Just the thing to flatter and entice women into buying a corset: call them dowagers! There are four dowager sizes to choose from in this 1914 advertisement; short, medium, long and extra-long.The word dowager literally means a widow who has inherited either a property or title from her late husband. It comes from the French "douer," meaning portion [The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, ed. C.T. Onions, Oxford 1966, p. 286]. The dower or "morning gift" was the term for money or property which was settled upon a bride by her husband on the morning after the wedding.
Illustrator Helen E. Hokinson (1893-1949) was famous for her cartoon drawings of pigeon-breasted, silly dowagers in the New Yorker in the 1920s. See here at their website for an example of one of them.The term "dowager" was often used in conjunction with royal titles such as the Empress Dowager Cixi of China (1835-1908) - who definitely did not wear a Royal Worcester Dowager corset.
Advertisement from NYPL Digital Gallery.
18 comments:
Lidian, I have a question about the corset sizes. At first, I thought the sizes related to height, like how some women's pants are sold in a petite, average, or tall length. Miss "Short" does appear to be more petite than the others but, Miss "Medium" and Miss "Long" look almost the same height to me. Does the fine print explain the sizing?
Thanks!!
Nothing like an extra-long dowager to get one's blood racing. Especially if she's got a bit of girth on that well-monied bod, eh?
Princess Dagmar of Denmark, later the Empress Marie Fedorovna of Russia, mother of the last tsar, was referred to as the Dowager Empress after her husband Alexander III died, even though she was still quite young. Perhaps she wasn't referred to as that to her face, though.
But you knew that. Sorry.
Hairball - I think they were referring to the length of the torso - i.e. how much control you needed, based on how much of you needed containing. I was wondering about that too. I can't think what else it would be...
Max - Maybe, but dowagers just don't sound all that fun. And I did know about Dowager Empress Marie, but no need to apologize...It's good that we both know, right? :)
Here in Oz it's April 13th - the birthday of Catherine de Medici who proclaimed all women at court must cinch their waists in and who is generally attributed as the main enforcer of the (dreaded) corset ;)
• • Mae West, very fond of corsets, wore the brand SPIRELLA. Marilyn Monroe also wore SPIRELLA, a British brand.
• • Hey, if you want to talk more about buxom bombshells, come up and see Mae.
• • Wink!!
When I hear the word "dowager", I always think of Margaret Dumont. The large boned wealthy widow who co-starred in many Marx Brothers movies.
oooooooo.... these are some scary contraptions. but you know I have to admit that my friend makes them. yes she makes them, professionally.
that's just plain scary, as a career choice - "Corseteer".. YIKES.
I visit your blog whilst slumped over my computer and what do I see? Corsets and reduce your girth. Are you trying to tell me something Lidian?!
Jayne - So how did Catherine manage to eat any birthday cake? Maybe this was the one day a year she didn't have to cinch...
Mae - I'll have to look the Spirella up. It sounds - spiral. Which is intriguing.
Contrariwise - Oh yes, how did I forget Margaret Dumont? I love her. She was from Brooklyn and I have her down for a future post.
RE - But a popular career choice, too!
Alison - All this post is saying is that I was rummaging around the NYPL site and my Flickr account, and wanted something more fashiony, for a change. That's all! :) Now we can relax and have a nice chocolate egg!
Chocolate egg!!! The idea! That's what got me in this shape to begin with. Corsets are SO uncomfortable! Or so I've heard! I remember Scarlett O'Hara cinching her waist to a mere 18"...heck, I think my thigh is bigger around than that!
Judy - Scarlett was supposed to eat before she went out, too, because ladies weren't supposed to be seen chowing down. I recall that it was hard for her to do so because her meal was brought AFTER she was laced into that corset..Yikes!
No wonder women in those days were always fainting or getting the "vapors"! That just looks painful...and wrong. www.satisfiedsole.com
Pam - I would have had more than the vapors if anyone tried to make me wear one of these!
"With this ring I thee wed: with my body I thee worship: and with all my worldly goods I thee endow."
The solemnisation of marriage, book of common prayer, 1622.
Dower: That which is endowed.
soubriquet - Excellent quotation, thank you!
damn, I have a slow mind, I was just idly musing today, and the word I'd been looking for fell out of the dusty mental archive, where it had been misfiled.
Dowry.
Of course.
Dowry
I ought to look up the etymology, old Norse was Brudgift, I think, The bride-gift.
Interestingly, in old norse and present day scandinavian languages, gift/adjective=married, but gift/noun=poison!!!!!!!!!!!!!
soubriquet - Thank you, I didn't know that. I love etymology stuff and am known to go running for the dictionary at the most annoying times :)
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