Things that make you go “Hmmm”
Originally published at Historical Personality Disorder. Please leave any comments there.
The burning question this morning: Is my corset historically accurate?
I was delighted to wake up this morning to find that Drea Leed had put the contents of Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe online. And because I love punishing research tasks to go with my morning cup of coffee, I dug in. First order of the day was to search through the accounts for instances of “bone”, which turned up over 400 hits, mostly dealing with bone lace. I refined the search for “whale bone” and then “whales bone”, which reduced the results to a more manageable number, and the sheer majority of the entries occurring post-1580 and dealing with farthingales and sleeves. I saw a few entries here and there to “whales bone” for busks, and thought nothing of it until I came across an entry placing an order of “nineteen payres of buskes”. My brain did this: “Payers of buskes. Pairs of busks. PAIRS of busks. OMG PAIRS OF BUSKS???”
Why, do you ask, was this such a big deal? You know, because the way we think of busks today is in single units. You take one, shove it down your stays and you’re off. You don’t stick two busks down your front (unless, of course, you’re using exceptionally flimsy busks); one will do.
Also, what else do we think of in terms of “pairs?” Why, pairs of bodies, of course! “Pairs of bodies… Pairs of busks… What if…” went my brain. I jumped over to the Oxford English Dictionary Online (oh, I’m going to be so sad when I have to give up my student access to the OED Online…) and looked up the etymology of the word “busk.” The first entry was dated 1592 and conformed to what I think most people think of as a busk -
“A strip of wood, whalebone, steel, or other rigid material passed down the front of a corset, and used to stiffen and support it.”
But it was the second bit that caught my attention…
“Formerly and still dial. applied also to the whole corset.”
THE WHOLE CORSET, PEOPLE.
Full Disclosure: Irritatingly enough, OED didn’t bother to cite their source for that bit about referring to the whole corset…
So, what if… What if those entries for “payres of buskes” aren’t simply referring to the single paint stir stick shaped item that you stick down the front of your stays, but an entire corset boned of whalebone?
If you accept this hypothesis, you suddenly start reading the entries on busks in the accounts a whole lot differently. The earliest mention of “buskes” is dated to April 19, 1577, so we’re following with the apparent timeline for boned corsets making their appearance in England:
“Item to the said Thomas Grene for sixe Buskes of our great guarderobe.”
But it’s still interesting, that Drea’s accounts online begin at 1568 and yet there is no reference to whaleboned busks or anything similar until almost 10 years later. What does show up in relationship to lining bodices pre-1577 is canvas. A lot of canvas. It makes one really stop and reconsider what we think we know about corseting in the 16th century… Or at least it makes ME pause for consideration.