18th Century Women’s Panniers and Hoops

Last updated: Jan 11, 2025

The London Tradesman has quite a lot to say about hooped petticoats, their history, and their manufacture, but for our purposes, the most useful bit is this:

The Materials are ſtriped Holland, Silk, or Check, according to the Quality of the Fair, to be incloſed, and ſupported with Rows of Whale-Bone, or Rattan.

• Met 1973.65.2, British, c. 1750
• KCI AC7682 93-1-4, “pannier of cotton chintz with oval rattan hoops and padding,” c. 1775
• V&A T.120-1969, 1778
• Manchester 1953.431
• Royal Ontario Museum
• Met 26.56.52, Italy
• National Trust 1350052 (Snowshill Wade Costume Collection), c. 1750-1760; see also An unnatural Protuberance … Paniers, hoops and bustles
• LACMA M.2007.211.981, “linen plain weave and cane,” England, c. 1750-1780
• Göteborg Stadsmuseum 4227, 18th century pocket hoops (linen and rattan?)
• Pocket hoop/panniers at Nordiska Museet: NM.0222417A-B (c. 1750-1790), NM.0173628A-B (c. 1750-1790), NM.0024428
• Colonial Williamsburg 1990-11, New York, c. 1755-1785 (see also Costume Close-Up)
• GNM T901, c. 1760
• GNM T3070, c. 1760
• Centraal Museum 5311, hoop lined with striped linen, c. 1770
• Kerry Taylor Auctions 10 Dec 2024, Lot 420, “A rare pair of linen side hoops, 1770s with drawstring to waist, pocket slits to the sides, with diagonal 'elbow' struts linked to two oval hoops, each with frame of double-stranded split rattan also wrapped in linen, the struts with ties for putting tension on the hoops”
• Nordiska Museet NM.0001008, showing the transition between pocket hoops and a false rump all in one undergarment, c. 1770-1810
• Colonial Williamsburg 1968-646,4, linen and cane hoops, England, c. 1785
• Met C.I.53.51.16, American
• Met 2008.297a, b, France, late 18th century