Wearing Prints
Last updated: Jan 7, 2024
Illustrations of men and women wearing clothing that appears to be made of printed textiles, such as chintz, calico, or printed linen. These provide some insight into when such clothing was worn, who was wearing it, and what they wore with it.
I am somewhat subjective when it comes to inclusion on this list. I am leaving off floral patterns that look more like woven silks to me – but I do not know for sure whether these illustrations really, truly represent 18th century calico gowns, chintz banyans, etc. Plus, many of these are hand-colored mezzotints, so the color combinations may not be what the original artist had in mind.
Women in Print Clothing
Many – though not all – of the 18th century women wearing print gowns are working women, often servants. Short gowns and bedgowns appear frequently, often in what appear to be monochromatic or sprigged patterns. Long gowns tend to be worn with solid-colored quilted petticoats.
- Sarah’s mother in A Rake’s Progress: The Heir by William Hogarth, 1734
- Mrs Maltby by Isaac Robert Cruikshank, c. 1750
- Anne Sofie Juel by Jens Juel, 1755
- The Way to Preferment, 1758
- The Grote Markt at The Hague by Paulus Constantijn la Fargue, 1760
- Clothing workshop in Arles, 1760 by Antoine Raspal
- Madame d'Azincourt, femme de l'intendant des menus by Carmontelle, 1760
- Miss Nancy Dawson, c. 1760-1770
- High Life Below Stairs by John Collet, 1763
- Mademoiselle la marquise de Querrieux by Carmontelle, 1763
- Concert in an Interior by Jan Jozef Horemans II, 1764
- Marquess of Granby relieving a sick soldier by Edward Penny, 1765; additional version here
- Sophia Pelham by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1764 (see also Mrs. Pelham Feeding Her Chickens, 1775)
- A Laundry Maid Ironing by Henry Robert Morland, c. 1765-1782
- A man who hit his wife punished by a group of women in Amsterdam’s Vinkestraat by Anthonie Drost, 1768
- Unhappy Jerry, c. 1770s-1790s
- The City Chanters, 1771
- The Mutual Embrace, 1774
- An album containing 90 fine water color paintings of costumes, Turin, c. 1775
- The Herepad in the Haagse Bos by Paulus Constantijn la Fargue, 1778
- My Wife and Your Wife, 1779
- Pretty Dancer dressed in a pleated Caraco with a low-cut gorgerette of bronze Italian taffeta, with a flowered linen apron matching the trim of the Caraco, 1779
- Mrs. Grosvenor Laundry Woman to the Queen
- Miss White, Clear Starcher to the Queen
- Woman at far right in Encampment in St James’s Park by Paul Sandby, 1780
- Youth and Age, 1780s
- A Cornish hug, 1781 (woman at far right)
- An Engagement in Billingsgate Channel, between the Terrible and the Tiger, two First Rates, 1781
- The Sailor’s Pleasure, 1781
- Deceitful Kisses, or the Pretty Plunderers, 1781
- A Man of War towing a Frigate into Harbour, 1781
- An English Sloop engaging a Dutch Man of War, 1781
- A lady coming from the circulating library, 1781
- The Twelve Months: March, c. 1781
- The Camp Laundry, 1782
- A Lesson Westward - or a Morning Visit to Betsy Cole, 1782
- Rural Life, 1783
- Colin and Chloe, 1783
- A Lugsail Privateer towing a Crippled Man of War into Port, 1783
- The Gypsie Fortune-Teller, 1783
- The Spell. Hobnelia, 1783-1784
- Feeling, 1784
- The Lovely Lavinia, 1784
- Love in a Village, 1784
- A St. Giles’s Beauty, 1784
- Hay Making, 1786
- The Blow Up of the Man-milliner, 1787
- The Gipsy Fortune Teller, 1787
- Molly Milton, the Pretty Oyster Woman, 1788
- May Day Morning, 1794
- The Lottery Contrast, 1794
- Bonny Hodge, 1795
- Two-penny Whist by James Gillray, 1796
- The Family Made Happy - The Child Found, 1797
- Loo in the Kitchin or High Life below Stairs by Isaac Cruikshank, 1799
Men in Print Clothing
The examples of print menswear that I’ve found illustrations (so far!) are banyans.
- The macarony dressing room, 1772
- The Old Beau in an Extasy, 1773
- Out of Place, 1784
Descriptions
This section (still in development) consists mostly of descriptions of outfits with at least one cotton-print garment from runaway advertisements. I’m looking at the entire outfit that the person was described as wearing, rather than additional garments and goods that the people “took with them.”
- “a Callico Jacket, a blue Bays Petticoat, blue Stocking with white Clocks, and high heel’d Shoes.” (Boston Evening Post, October 20, 1735)
- “a Cinamon colour’d Camblet Cloak, and yellow colour’d Head, a strip’d red and green Stuff Robe, a red and white quilted Callico Petticoat, and under blue and Linsey Woolsey Petticoat, with others, Cotton and Linnen Shift, blue yarn Stockings, and red Shoes.” (New England Weekly Journal, October 28, 1735)
- “an old Calicoe short Gown, a grey Linsey Woolsey Ditto, a striped, and a white Linen Apron, blue Stockings new Shoes, striped Handkerchief, white Cap, a Straw Hat, and a Linsey Woolsey grey and white Petticoat” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, July 20, 1758)
- “a dark small figured silk and thread long gown, a short calico one over it, a striped lincey petticoat, yarn stockings, half worn shoes, and large white metal shoe buckles, with stones set therein” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, March 27, 1760)
- “had on a short red cloak a white hat and a pair of men’s shoes and with her callico gown” (The New-York Gazette, December 13, 1764)
- “a Calicoe Bedgown, two quilted Petticoats, the one black, the other yellow, no Shoes nor Stockings.” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, June 6, 1765)
- “a strip’d Home-spun Petticoat, a double purple and white Callico short Gown, both sides alike, a Pair of old Stuff Shoes, without Stockings.” (The New-York Gazette, June 27, 1765)
- “a striped stuff gown, a purple calicoe ditto, high heeled leather shoes, white metal buckles, and worsted stockings” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 11, 1770)
- “a homespun pettycoat, and callico short gown.” (The New-York Gazette, October 20, 1777)
- “a green fluff petticoat, a red and white callico short gown, a red silk handkerchief, and a black sattin bonnet.” (The Royal Gazette, September 20, 1780)
- “a green hat, a long red striped calico gown, a brown linsey petticoat, a striped lawn apron” (The New-Jersey Gazette, July 11, 1781)
- “a short purple callicoe gown and pink petticoat.” (The Royal Gazette, June 27, 1781)
- “a short red callico bed gown, osnaburgh petticoat, and a blue check handerchief” (The Royal Gazette, October 10, 1781)
- “a dark callicoe short gown and homespun petticoat” (The Royal Gazette, January 9, 1782)
- “a callicoe short gown, black skirt, and a black hat trimmed with edging” (Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, December 17, 1783)
- “a home-spun Woollen Petticoat, a calico jacket, a hat covered with checker’d silk, a blue and white strip’d gown” (North Carolina Gazette, August 15, 1787)
- “an old white negro cloth under jacket and coat, and a callico wrapper” (The City Gazette, February 7, 1788)
- “a blue callico wrapper, with small white sprigs, a dirty brown stuff petticoat, or a clean white linnen one” (The City Gazette, November 22, 1788)
- “a callico gown and coat” (The City Gazette, October 6, 1792)
- “a check petty coat and a red and white callico wrapper” (The City Gazette, November 6, 1792)
- “a purple callico wrapper, and a blue striped cotton coat” (The City Gazette, May 8, 1793)
- “a red calico wrapper and a blue coat” (The City Gazette, May 24, 1793)
- “a calico wrapper and a white negro cloth coat” (The City Gazette, July 2, 1793)
- “a black petticoat and old calico wrapper” (The City Gazette, August 20, 1793)
- “a brown long ell gown, and chocolate grounded calico jacket, and oznaburgs apron, and wore a small pair of plain silver ear-rings” (The City Gazette, January 31, 1795)
- “a dark spotted calico petticoat and wrapper” (The City Gazette, March 13, 1795)
- “a blue negro cloth coat and calico gown body” (The City Gazette, August 18, 1795)
- “a Calico Wrapper and Blue Undercoat” (The City Gazette, December 23, 1795)
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