When George became Prince Regent in 1811, Great Britain had been at war with Napoleon for seven years. Decoupled from Paris trends, English fashions had gone rogue. Regency Waistlines Part Two - 1811-1820 Having started the [...]
Empire waists epitomized Regency England, but change was underway when the Prince Regent finally took the throne as King George IV in 1820. The broader Regency era would last until his death in 1830, and the ten years of [...]
By the time 'Gypsies' appeared on the pages of Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth, Romani people had been in England for centuries. Sidebar: Believing the copper-skinned migrants to hail from Egypt, the Europeans [...]
Even the poorest gentry did not expect to do their own dirty work in the Regency era. If your annual income was £100-200 (approx. $9,000 - 18,000 spending power in today’s money), you [...]
Natural Beauty - the Regency Aesthetic As the 19th century dawned, no one wanted to look like Marie Antoinette. In a backlash against the powder, patch and paint of the decadent 1800s, the Regency [...]
A List of Dressmakers in Regency London This post lists some of the 160 women included in my Regency Modistes' Compendium (due for release December 2023). The Compendium represents the first and only comprehensive research [...]
A simplistic inflation calculation does not give meaning to Regency spending power. Lord Byron could have hired ten scullery maids for the price of a musical snuffbox he purchased in 1813 - £105. According to Samuel [...]
If you were a celebrity wedding planner in 1812, you might want your wedding ices made by Gunter's Tea Shop. A foodie destination from the mid 1700s, Gunter's made a range of ice creams and confectionery [...]
There were few “respectable” self-made women in the Regency era. Mary Linwood made her fortune in needlework. At the height of her fame, Russian Empress Catherine the Great offered to buy all her “stitchery paintings” for £40,000. That’s about [...]
When Georgian and Regency era women HAD to go and there were no public toilets, the bourdaloue was a small boat-shaped chamber pot designed to be used standing up. Since most women did not wear knickers, [...]
Beatrice Knight is an author and researcher specializing in the Regency era and the War of 1812 (between the United States and Great Britain). She is a lifelong fan of Jane Austen in whose honor she writes the All Things Regency blog.
Email: info@beatriceknight.com
