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Post by spence on May 10, 2022 16:13:35 GMT -7
RyanAK said, "He wears high gaiters even though he has an indoor trade."
He has on leather gaiter garters...say that three times fast.
It's possible he is an itinerant street vendor, tool sharpeners sometimes were.
Spence
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RyanAK
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Post by RyanAK on May 10, 2022 16:20:40 GMT -7
Good point, Spence. It does make more sense for him to make his rounds and collect the day’s work rather than maintaining a shop front.
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Post by spence on May 10, 2022 16:21:02 GMT -7
"It having been determined, for the next year, to clothe the Provincials in red, Major Simcoe exerted to preserve the Rangers in green, and to procure for them green waistcoats, [for] green is without comparison the best colour for light troops with dark accoutrements; and if put on in the spring, by autumn it nearly fades with the leaves, preserving its characteristic of being scarcely discernable at a distance."
Simcoe's Military Journal: a History of the Queen's Rangers, Lt-Col. J. G. Simcoe Bartlett & Welford, 1844 page 38
Spence
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RyanAK
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Once scalped…
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Post by RyanAK on May 10, 2022 17:10:56 GMT -7
Blues. Blue wasn’t as prevalent among the coating shown in images as I would have first thought it would be occurring 16 times, or half as often as a coat in a Gray hue. Dark tones were seen most often in coating and a red waistcoat was a popular pairing. Lighter colors like ‘Robbin’s Egg’ or ‘Sky’ appeared most often on waistcoats and appear to be silk or another fine fabric. Here’s a young family in a country setting. Dark Blue coat over a Scarlet waistcoat and Black breeches. The coat and waistcoat both have fabric-covered buttons. The Black cocked hat has silver trim. Here’s a sporting image showing a gent in a Dark Blue coat, Dark Gray waistcoat, and Light Dove Gray breeches. Here’s a fine, trimmed coat of Chestnut Brown over what appears to be a silk waistcoat in a light Blue. These lighter shade are most often associated with ‘finer’ costuming in my image set.
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Post by Black Hand on May 10, 2022 17:28:40 GMT -7
Blue dye (primarily Indigo or maybe Woad) is a little more difficult that brown or black and may account for the difference (?). Indigo dyeing is a multistep procedure.
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RyanAK
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Once scalped…
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Post by RyanAK on May 10, 2022 19:55:30 GMT -7
RyanAK said, "He wears high gaiters even though he has an indoor trade." He has on leather gaiter garters...say that three times fast. It's possible he is an itinerant street vendor, tool sharpeners sometimes were. Spence Y’a know what? That wheel will be wet while sharpening and slinging water about. While an ‘inside’ trade, it certainly would be a wet and sloppy one. Gaiters! BTW… I think the wooden ‘shoe’ actually had a hole in it to dribble water onto the grinding wheel.
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Post by brokennock on May 11, 2022 6:46:20 GMT -7
You are correct about the wooden shoe.
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Post by brokennock on May 11, 2022 6:49:49 GMT -7
You have done an excellent analysis of these paintings. I am truly impressed. I would live to see the data cross referenced with advertisements and other written descriptions. I seem to recall just recently reading a similar, but shorter, summarization of written accounts that had grey as the predominant stocking color. I can't remember if I read it here or elsewhere.
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RyanAK
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Once scalped…
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Post by RyanAK on May 11, 2022 7:06:55 GMT -7
I could certainly do that given enough advertisements. The way I currently have this spreadsheet built, all the work is just data entry and a few mouse clicks to analyze the data. A true database would be better, but I never got into building those. Runaway ads from, say 1750-1760 would give us a good look. The more data the better, but I’d like to have at least 50. Geographic location may have influence on working class attire, so I’d add a field for that. But with enough data points, we could narrow in on what, if anything, was ‘common’ among the common men. Right now the schedule drag for this would just be to gather the advertisements. Once I have the sample set, it goes pretty quick. Get me a dump of ads and I can do it. I like this because it quantifies our “They wore brown, black and blue” thinking into real instances of occurance within the bounds of the dataset criteria.
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RyanAK
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Once scalped…
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Post by RyanAK on May 11, 2022 7:11:01 GMT -7
I’m going to put this lad here without comment other than to say that I’m both charmed and disheartened by this image. This image isn’t part of my V1.0 dataset. I’m still collecting images and when I have enough to add and run the analysis again, I’ll update the findings.
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Post by brokennock on May 11, 2022 7:27:47 GMT -7
No question that Spence is your "go to," guy for those ads.
I believe the database he gets/got them from is still available online. I never figured out how to make it work. Most who really know me are amazed I can do as much as I do online. Tech and I are not friends 😉
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RyanAK
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Once scalped…
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Post by RyanAK on May 11, 2022 7:38:47 GMT -7
I’ll PM Spence this afternoon and see if he’d like to collaborate. This would be a fun and enlightening project.
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RyanAK
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Once scalped…
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Post by RyanAK on May 11, 2022 15:25:10 GMT -7
Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond. Or… Charles Goring of Winston. Or… So, there’s questions about just who this painting is of. And who painted it. Yale had attributed it to Johann Zoffany at one time, but it’s since been changed to “Unknown”. If this happens to be Charles Lennon, he was an interesting guy… an ally of the colonial independence movement who lobbied to bring British troops home from North America and sympathized with the arguments that would lead to rebellion and independence for the colonies. Whomever this fella is, he’s enjoying a hunt with his dog and his “servant” (read “slave”). Interesting to note that the identity of the subject was first called into question because the servant isn’t dressed in the correct “livery” for the Duke’s house c.1765. He’s had success, taking a hare and a woodcock. I have very high resolution images of this painting, and you can see great detail. Which is well… because I’m strongly leaning towards basing my impression off of this gent’s garments. Click for larger images. Lennox is in my data analysis, but his slave is not… though it’s interesting to note that it looks like the boy may be wearing leather breeches. Lennox is wearing a suited pair in his coat and waistcoat in a Gray/Brown “Drab” color. The coat is collared and without cuffs. His fowling piece has an octagon-to-round barrel, a silver front sight, and the cock has a ring on the top screw. The flint is held with a piece of red leather. His game bag and the unfortunate hare hang on his right hip. I’m not sure of the bag’s material, but it has tassels. Another strap leads to his left hip but our view is obstructed. That bag has a silver buckle on the strap, a keeper for the tongue of the belt, and the leather appears to have either a stitched or embossed edge. He wears white stockings, and either hi-lo boots or shoes with low gaiters. His hat is black and shows a modest amount of gold trim. I’ve looked at this several times, and I feel confident that his breeches are a different color than his waistcoat and coat. In the next post I’ll show an “enhanced” image that makes this a little more clear. They appear to be a “Coffee” color. We can see that the coat buttons are fairly large (one could scale this if we wanted to know just what size…), flat, and covered with fabric. The waistcoat buttons are smaller, appear to be domed, and are also fabric-covered. The waistcoat is fully buttoned, right to his neck stock. He’s wearing deerskin gloves. These color tones appear often in my images. Suited pairs appear in 41% of my images, though the Coat-Waistcoat pair only appears 11%. I feel like this would be an appropriate, generic, Middle Class costume for Pennsylvania in the 1750s… but of course I’d appreciate either confirming or contradictory opinions.
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RyanAK
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Post by RyanAK on May 11, 2022 15:27:27 GMT -7
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Post by paranger on May 11, 2022 16:00:06 GMT -7
Very nice images and analysis. I noticed that the buckle on the shot pouch strap has a roller as was typically associated horse tack and appears to me to be of tinned iron, as mid 18th c. spurs often were. It all makes sense, as he obviously would have the means to contract for his accoutrements to a professional, and this is the sort of buckle one might expect a harness maker to have on hand.
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