accessory, although a training version of the smallsword survives to the present day as the 'foil' used by sport fencers."
* Byam 1988 p45 caption (describing an English smallsword c. 1780)
"Since they were worn for fashion as well as protection, smallswords often had highly decorated hilts and blades. Civilians wore them until the end of the 18th century, by which time they were little more than fashion accessories, called 'town' or 'walking' swords."
