18th Century Men’s Jackets

Last updated: Jan 5, 2024

This collection of images includes a variety of styles of men’s jackets, worn by laborers and other working men throughout the second half of the 18th century. These are not all the same, exact style of jacket, and there are probably several ways that they were made; shortening the tails of a coat, adding sleeves to a waistcoat, etc.

The most common colors for these sorts of jackets are brown (including buff, tan, or natural), indigo blue, and madder red. They don’t always have pockets, and they don’t always have linings. They are often worn open, over a shirt and a colorful neckcloth, but generally without a waistcoat.

There are some occupations that seem to be associated with specific styles of jackets. Butchers are often depicted in a sleeved waistcoat, sometimes striped, generally buttoned up, as in Saint Monday in the Afternoon, English Funn or Docking the Macaroni, and The Female Bruisers. Sailors’s jackets are more likely to be blue, are often double-breasted, generally worn open over a waistcoat, and have metal buttons, like The Sailor’s Return, The Sailor’s Present, The Sailor Riding to Portsmouth, and Poor Tom Bowling; an extant example was found on the General Carleton of Whitby (see also Blue Jackets and White Trousers, Clothing the Royal Navy Sailor, or the Kannik’s Korner pattern).

Extant jackets

• The Arnish Moor jacket (National Museums Scotland K.1997.1115 A), early 18th century; see Gentlemen of Fortune or Reconstructing History 309 for diagrams/patterns
• A fustian jacket in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society; see Rural Pennsylvania Clothing
• A boy's brown linen jacket (Connecticut Historical Society 1981.110.0), c. 1775-1785
• Jonathan Sheldon’s freedom suit (National Museum of American History 2012.0194.001), made of nankeen, Rhode Island, 1775
• A striped linen waistcoat worn by Col. Joseph Noyes during the Battle of Rhode Island (Rhode Island Historical Society 2013.42.1)
• Obadiah Mead’s jacket, striped linen, 1779
• A late 18th century French broadcloth jacket in the collection of Henry Cooke

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Depictions of men and boys wearing jackets

• Young boys in the foreground of The Kings’ Cake and Reading the Bible by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
• A man, seen from behind, standing by a tree and raising his hat by Paul Sandby, 1745 or later
• Carpenter taking his meal by Gerrit van Zegelaar, mid-18th century
• Men working on An Arch of Westminster Bridge by Samuel Scott, c. 1750
• A coal heaver and a drayman on the trade card for Gerald Wynox, coal merchant and beer-seller, c. 1750-1760
• Fishmongers by Jean Baptiste Charpentier
• Bob Nunn, one of the Duke’s gardeners at the Great Lodge by Paul Sandby, c. 1752-1765
• Boy with a broken egg from Broken Eggs by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1756
• Without, 1757
• A boy with a street-vendor selling Pretty little toys for Girls and Boys, c. 1759
• A man carrying a heavy load (possibly also a boy and a thin man on the steps) in Winchester Tower and the Hundred Steps by Paul Sandby, c. 1760
• A boy playing with a kite at the South Terrace of Windsor Castle
• The Press Gang by John Collet
• Damon & Phillis, c. 1760s-1792
• The Humours of the Fleet
• A boy playing with a hoop and a dog at Castle Hill with the Henry III Tower and the Mary Tudor Tower seen from the south by Paul Sandby, c. 1765
• A boy in Wrucken, gode Wruck in The Cries of Danzig by Matthäus Deisch, c. 1765
• The Norman Gate and Deputy Governor’s House by Paul Sandby, c. 1765
• Collin and Phillis, c. 1766-1799
• The recruit in The Recruiting Sargeant by John Collet, 1767
• A grave-digger in The Rake’s Party by John Collet
• Figures by a well, circle of Johann Conrad Seekatz
• A boy in Windsor Castle from Datchet Lane on a rejoicing night by Paul Sandby, 1768
• The Hen Peckt Husband, 1768
• The tailor in The Newsmongers, 1769
• The Norman Gateway and Moat Garden by Paul Sandby, c. 1770
• A young man in Statute Hall for Hiring Servants, 1770
• A link-boy in An Evenings Invitation; with a Wink from the Bagnio, 1773
• The Good-Humored Gardener by Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié, 1777
• A sailor in Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley, 1778
• A boy in the background of Roslin Castle, Midlothian by Paul Sandby, c. 1780
• Part of Windsor from Datchet Lane by Paul Sandby, c. 1780
• Civilian men wearing brown jackets with their backs to the viewer (one of whom carries a pair of buckets) in the foreground of View near the Serpentine River in Hyde Park during the Encampment by Paul Sandby, 1780; man at left seems to be the same as one of these three male figures drawn by Paul Sandby c. 1750-1770
• Boys in An Engagement in Billingsgate Channel, between the Terrible and the Tiger, two First Rates, 1781
• A young yokel in Lady Gorget raising Recruits for Cox-Heath, 1781
• A boy in the background of Widow Costard’s cow and goods by Edward Penny, 1782
• A country yokel in the background of The Taylor turn’d Sportsman, 1782
• A boy prodding a horse with a stick in The Sailor riding to Portsmouth, 1782
• The son of a poor lacemaker in The Lace Wearer, rewarding the Lace Maker, 1783
• A Student of the Stable, 1783
• A youth in a farmyard with pigs and poultry by Michael “Angelo” Rooker
• A young man asleep under a tree in The Spell. Hobnelia, 1783-1784
• The Country Tooth-Drawer, 1784
• The Scythe Man’s Refreshment, c. 1780-1795
• Rustic Courtship, 1785
• Enslaved men in Music and Dance in Beaufort County (The Old Plantation), c. 1785
• View of Salem in N. Carolina 1787 by Ludwig Von Redeken
• Return from the Market by Francis Wheatley, 1791
• Fisherfolk with baskets and nets by Francis Wheatley
• A Whet on the Road - or English and French Postillions, 1792
• The Reckoning: A Farmer Paying the Ostler and Pot-Boy of an Inn by George Morland, c. 1800
• A Sailor Boy relating the Story of his Shipwreck to a Cottage Family, 1794
• A barefoot boy with The Primrose Girl, 1795
• The Gleaners, 1796
• Two boys watching The Farrier, c. 1797-1823
• Children Dancing by George Stubbs, 1798
• Morning by Francis Wheatley, 1799
• Evening by Francis Wheatley, 1799
• The Benevolent Heir or the Tenant Restored to his Family by William Redmore Bigg, c. 1801
• The Inn Door by Thomas Rowlandson
• The Cottage Door by George Keating
• The School Door by George Keating
• A man in rustic dress, walking along a wintry path at night carrying a forked staff
• A Draw Well by Paul Sandby
• Two old farmers in conversation

(H/T Paul Dickfoss for several of the examples here.)