Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1971 - 30

Costume in England
A Historv of Dress to the End of the
Eighteenth Century
By F.W. Fairholt, Rev. by W.A. Dillon.
London: 1885. Reissued, Singing Tree
Press. Detroit: 1968. Two volumes: vx
& 416 pp., xxvi & 415pp. $17.50 set.
For nearly one hundred and twenty-five
years Costume in England has enjoyed the
distinction of being considered a "standard
reference" among the general histories of
costume. Frederick William Fairholt was
among the vanguard of modern costume historians. His antiquarian approach was manifest in the wealth of source material he included in his work. His careful research allowed him to reveal almost all of the
sources from which his re-drawings were
made. The usefulness of the illustrative material was further developed with quotations from pertinent period sources. Sometimes these were short descriptive phrases,
sometim es they were long di ary accou nts of
the prevailing modes and manners of a particular court. The quantity and choice of
source material introduced into this work is
still of significant value today.
This tome had its roots in the 1843 ArtUnion, a British art journal. Fairholt's discursive article was entitled "Notes on British Costume." The author's intent inwriting
the article and the subsequent 1846 edition of the book Costume In England was
to give the Victorian" historic" pai nters and
illustrators some knowledge of the peculiarities of dress in England. This was done,
the author notes in the first edition preface,
"principally by appeal to the eye, through
the art of woodcuts, copied from authentic
antique originals, without an attempt at modernization or alteration." Though no apparent attempt was made at modernizing either
the material of the text or the illustrations,
modernization was precisely the result of
his efforts. Quoted texts were translated
and then transformed into Victorian poetry.
The rich textures and colors of Renaissance
and eighteenth century painti ngs were committed to the restrained lines of a woodcut
illustration. Text, drawings, all are reminiscent of modern nineteenth century England.
These faults are somewhat overcome by the
incisive observations and editorial skills of
the author and-the reviser, H.A. Dillon. In
the revised edition most of the transformed
quotations have been restored to their original state.
Fairholt provides the reader with well
over seven hundred small wood engravings.
These re-drawings of original sources
(sometimes re-drawings of re-drawings) are
fairly accurate. Their relatively small size
negates any real study of costume construction or fabric and decorative detail. The
numbered illustrations are indexed to the
text of the volume in which they appear as
well as the text of the companion volume.

Fairholt was as skilled a penman as he
was a draftsman. His didacticism is tempered with a delightful wit and a flair for
making history fascinating. He obviouslyenjoyed his historic personages because he
took absolute delight in describing them and
their foibles. At the head of the eighth
chapter, "The Stuarts," he wrote:
The ascension of King James I interfered in no
degree with the coStume of the country. That
monarch had, in fact, more luxuries to conform to,
than to introduce. His cowardice, among his other
failings, made it a matter of solicitude with him
to guard his person, at all times unwieldy, with
quilted and padded clothing, so that it might
ever be dagger· proof.

The material of the first volume is laid
out ina logical, useful manner. Each of the
ten chapters begins with a discussion of the
dress of the nobility, then goes on to discuss the merchant and moneyed middle
class costume and ends the cycle with a
usually short appreciation of the commonalty. Also, each chapter includes a short
section on clerical costume as well as the
arms and armor of each period. The scope
of the volume is broad, it begins with a
chapter on the early Britons (ca. 207 A.D.)
then engages the Romans, Normans, AngloSaxons, the British crowned families and
concludes midway in the reign of George
III.
The second volume, a glossary, should
prove a significant tool for the literary and
historical scholar as well as for the artistdesigner. The glossed terms are carefully
defined (thirty-five pages are devoted to
headdresses) and frequently embellished
with illustrations. Also, many contemporary
Iiterary sources are used to help fix the
glossed terms in their proper historic context.
Because of its significant antiquarian approach, utter dependence on original source
material, Costume In England is still a
"standard reference" work worthy of praise
and continued use.
Leon I. Brauner
I ndiana University

The Dictionary of Costume
Ruth Turner Wilcox. Charles Scribner's
Sons. New York: 1969.406 pp. $15.00.
The jacket of this volume claims that
there are over 3,200 entries in the dictionary, which certainly makes the book more
comprehensive than previous dictionaries
on costuming. One disappointment, however, is that many terms in the other dictionaries on costume have been omitted
from this one. In some instances the
omitted terms,
such as, "benjy" or
"bigote," are obscure orobsolete. However,

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER ,1971

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