Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches

The Sunshade, the Glove, the Muff

After /the brilliant success which attended, in the spring of last year, our volume on/ The Fan--/a success which was the result, as I cannot conceal from myself, much more of the original conception and decorative execution of that work of luxe than of its literary interest--...

Chapters

6. Part 6

With the Egyptians, the hand was a symbol of force; with the Romans, a symbol of fidelity. We please ourselves in clothing the occult powers, such as Time, Nature, Destiny, with...

2. Part 2

"After the /Thong-ya/, it is only under the first Wei (A.D. 220-264) that gentlemen began the use of Parasols; these Parasols were most frequently made of little rods of bamboo...

5. Part 5

The good old man, kindled by his enthusiasm, became transformed; he seemed desirous to take upon himself the whole history of the Glove, which he embroidered at once with fancy...

4. Part 4

Anglomania had not yet penetrated, as in the present day, into French manners; and the dandyism of 1830, which pretended that the carrying of a walking-stick required a particul...

7. Part 7

A fur worn in winter, in which to put the hands, to keep them warm. /Muffs/ were formerly only for women: at the present day they are carried by men. The finest /Muffs/ are made...

1. Part 1

After /the brilliant success which attended, in the spring of last year, our volume on/ The Fan--/a success which was the result, as I cannot conceal from myself, much more of t...

3. Part 3

The definition of Richelet is almost the same. He adds, however, these words: "Only women carry Parasols, and they only in spring, summer, and autumn." Richelet, it is true, bor...

8. Part 8

We see sometimes appearing certain light little works connected either with literary history or ancient poetry, or manners and customs, which would be nothing but pretty and cur...