Search Results

[Marie-Jeanne]

(b Abbeville, July 2, 1747; d Epinay, Sept 22, 1813).

French marchande de modes (see fig.). Marchandes de modes, literally merchants of fashion, were milliners and stylists. They designed and sold fashion accessories, including hats and headdresses, and helped women style their ensembles. They acted as coordinators among tailors, dressmakers, linen drapers and other trades, operating outside the regulations that governed those guilds. Bertin became the most influential Parisian marchandes de mode thanks to her talents for design and self-promotion and the patronage of Queen Marie-Antoinette, the undisputed leader of fashion in the late 18th century. Bertin helped elevate the status of the marchandes de modes to that of a creative genius who set the standard for what was fashionable.

Marie-Jeanne Bertin was born to working-class parents. As a girl she was apprenticed to a Mme Barbier, a dressmaker in Abbeville. In 1770 she moved to Paris and likely worked for a marchande de modes, as this was the nature of the first shop she opened herself in the same year on the Quai de Gesvres. Within three years, Bertin had established another shop, ‘Au Grand Mogul’, in the more fashionable Rue Saint-Honoré....

Type of lace made since the 17th century at Binche, near Brussels and Valenciennes, both of whose laces it resembles. It is a heavy lace with decorative grounds, and was used for bedspreads and as a costume trimming. The name has since become the generic term for the type of lace once made at Binche....

(b Stockholm, bapt Aug 10, 1662; d Paris, 5 or Feb 6, 1727).

Swedish miniature painter, active in England. He was first apprenticed to a goldsmith and jeweller in Stockholm. He became adept at miniature painting in enamel, a method that had been introduced into Sweden by Pierre Signac (d 1684), and he is said to have studied the enamels of Jean Petitot I and Jacques Bordier (1616–84) when he spent three months in Paris in 1682. He arrived in England in 1687 at the invitation of John Sowters, a merchant who had earlier invited the portrait painter Michael Dahl to England. After spending some years in provincial English towns, including Lincoln and Coventry (1693), Boit was appointed Court Enameller to William III. He travelled in Europe, visiting the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France, from 1699 to 1703; the most notable product of this period was his large enamel on copper of the Emperor Leopold I and his Family...

English ceramic factory. The date of the foundation of the factory, situated in the London village of that name, is uncertain. It is likely that a French jeweller, Charles Gouyn (d 1785), founded the factory jointly with Nicholas Sprimont and that they obtained technical help from a German chemist, whose name is given, perhaps unreliably, as ‘d’Ostermann’. Around 1749, following initial losses, Gouyn left the partnership but continued to make, at Bennet Street, St James’s, or near Hyde Park Corner, ‘very beautiful small porcelain figures’ thought to include the scent bottles and seals of the so-called ‘Girl-in-a-swing’ class, which used formerly to be confused with Chelsea products. Sprimont’s first known connection with the Chelsea factory site was on 12 September 1744, and the earliest datable products are the ‘goat-and-bee’ jugs inscribed 1745; this seems a probable date when commercial production began. The factory expanded in size and productivity until ...

French family of artists. Jean-Charles Chéron (fl 1630s), a jeweller and engraver to Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, was the father of Charles-Jean-François Chéron. The brother of Jean-Charles, the painter of miniatures and engraver Henri Chéron (b Meaux; d ?Meaux or Lyon, ?1677) trained his daughter ...

(b Naples, 1705; d Rome, 1781).

Italian gem-engraver, brother of Placido Costanzi. He had a flamboyant character and was criticized for his quarrelsome temperament and great avidity for honours and glory. His unbridled ambition is documented by a letter (dated 15 June 1753) to Ridolfino Venuti (see Giulianelli, 1753), in which he lists his various honours for inclusion in the second edition of Mariette’s book. He was, however, a very skilful engraver; Mariette (1750) thought him the best one in Rome, and he obtained commissions from the major European courts. His gem-engraved portraits include James Stuart, the Old Pretender; Empress Maria-Teresa; Cardinal Renato Imperiali; Catherine II, Empress of Russia (all untraced); Benedict XIII (sardonyx; Florence, Pitti); and Baron Philipp von Stosch (sapphire; Florence, Pitti). An emerald (untraced), engraved by Costanzi on one side with a portrait of Benedict XIV and on the other with SS Peter and Paul, was sent by the ...

(b c. 1723; d 1800).

English jeweller, clockmaker, toymaker and maker of automata. In 1745 he established himself in Fleet Street a goldsmith, jeweller, and toyman; 1756 he entered into partnership with Edward Grace and moved to 103 Shoe Lane. The business went bankrupt in 1758, but when Cox was discharged from bankruptcy in 1763, he started a new business, manufacturing mechanical clocks for export to the Far East. Few examples of his products survive, but they include the Swan automaton (Bowes Museum, Castle Barnard), and (probably) the Peacock clock (Hermitage, St Petersburg) (see fig.). In 1772 he opened Cox’s Museum in Spring Gardens, Charing Cross, in which he housed 22 of his large automata, ranging in height from 3 to 5 metres.

In 1769 Cox bouught the Chelsea Porcelain Factory from Nicholas Sprimont, but soon sold it on to Derby Porcelain Factory. Cox & Son traded as jewellers in Shoe Lane until ...

British couture firm known for fine tailoring. Founded in 1710 by James Creed, the house was operated by six generations of the Creed family. Over the course of two and a half centuries, Creed grew from a small tailor’s shop into a respected couture house, offering women the fine materials, technical finesse and prestige associated with bespoke menswear. The same family established a renowned fragrance company that continues in operation as the House of Creed, under the direction of Olivier Henry Creed (b 1943).

For almost 150 years, Creed was located solely in London, by the 1820s at 33 Conduit Street, where its clientele appreciated the traditional styling and impeccable workmanship of the firm. As the restrained elegance associated with English style grew in popularity in the early 19th century, Creed gained a more international following. Many important and memorable figures of fashion, including Alfred, Comte d’Orsay (...

[Crocker, Johann]

(b Dresden, Oct 21, 1670; d London, March 21, 1741).

British medallist of German birth. Trained as a jeweller, he arrived in England in 1691 and learnt the art of die-engraving. He became assistant engraver at the Royal Mint, London, in 1697, the year in which he executed a silver and bronze medal for William III symbolizing the State of Britain after the Peace of Ryswick (see Hawkins, Franks and Grueber, ii, pp. 192, 499). Such medals as those commemorating the accession and the coronation (both gold, silver and bronze, 1702; see hfg, ii, pp. 227–8) of Queen Anne, together with the medal celebrating the Battle of Blenheim (silver and bronze, 1704; see hfg, p. 256), ensured that he was given the post of Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint when it became vacant in 1705. For the next 30 years he produced single-handedly most of the British official medals, as well as engraving the dies for the coinage of Queen Anne, George I and the first issue of George II. He also modelled a large cast medallic portrait of ...

(b Liverpool, Oct 26, 1759; d Rome, Aug 17, 1798).

English sculptor. He was born into a family of jewellers and as a child showed prodigious carving skills before serving his apprenticeship in the workshop of Thomas Carter (d 1795) from 1776. The following year he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools, where his fine draughtsmanship is said to have prompted Joseph Nollekens (then Visitor) to abandon sketching altogether. In 1780 Deare became the youngest artist to win the Academy’s gold medal, with a model representing Adam and Eve from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ (probably terracotta; untraced). After a further three years with Carter he set up his own workshop in 1783, modelling figures for John Bacon (i), John Cheere and others, and exhibiting that year at the first exhibition of the Society for Promoting Painting and Design in Liverpool. Like John Gibson (i) later, he was encouraged by William Roscoe, the Society’s Vice-President. The four exhibited works represented ...

(b Biberbach, Dec 26, 1664; d Dresden, March 6, 1731).

German goldsmith and jeweller. He was one of the most famous goldsmiths of his time, and almost all his works are in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden. After his training in Ulm he travelled as a journeyman to Augsburg, Nuremberg and Vienna. He is first recorded in Dresden in 1692. His two brothers, the enameller Georg Friedrich Dinglinger (1666–1720) and the jeweller Georg Christoph Dinglinger (1668–1728), are documented as active there in 1693; they remained his closest collaborators, particularly Georg Friedrich.

From the beginning of his career, Johann Melchior Dinglinger worked for Frederick-Augustus I of Saxony, even before the latter became Elector in 1694. The jewellery produced for Frederick-Augustus’s coronation as King Augustus II of Poland (also known as Augustus the Strong) in 1697 was Dinglinger’s first important commission. In 1698 he was appointed Court Jeweller, and all his projects were personally supervised by the King. In the late 17th century and early 18th Dinglinger probably produced most of the jewellery for the court: almost all the orders of chivalry and military decorations came from his workshop, including those in emeralds and diamonds for the revived Polish Order of the Knights of the White Eagle. Various designs for banquets for the King are also kept in the Grünes Gewölbe....

[Bécu, Marie-Jeanne]

(b Vaucouleurs, Lorraine, Aug 19, 1746; d Paris, Dec 8, 1793).

French royal favourite, patron and collector. She was the daughter of Anne Bécu, a dressmaker, who took her to Paris at eight years old. She was educated at the convent of the Daughters of St Aure and in 1760 became an assistant in the shop in Paris of the celebrated dressmaker Labille. She came to the attention of Comte Jean du Barry, who installed her in his house in the Rue de la Jussienne, where she presided over a celebrated literary salon. In 1768 she married her protector’s brother, Comte Guillaume du Barry, as was required for her presentation at court in 1769; by that time she had already become the mistress of Louis XV. Beautiful, graceful and intelligent, she became the last enduring liaison of the King’s life.

Like the Marquise de Pompadour, her predecessor, Mme du Barry came to dominate French fashion and was a great patron of the arts. In ...

Technology influences the physical manifestation of fashion, affecting a garment’s appearance and performance. Throughout history, changes in technology affecting the production of materials and the manufacture of garments and accessories have spurred changes in fashion design. In the 20th and 21st centuries, technology has affected not only the look of fashion, but how the fashion system works.

Much of the relationship between technology and fashion centres on textiles. Looms often determine the size and complexity of textiles. Fabric woven on a simple backstrap loom has inherently smaller widths in reference to the size of the human body, whereas fabric woven on the drawloom can be several feet wide and contain more complex weave structures, which translates into more sophisticated patterning options. The drawloom process (which requires two people—the weaver and a person who ‘draws’ up warps at specific points to create the pattern) was mechanized in the early 19th century with the invention of the jacquard loom and its punch card system. Lyons in France and Spitalfields in England were two of the most technologically advanced silk-weaving centres....

Fashion illustration is a work of visual art, usually in the medium of drawing, print or watercolour painting, reproduced and published in order to disseminate fashion news (see figs 1 and 2). Before the 1670s, the dissemination of fashion depended on portraits of fashion leaders, such as van Dyck’s portraits of the members of the court of King Charles I of England, reproduced by means of engraved prints. These engraved prints were the forerunners to the fashion plate in both technique and style (see also Fashion plate and costume book. The fashion plate, which usually showed the full figure, often including a back view, was created solely to illustrate and promote the latest fashions. By the middle of the 17th century, certain artists, such as Abraham Bosse in France and Wenceslaus Hollar in England, specialized in these types of engravings.

The first fashion journal, Le Mercure Galant, combined fashion plates with descriptive text. It was published sporadically from ...

(b Geneva, April 6, 1682; d Geneva, March 7, 1766).

Swiss painter and engraver. He was a member of a family of artists and jewellers in Geneva. At an early age he showed a pronounced talent for art, but as there was no school of drawing in Geneva, he moved to Germany. At Kassel, Baron von Mardefeld became his patron, sent him to Berlin and recommended him to important people at court. Gardelle is said to have painted the royal family; however, this was most probably simply a question of copying existing portraits. In 1711, on his return to Kassel, he painted from life a portrait of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. In 1712 he travelled to Paris, where he spent a year perfecting his art in the studio of Nicolas de Largillierre. It was there that he acquired the fluid and elegant style of the French Rococo. He returned to Switzerland for good in 1713 and became a portrait painter, painting both the great and the humble, not only in Geneva but also in Berne, Neuchâtel and the Vaud. He was a very prolific artist and often executed replicas of his paintings for himself. These paintings, often in a small format (usually 240×180 mm), are particularly remarkable for their brightness of colour and their close attention to likenesses (e.g. ...

English firm of goldsmiths and Jewellers. The firm was founded by George Wickes c. 1730 and taken over by Parker & Wakelin after his retirement in 1760. Robert Garrard (i) (1758–1818), who was not a working silversmith but had been made a freeman of the Grocers’ Company of London in 1780 and thereafter had been accountant to Parker & Wakelin, became a partner in the firm in 1792. The joint mark of Robert Garrard (i) and John Wakelin (fl 1776–1802) was entered in that year. Wakelin was appointed Goldsmith and Jeweller to George III in 1797, and, upon Wakelin’s death, Garrard assumed sole control of the prestigious London-based firm, entering his own mark (rg) that year.

Robert Garrard (ii) (1793–1881), who had also been made a freeman of the Grocers’ Company in 1816, and his two brothers, James (1795–1870) and ...

Term applied to a style of architecture and the decorative arts inspired by the Gothic architecture of medieval Europe. It has been particularly widely applied to churches but has also been used to describe castellated mansions, collegiate buildings, and houses. The Gothic Revival has also been described by many scholars as a movement, rather than style, for in the mid-19th century it was associated with and propagated by religious and political faith. From a hesitant start in the mid-18th century in England and Scotland, in the 19th century it became one of the principal styles of building throughout the world and continued in some huge projects until well into the 20th century (e.g. Episcopal Cathedral, Washington, DC, 1908–90; by G(eorge) F(rederick) Bodley and others). ‘Gothic Revival’ became the standard English term when Charles Locke Eastlake published A History of the Gothic Revival (1872). The word ‘Gothic’ had by then definitely mutated from a depreciatory epithet into the denomination of a style or period of medieval architecture. To distinguish medieval Gothic from modern Gothic, most European languages used the prefix ‘neo-’ (e.g. Dut. ...