18th Century Button-Top Aprons

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Last updated: Oct 08 2025

This focuses on a style of apron worn by men in the 18th century; it has a buttonhole at the top to attach to the button on the waistcoat, and generally ties around the waist as well. (Another style of apron just ties around the waist.)

Hudibras’s first adventure and Hudibras vanquish’d by Trulla by William Hogarth, 1726
He comes to the possession of his fathers estate, c. 1735
The House of Cards by Jean Siméon Chardin, c. 1737
To the Right Honble the Marquis of Carnarvon, 1738; the description notes that this is a masonic apron
The Itinerant Handy-Craftsman or Caleb turn’d Tinker by Hubert François Gravelot, 1740
Figure sketches by Paul Sandby
Sketch of a man carrying three-legged stools by Paul Sandby
The Two Shilling Butcher, 1747
Horse Fair on Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh by Paul Sandby, 1750
Beer Street by William Hogarth, 1751
Interior of an inn with a musician
Printing from engraved copper plates, spirit distillation, etc., Diderot’s Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1763
James Woodhouse, shoemaker and poet, 1765
A cobbler in The Enraged Cuckold, c. 1766-1784
The Henry VIII Gateway from within the Lower Ward by Paul Sandby, c. 1767 (see also Henry VIII Gate, Windsor Castle)
A man blacking a shoe, 1768
Two smiths in The Newsmongers, 1769
The Modern Beau in Distress, c. 1770-1775
Saint Monday in the Afternoon, or All Nine and Swallow the Bowl, 1770s
The blacksmith lets his iron grow cold attending to the taylor's news, 1772
John Cuff by Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1772
A ladies maid purchasing a leek by James Caldwell, 1772
The Unfortunate Beau, 1772
A Militia Meeting, 1773
The Macaroni Waiter of Drury L—e, 1773
Several in the Cris de Paris, 1774-1775, including Couteaux, ciseaux à r’passer, Lapins, lapins, peaux de lapins, Le bon coco, Bon vinaigre, À la fraiche, qui veut boire, À 6 [sous], à 6 [sous], le marchand qui se ruine, Chaudronnier, chaudronnier, and Beaux melons; achetez mon beau melon
Cobler’s Hall, 1775
The Bookshop and Lottery Agency of Jan de Groot in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam by Isaac Ouwater, 1779
A Camp Kitchen in Hyde Park by Paul Sandby, 1780
Intelligence on the Change of the Ministry, c. 1783
Feeling, 1784
Fortune’s Favourites: or Happiness in every Situation, 1786
A Cobler, 1786
A long string of resolutions for a new year, 1792
Messrs Parsons & Burton in the Surrender of Calais, 1793
A cobbler in St. James’s day, 1793
A New Way of Posting a Libel, 1795
The British butcher, supplying John Bull with a substitute for bread, vide message to Lord Mayor, 1795
Mr. Suett as Dicky Gossip in 'My Grandmother' by Samuel de Wilde, 1797
Interior of a country inn by George Morland
Joy with Tranquility, 1800
Tiddy-doll, the great French-gingerbread-baker; drawing out a new batch of kings, 1806

H/T to Ruth Hodges and Paul Dickfoss for many of the examples here.

18th Century Button-Top Aprons

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