Those Frills, and Flowers, and Buttons and Bows...

The term ‘milliner’ comes from the Italian city of Milan, where in the 1700’s, the finest straws were braided and the best quality hat forms were made.

During the 18th century, milliners took the hat-making art out of the home and established the millinery profession. Today, a ‘milliner’ defines a person associated with the profession of hat making. In the 18th century however, a millinery was more of a stylist.

Hats were extremely important during the Regency era and no woman, whether servant or mistress, would dream of being seen outside the home without something on her head!

The millinery trade rapidly brought hat-making to the level of a personalized art form. Whether it was an upscale boutique in Paris, or a small shop on the plains of the Midwest, the milliner designed hats specifically for each individual customer, turning out creations that emphasized or exaggerated the personal characteristics of the wearer.

Straw hat making was a cottage industry and gave work to hundreds of women. The pay, as for other female workers, was low.
Department store managers were only starting to realize the value of employing women in retail sales -especially in dealing with a store's female clientele. Women were attributed with having more tact and accuracy in serving customers needs, and the fitting of new garments was greatly simplified.

La Marchande de Modes "French Milliners at Work" 1822

As a result, millinery shops, which dealt almost entirely in ladies hats, gloves and other fine and fancy accessories, were to the ladies what the barbershop was to the men.

Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)The Millinery Shop,1879/86

In earlier centuries, millinery was an important profession given the high demands for hats for daily wear, and formal occasions. It was additionally a profession that was held by many women; “hats made by women for women.” Being a milliner was thought decent and respectable employment for ladies of the 18th, 19th , and 20th century.

The term millinery is also used when referring to decorations of pre-made hats, such as the artful bow, the feather or ribbon added to a hat, is considered millinery.

Even indoors married women and old spinsters would wear soft caps. As most women wore bonnets or capotte hats during the Regency, daytime hair styles were rather simple.

Bonnets differed from hats in having soft crowns but a stiff brim, sometimes made of straw. Caps were soft, made of fabric and often worn under hats.
In a time that frowned upon women holding jobs and working outside of the home, millinery shops were one of the few economic enterprises that could be owned, operated and frequented by women with no fear of damage to their social respectability.

The early 19th century saw the fledgling beginning of the modern fashion designer. Up to this point a woman went to the dressmaker for her gowns, the milliner for her hats, gloves and other accessories were purchased from other shops. The fashion designer, on the other hand, offered the whole package.

"Le Bon Genre Fashion Shop" caricature from 1817...Modiste with assistants.

Traditionally a woman’s occupation, the milliner not only created hats or bonnets to go with costumes but also chose the laces, trims and accessories to complete an ensemble.

< Edgar Degas... At the Milliner, 1881

Straw hats could be trimmed only with flowers and ribbons for summer use. At other times straw hats where covered with silk, taffeta or similar material, showing nothing of the foundation material at all.

Over the centuries, hats came to the forefront of the millinery trade and by the 19th century most Millinery shops were in essence ladies hat shops with gloves and other fine accessories pushed to the smaller side counters as a relative afterthought. Throughout the history of fashion, hats served as the status symbol that delineated the line between the social classes through their use of material, decoration, and utility... (or the lack of it).

Street Vendors of the 19th century...Peddlers or Pedlars?

A peddler, in British English, pedlar… also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or solicitor (with negative connotations since the 16th century), is a travelling vendor of goods...wikipedia

"Ow, wouldn't it be loverly...!"

Après l’averse; - place du Théâtre-Français... Louis Marie de Schryver

In Dublin's fair city,where the girls are so pretty,I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone, as she wheeled her wheel-barrow, through streets broad and narrow...Crying, "Cockles and Mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

Tavik Frantisek Simon (1877-1942)

Parisian Flower Vendors

The term "pedlar "was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies.
Peddlers usually travelled by foot, carrying their wares, or by means of a person- or animal-drawn cart or wagon (making the peddler a hawker).

"One bite, and all your dreams will come true. "

Snow White: "Oh, they do look delicious."

Queen: "Yes, but wait 'till you taste one, dearie. Like to try one? Go on. Go on, have a bite."

The term...“Topping off” meant arranging lovely fresh apples or cherries or strawberries atop a basket full of overripe fruits and lots of leaves. The practice was so typical, it was taken for granted.

Grimm's Fairy Tales... "Queen thou' art' of beauty rare. But Snow White living in the glen is' a thousand' times more fair."

Blauvelt..."The Young Peddler"

Norman Rockwell ...

When young women heard the cries of “What is’t you lack?” or “What is’t you buy?” They rushed to greet the pedlar with anticipation of the treasures of ribbons, laces and books to be found in his baskets, as well as news, and fresh ideas of the world outside the village.

"Old Shoes" by Van Gogh... these could very well be pedlar shoes.

In the eighteenth century, women traveled about the countryside as pack peddlers selling needles, pins, and other small articles. These women were called Notion Nannies, and were familiar figures in English country districts.

In a period were people living in the country were often isolated from the influence of a town, a pedlar was viewed with excitement…

The Flower Vendor...Leon Bazile Perrault

"Will you buy my sweet primroses,..two bunches a-penny? All a-growing, all a-blowing, who will buy my sweet primroses...Two bunches a-penny."

Often Children were taken along, so they could learn the trade firsthand.

"Ripe Strawberries ripe, Ripe Strawberries ripe. Six-pence a pottle fine strawberries ripe strawberries...only six-pence a pottle... I have ripe Strawberries ripe, Ripe Strawberries ripe."

Little Street Vendor

Though pedlars were welcomed for the frivolities they brought, they were distrusted, and they had a reputation of stealing while the ladies were busily looking through their wares.

Theophile Alexandre Steinlen…The Down and Outs 1896.

The evenings were spent in country inns,where peddler’s wives would make caps and frills to sell the next day, and the dishonest pedlar would dispose of the trifles picked up on the journey.

Street vendors in mid-19th-century London were accused, often rightly so, of all sorts of bad behavior. In their own defense, the vendors claimed that it was such a difficult way to make a living that they had to cheat to survive. In an effort to protect householders, the pedlars were required to carry a certificate of good character signed by a clergyman. After 1810 a license was issued with card stating “Licensed Hawker and Dealer in Small Wares” .

Hot cross buns, one ha' penny, two ha' penny hot cross buns...

A different kind of doll popular in England during the 18th and early 19th centuries was the peddler or pedlar. They were not really meant to be played with. They were designed as ornaments and often kept under glass domes on mantlepieces or sideboards. They were modelled on real pedlars who travelled from house to house selling a wide range of wares.

The dolls, in truth were never intended as children’s toys, but rather to be admired by adults on the sewing table or as a parlour mantle piece. They were usually dressed as the pedlars were:
In a cloak, bonnet and apron, over which they held a large tray filled with all kinds of merchandise in miniature.

It was the custom for women pedlars to often dressed in a red flannel cape over a dark skirt.
The red cape would protect them from harm while travelling along country roads, with their boxes of treasures.

"Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall Manchester City Galleries..." Early to mid 1800's

Wax was usually the favourite medium for pedlar dolls. Porcelain dolls , though sometimes used for bazaar stalls, were far too pretty to represent weather-beaten crones whose features could very well be captured by , for instance… a dried apple dipped in vinegar and crude features carved on the surface. After properly dried, a grotesque old crone or witch’s face would result.

Many such dolls made of wood, wax or papier mache, representing old gnarled features would hardly be the type of doll one would find in the nursery, as they were sure to cause all sorts of childish nightmares.

So we can conclude that this doll’s head were made in some number just to be used on pedlars and the like, as a means of basic instruction for shopping and as ornaments for mother’s amusement…

A beautiful creation by Mary Williams.

14" All-Original Composition Peddler Doll, German, circa 1880-1900, shoulder head made of composition or papier mache (hard to determine)

"Cries of London" German, for the English market, circa 1830-50, 8-9” tall.

“Notion Nannies”, were a common sight in England. They traveled around by foot bringing to villages various household goods as well as news and gossip from other places.

"Miniature Bazaar" English 1840

Her woven basket holds wares that include a marvelous assortment of carved wooden animals, a tuck comb wooden doll, a wonderful rug beater, lengths of printed cotton, plus other household wares.

Today these pedlar dolls serve as little documents of social history, telling us a great deal about the kind of things used by housewives of long ago.

Many of them were made at home,demonstrating great ingenuity and charm on the minute details of their wares. They were usually kept under a glass dome to be admired, but not handled by curious little hands.

Unfortunately some of these ornamental dolls were tampered with in the 1920’s and 30’s by adding objects to their baskets that didn’t quite fit the period of the doll. These intrusions were done in the early days of doll collecting, when dolls were still considered trifles. No responsible collector would take such liberties today.