"Four Yellow Love Drawers" - 1685
I have thought for sometime on how to broach the topic of underwear as I have found out the hard way that there are many established ideas on what was and wasn't. However, the story of how "underbeeches" and what were later called drawers came to be actually reflects just how human we all are.
When Wina who was from the province of Horn in the Netherlands arrived in America, she was a whip of a business woman. She had to have known her market as she arrived with an extensive list of exotic goods from the east. She opened her shop right next to her husband's doctoring practice. With side by side storefronts, everything in their lives seems to have been intimate. Her wares were so numerous they spilled over into his office with porcelain stacked on shelves on the walls. Wina's wardrobe was no different as it included 5 work day suits, a fine suit in silk and a number of calico gowns plus over 50 fontages and headbands. But it is the four yellow drawers in silk that let us peek into the lives of those in 17th Century New York. Her husband an apparently reserved person in comparison only owned 2 capes, 2 black or gray suits and a dressing gown... plus 7 pairs of drawers that range from linen to silk. In one chest, there was even a blue and white feather. The couples of New York even if reserved on the outside as was Wina's husband, or spectacular on the outside as was Wina herself... all seem to keep something special and dare I say flirtatious in the marriage.
Wina and her husband were not alone, while most of the 112 drawers that have shown up in the the 28 inventories referenced are linen, there is also the saucier side.
Due to the PG nature of this blog we'll have to skip the naughty bits... but I am looking forward to my presentation at Boston History Camp this Saturday.
[ Since publishing in the last few weeks the number of drawers has gone up to 128 from 33 inventories during the same time period 1630-1720s. These were men's clothes inventories, windows are doing a great job of keeping any and all their clothing out of inventories. July 18, 2018 ]
When Wina who was from the province of Horn in the Netherlands arrived in America, she was a whip of a business woman. She had to have known her market as she arrived with an extensive list of exotic goods from the east. She opened her shop right next to her husband's doctoring practice. With side by side storefronts, everything in their lives seems to have been intimate. Her wares were so numerous they spilled over into his office with porcelain stacked on shelves on the walls. Wina's wardrobe was no different as it included 5 work day suits, a fine suit in silk and a number of calico gowns plus over 50 fontages and headbands. But it is the four yellow drawers in silk that let us peek into the lives of those in 17th Century New York. Her husband an apparently reserved person in comparison only owned 2 capes, 2 black or gray suits and a dressing gown... plus 7 pairs of drawers that range from linen to silk. In one chest, there was even a blue and white feather. The couples of New York even if reserved on the outside as was Wina's husband, or spectacular on the outside as was Wina herself... all seem to keep something special and dare I say flirtatious in the marriage.
Wina and her husband were not alone, while most of the 112 drawers that have shown up in the the 28 inventories referenced are linen, there is also the saucier side.
Due to the PG nature of this blog we'll have to skip the naughty bits... but I am looking forward to my presentation at Boston History Camp this Saturday.
[ Since publishing in the last few weeks the number of drawers has gone up to 128 from 33 inventories during the same time period 1630-1720s. These were men's clothes inventories, windows are doing a great job of keeping any and all their clothing out of inventories. July 18, 2018 ]
