New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
In the inventories of personal estates contained in the Surrogate’s
Court we find details of the wardrobe; but as I have enumerated
and defined all the different articles at some length in my book,
“Costume of Colonial Times,” I will not repeat the definitions here;
but it should be remembered that in the enumeration of the articles
of clothing, many stuffs and materials of simple names were often of
exceedingly good and even rich quality. From those inventories we have
proof that all Dutch women had plenty of clothes; while the wives of
the burgomasters, the opulent merchants, and those in authority, had
rich clothes. I have given in full in my book a list of the clothing
of a wealthy New York dame, Madam De Lange; but I wish to refer to it
again as an example of a really beautiful wardrobe. In it were twelve
petticoats of varying elegance, some worth two pounds fifteen shillings
each, which would be more than fifty dollars to-day. They were of silk
lined with silk, striped stuff, scarlet cloth, and ash-gray cloth.
Some were trimmed with gold lace. With those petticoats were worn
samares and samares-a-potoso, six in number, which were evidently
jackets or fancy bodies; these were of calico, crape, “tartanel,”
and silk. One trimmed with lace was worth three pounds. Waistcoats
and bodies also appear; also fancy sleeves. Love-hoods of silk and
cornet-caps with lace make a pretty head-gear to complete this costume,
with which was worn the reim or silver girdle with hanging purse, and
also with a handsome number of diamond, amber, and white coral jewels.
The colors in the Dutch gowns were almost uniformly gay,--in keen
contrast to the sad-colored garments of New England. Madam Cornelia de
Vos in a green cloth petticoat, a red and blue “Haarlamer” waistcoat,
a pair of red and yellow sleeves, and a purple “Pooyse” apron was a
blooming flower-bed of color.
The dress of Vrouentje Ides Stoffelsen, a very capable Dutchwoman who
went to Bergen Point to live, varied a little from that of these town
dames. Petticoats she had, and waistcoats, bodies and sleeves; but
there was also homelier attire,--purple and blue aprons, four pairs of
pattens, a fur cap instead of love-hoods, and twenty-three caps. She
wore the simpler and more universal head-gear,--a close linen or calico
cap.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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