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18th Century Bag Wigs and Bags

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Additional Resources

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Head Over Heels: Who knew the collaborative reproduction of an 18th-century wig could bring such joy?

Tied Up: Neckwear in Reigning Men

Wigmaker's Shop Historical Report, Block 9 Building 29B: Wigmaking in Colonial America

Women Merchants and Milliners in Eighteenth Century Williamsburg

Personal Effects: Wigs and Possessive Individualism in the Long Eighteenth Century

Hair, wigs and wig wearing in eighteenth-century England

The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg

Fashion History Timeline, 1720-1729

Macaroni Men and Eighteenth-Century Fashion Culture: 'The Vulgar Tongue'

Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England

Last updated: Dec 13, 2024

One of the definitions Johnson provides for the word bag is “An ornamental purſe of ſilk tied to men’s hair.”

Bag wigs are illustrated in the Perruquier, barbier, baigneur-étuviste section of Diderot’s 1765 Encyclopédie (Planche VII, Fig. 3 & 4 “Intérieur & extérieur d’une perruque à bourse,” and Fig. 9, “Bourse. A, la rosette. B B, les cordons”), and in Garsault’s 1780 L’art du perruquier.

Plocacosmos (1782) provides brief instructions:

If the hair is worn in a bag behind, you muſt tie it in the ſmalleſt twiſt or club you can, to keep the bag on : the bag to be put on after powdering behind.

Bags and bag wigs are also referenced in newspaper advertisements and trade cards. They’re listed on the trade cards of George Laidler and depicted on the trade cards of Richard Arkwright, William Brasnell, William Johnson, and Jonathan Whitchurch.

Carl Julius Weber (Briefe eines in Deutschland reisden deutschen) points out that two-thirds of all the Haarbeutel in Germany could be found in Saxony.

Such bags continue to occasionally pop up into the 19th century, surviving even longer in formal English court clothing (see notes with V&A T.61 to C, F to L-1918 and Manchester Art Gallery 1962.44/6) and also (maybe?) as costume pieces (like Bayerisches Nationalmuseum 96/440, Met 2009.300.2178, and V&A T.1018-1913).

The bag wig as foppish French fashion

An English (and Anglo-American) attitude towards bag wigs in the 18th century can be summed up in a 1752 poem, The Bag-Wig and the Tobacco-Pipe: A Fable:

A bag-wig of a jauntee air,
Trick’d up with all a barber’s care,
Loaded with powder and perfume,
Hung in a ſpend-thrift’s dreſſing room …
“ Why what’s the matter, goodman Swagger,
“ Though flanting, French, fantaſtic bragger,
“ Whoſe whole fine ſpeech is (with a pox)
“ Ridiculous and heterodox.
“ ’Twas better for the Engliſh nation
“ Before ſuch ſcoundrels came in faſhion;
“ When none ſought hair in realms unknown,
“ But ev’ry blockhead wore his own.

An essay published in 1732 in The London Magazine likewise complains about contemporary fops: “Our Anceſtors, great and glorious in the Field, gave Laws to all Europe; but our People of Faſhion are govern’d by every foreign Taylor and Millener. To be extremely fine now, is to be extremely ridiculous; ’tis to wear a French Bag-Wig and Clock-Stockings, or a Dutch Head with a plain Scarf.”

Also, from A Key to the Time (1735):

I ſhall ſpend the Winter where I am, but intend to pay my Reſpects to you next Summer in a Suit of Cloaths A-la-mode de Paris, and this brings me to ſay ſomething of the French Dreſs. The Mens Coats are cut pretty much like ours, but all the young Fellows, and ſome of the old ones, wear their Wigs in Bags and a Ribbon (inſtead of a Cravat) ty’d in a Knot under their Chin, which they call a Solitaire. Some of them this Summer have made their Appearance in white Bags and Roſe-coloured Solitaires, which to tell you the Truth, dear Ned, does in my poor Opinion look a little fantaſtical.

The bag wig appears in several satires of French fashions, such as My Lord Tip-Toe, Juſt arrived from Monkey Land. Benjamin Franklin mentions bag wigs in a letter from Paris in 1767:

Perhaps I have suffered a greater Change too in my own Person than I could have done in Six Years at home. I had not been here Six Days before my Taylor and Peruquier had transform’d me into a Frenchman. Only think what a Figure I make in a little Bag Wig and naked Ears! They told me I was become 20 Years younger, and look’d very galante.

Note, however, that the portraits (and many of the extant examples) below indicate that bag wigs become more widespread in 18th century England and Anglo-America.

Extant bags & bag wigs

  • National Museums Scotland A.1914.328 H, “Wig, with a black bag, decked with three rosettes to hold the queue, part of a gentleman's suit: English, Georgian Period, 1760”
  • London Museum A15092, c. 1766-1799; “Man's horsehair wig. The horsehair is mixed grey and white, reading as a warm grey from a distance. Five rows of curls extend back from the front forehead edge. Single curls run from temple to nape on either side. Straight ponytail gathered into a black silk queue bag with black silk ribbon bow. Horsehair woven at the base with two cotton threads, which are stitched down to the cotton base support. This support is stained and discoloured, possibly through original wear. The support is reinforced with cotton twill tape over the seams and at the edges. The two original plain weave cotton ties are fastened at each corner approximately at the earlobe. There are flat metal supports inside the lining near the ties which show where the fabric has worn through.”
  • Germanisches Nationalmuseum T2424, a black silk bag with silk ribbons and linen stiffening, c. 1770
  • Morristown National Historic Park MORR 3932, a gentleman’s queue bag in silk and linen
  • V&A T.10:1 to 3-2010, three-piece brown wool day suit, France, c. 1780; “its black satin wig bag is still attached to the back of the coat … Black silk satin wig bag, with a decorative rosette. The tail of the wearer's hair or wig would have been worn inserted into the drawstring opening at the top.”
  • Royal Ontario Museum 971.164.A, coat of man’s 2-piece formal court suit in ribbed silk trimmed with ermine, England, c. 1780; “The coat has an attached black satin wig-bag with large ribbon rosette to prevent pomade and powder from staining the silk.” See also Fashion was in the Wig-Bag, which mentions that “The bag is weighed with husks to keep it lfat and was probably stitched on at a later date, when the suit may have been used for fancy dress or as a theatre costume.”
  • Mint Museum 2005.6A-C, three-piece formal velvet suit with a wig-bag attached at the back neckline of the coat, c. 1780
  • Chertsey Museum M.1995.26, “small rectangular black silk wig bag with silk tape drawstring at top, large black rosette with flat bow in centre, outer edge trimmed with black pleated ribbon in three layers; c. 1780-90”
  • V&A T.47-2015, “A man's wig bag of black silk with pinked rosette and black linen drawstring,” made in England c. 1780-1800
  • Mount Vernon W-2976, a hair bag known to have been worn by George Washington, c. 1785-1800; “Black silk hair bag constructed of black silk taffeta lined with plain-weave linen buckram; the upper edge has been folded under twice with a .5" hem and stitched by hand with black silk thread in a running stitch; both of the upper side seams are open, 1.5" on the proper right and 3.75" on the proper left; the back of the bag is padded with soft material that extends 3.25" up from the lower edge; stitched to the front of the bag is a black grosgrain ribbon rosette which consists of six loops of black ribbon on top of which is sewn a rosette made from several lengths of ribbon, clipped on each end to form a sawtooth edge, stacked together and tied at center, and arranged to flare out in a circle.”
  • Rococo coat, waistcoat and wig bag, England, ca. 1795
  • MFA 43.2563, a bag for a wig queue: “Ribbed, black silk rectangular bag with tie strings at the top. A large ribbon medallion and ribbon bows are attached. Contains horse hair.”
  • V&A T.27-1938: “Man's wig bag of black silk taffeta, lined with canvas. It is rectangular in shape, pleated at the top with a opening in the right side seam at the top. There is a bow-shaped trimming of black silk at the top edged and decorated with 3 types of black silk ribbon.” British, c. 1790-1810
  • Black silk wig bag with a rosette, England, c. 1795
  • Wig belonging to Henry Bromfield and replica; see also Head Over Heels
  • Met 2009.300.6199, wig bag, probably British, c. 1830-1840

Descriptions, portraits, and artwork depicting men wearing bag wigs

Satires and caricatures