Properly Attired Servants, 1907-style
Now that we have sprung forward, I’m sure spring cleaning is on your mind. Which inevitably brings up questions, “How many servants should I have?” “How shall I occupy myself while they are working?” and most importantly, “How shall they be attired?”
Put away your smelling salts. The Textile Ranger has discovered the answers to your servant worries in that wonderful book, Manners and Social Usages, from 1907.
“How many servants are a necessity?”
List of servants
“Why is it so hard to get good servants these days?”
Above and beyond the servants’ duties
“Who is to wear a full apron and cap? Who is to wear lace on her uniform?”
I’m not sure that parlor maid is trustworthy.
Now that that is taken care of, you can get to work netting those bedcurtains!
These etiquette posts are hysterical!
Yeah! I find old etiquette books very cheering. They help me put things in perspective – “Well, I might have had a bad day trying to get through airport security – but those people 100 years ago had to worry about servant uniforms! They had REAL problems!”
None of these servants is dressed correctly — they all have creases in their aprons. In any well-run household the aprons should have been ironed before donning!
I wondered about that myself! But in a lot of those old household management books, the tablecloths are shown with creases too! Obviously we need to research this further! 🙂
Thanks for your great pic – I am making circa 1920 maids costumes for a play and this really gives me inspiration.
Good! That’s exactly why I post stuff like this – I used to make costumes for a historical park and it was really hard to find information on certain eras and on ordinary people.