Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820)Earle, Alice Morse
History
Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820)
Earle, Alice Morse
Clothing and dress -- United States -- History
In the reigns of Anne and William and Mary perukes grew so vast and
cumbersome that a wig was invented for travelling and for undress wear,
and was called the “Campaign wig.” It would not seem very simple since
it was made full and curled to the front, and had, so writes a
contemporary, Randle Holme, in his _Academy of Armory_, 1684, “knots
and bobs a-dildo on each side and a curled forehead.”
A campaign wig from Holme’s drawing is shown here.
There are constant references in old letters and in early literature in
America which alter much the dates assigned by English authorities on
costume: thus, knowing not of Randle Holme’s drawing, Sydney writes
that the name “campaign” was applied to a wig, the name and fashion of
which came to England from France in 1702. In the Letter-book of
William Byrd of Westover, Virginia, in a letter written in June, 1690,
to Perry and Lane, his English factors in London, he says, “I have by
Tonner sent my long Periwig which I desire you to get made into a
Campagne and send mee.” This was twelve years earlier than Sydney’s
date. Fitz-John Winthrop wrote to England in 1695 for “two wiggs one a
campane the other short.” The portrait of Fitz-John Winthrop shows a
prodigious imposing wig, but it has no “knots or bobs a-dildo on each
side,” though the forehead is curled; it is a fine example of a peruke.
I cannot attempt even to name all the wigs, much less can I describe
them; Hawthorne gave “the tie,” the “Brigadier,” the “Major,” the
“Ramillies,” the grave “Full-bottom,” the giddy “Feather-top.” To these
and others already named in this chapter I can add the “Neck-lock,” the
“Allonge,” the “Lavant,” the “Vallancy,” the “Grecian fly wig,” the
“Beau-peruke,” the “Long-tail,” the “Fox-tail,” the “Cut-wig,” the
“Scratch,” the “Twist-wig.”
Others named in 1753 in the _London Magazine_ were the “Royal bird,”
the “Rhinoceros,” the “Corded Wolf’s-paw,” “Count Saxe’s mode,” the
“She-dragon,” the “Jansenist,” the “Wild-boar’s-back,” the
“Snail-back,” the “Spinach-seed.” These titles were literal
translations of French wig-names.
Another wig-name was the “Gregorian.” We read in _The Honest Ghost_,
1658, “Pulling a little down his Gregorian, which was displac’t a
little by his hastie taking off his beaver.” This wig was named from
the inventor, one Gregory, “the famous peruke-maker who is buryed at
St. Clements Danes Church.” In Cotgrave’s _Dictionary_ perukes are
called Gregorians.
John Rutledge. John Rutledge.
In the prologue to _Haut Ton_, written by George Colman, these wigs are
named:—
“The Tyburn scratch, thick Club and Temple tyes,
The Parson’s Feather-top, frizzed, broad and high.
The coachman’s Cauliflower, built tier on tier.”
There was also the “Minister’s bob,” “Curley roys,” “Airy levants,” and
“I—perukes.” The “Dalmahoy” was a bushy bob-wig.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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