Maid / Housekeeper c1880’s

A Christmas Greetings with Love – 1882

S. Rogers – F. J. Edwards Belgrave Road, Colwyn Bay

Victorian Nanny

In Loving Memory – 1887

 

In Loving Memory of Alick William Fraser who departed this life June 2nd 1887 aged 3 years

Electric scrubbing

The Public Domain Review

One of a series of futuristic pictures by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists issued in France in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. Originally in the form of paper cards enclosed in cigarette/cigar boxes and, later, as postcards, the images depicted the world as it was imagined to be like in the then distant year of 2000. As is so often the case their predictions fell some way off the mark, failing to go far enough in thinking outside the confines of their current technological milieu (hence the ubiquity of propellers, not to mention the distinctly 19th-century dress).

There are at least 87 cards known that were authored by various French artists, the first series being produced for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. Due to financial difficulties the cards by Jean-Marc Côté were never actually distributed and only came to light many years later after the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov chanced upon a set and published them in 1986, with accompanying commentary, in the book Futuredays: A Nineteenth Century Vision of the Year 2000.

Rose Massey

 

Rose Massey (c.1845 – 23rd July 1883) was a 19th-century English stage actress.

Vesta Tilley – 1896 – 1919

Matilda Alice Powles (13 May 1864 – 16 September 1952) was an English music hall performer. She adopted the stage name Vesta Tilley and became one of the best-known male impersonators of her era. Her career lasted from 1869 until 1920. Starting in provincial theatres with her father as manager, she performed her first season in London in 1874. She typically performed as a dandy or fop, also playing other roles. She found additional success as a principal boy in pantomime.

By the 1890s, Tilley was England’s highest earning woman. She was also a star in the vaudeville circuit in the United States, touring a total of six times. She married Walter de Frece, a theatre impresario who became her new manager and songwriter. At a Royal Command Performance in 1912, she scandalised Queen Mary because she was wearing trousers. During the First World War she was known as “England’s greatest recruiting sergeant” since she sang patriotic songs dressed in khaki fatigues like a soldier and promoted enlistment drives.

Becoming Lady de Frece in 1919, she decided to retire and made a year-long farewell tour from which all profits went to children’s hospitals. Her last performance was in 1920 at the Coliseum Theatre, London. She then supported her husband when he became a Member of Parliament and later retired with him to Monte Carlo. She died in 1952 on a visit to London and is buried at Putney Vale Cemetery. Her life story was commemorated in the 1957 film After the Ball.

BritishMusicHallSoc

Marie Lloyd Ogden’s Guinea Gold Cigarettes (New Series 1, B151)

Vintage Sunday

German maids posted 16th February 1918

I found an interesting piece in an old newspaper, Myra’s Journal of Dress and Fashion – Tuesday 1st December 1891 – “Employments for Ladies, Ladies as Domestic Servants” “In the next issue I hope to give details of the various schools of housekeeping where a through training in every branch of housework may be obtained. The maid, be it remembered, is not infrequently changed into the wife, and none rules so well as she who has learnt to obey, and whose knowledge of her kingdom has been gained by practice not theory.”