The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of ClothesWebb, Wilfred Mark
History
The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of Clothes
Webb, Wilfred Mark
Clothing and dress; Clothing and dress -- History
Of ornaments which can be attached to the person without injuring it
there are more in use, but they are practically confined in civilized
countries to the neck, arms, and head. Of those which are fastened to
clothes we will not for the moment speak. Beads, which at the moment of
writing seem to be greatly in fashion, or their representatives, take us
back to the very earliest men of whose work we have any knowledge. In
the caves where the Stone Age men of the mammoth period lived there have
been found periwinkle shells, which were bored to form bracelets or
necklaces, just as nowadays native tribes and æsthetic ladies still make
use of the more ornamental and beautiful exotic shells. The prehistoric
Egyptians who, it has been calculated, flourished about 6000 B.C., had
necklaces of beads cut out from pieces of shell, and others made of many
different materials. Among the earliest remains in our own country beads
are found, and throughout the historic period everywhere they seem to
have held their sway.
We have already mentioned how easy it is for ornaments to be used as
currencies, owing to the facility with which they may be carried on the
person, and beads for many centuries have been used--as in Africa for
instance--in the place of money. There are on the west coast of that
continent still to be seen "aggries" similar to those which the Arab
traders brought with them from Egypt as early as the seventeenth
dynasty. At the present day beads of various kinds--for only particular
varieties will buy certain commodities--are made and exported to Africa
to be used in trading.
While speaking of Egyptian beads, it might be said that, as in other
matters of art, the Egyptians excelled in the making of beads.
Some--known as blue popo beads, which found their way to West
Africa--are worth more than their weight in gold at the present day, and
the most skilful of the Venetian beadmakers are unable to imitate them
sufficiently well to induce the natives to accept them.
Chains for the neck in our time do not assume very massive proportions,
except those which are used as symbols of office in the case of mayors
and by the members of various knightly orders. These take us back to the
time of Richard II, when such ornaments came into vogue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account