La Lingère, by M. Panckoucke: Plate 2 Captions Translated

Here we go, the captions from La Lingère in M. Panckoucke's Encyclopédie Méthodique, plate 2.


This second plate is most interesting to me in its several versions of women's shifts, French and English.

PLATE 11.

Fig. A, French-style woman's shift. A, the shift body; b b, the gores, c, the slanting cut of the neckline; d d, the sleeves.
Fig. B, an English-style woman's shift; the gores cc, which are lifted (and placed) at ff.
Fig. C, other English-style woman's shift; he single gore joined g, which is lifted (and placed) at h.
Fig. D, man's shirt; ii, the shoulder piece; k k, the bosom (cut down the front); l, the bosom gusset, in the form of a heart; m m, the sleeve gussets; n n, the side gussets; o, the back of the shirt longer than the front; p p, the sleeves; q q, the sleeve slit.
Fig. E, pattern (cut) of a valet de chambre's apron; a b c, lifted (gathered) so that the length of the cotton fabric is folded in two; b b, part of the lifted (upper piece?) part joined to make a front pocket; c c, the other part of the lifted (upper piece?) part which one carries back to c, to double the underneath of the button??? (boutonniere).
Fig. F, neckcloth; 1, flap which receives the chape (chape) of the buckle. [In Wikipedia's buckle entry, a chape is described: "Chapes or "caps" of various designs could be fitted to the bar to enable one strap end to be secured before fastening the other, adjustable end. This made buckles easily removable and interchangeable leading to a significant advantage since buckles were expensive. Unfortunately, the teeth or spikes on the semi-circular chapes damaged the straps or belts, making frequent repairs of the material necessary. Buckles fitted with the “T”-, anchor-, or spade-shaped chapes avoided this problem but needed a slotted end in the belt to accommodate them." In the accompanying Wikipedia image, the chape is a button sort of affair attached to an arm which is connected to the buckle's bar. Putting the button through the hole in the neckcloth's flap attaches the buckle to the neckcloth.]; 2, flap with enters into the buckle and will be pricked by (he buckle's) prong.
Fig. G, "between-cut" of a bonnet-style headdress, heads set in opposition to spare (relieve stress upon) the cotton fabric.
Fig. H, cap-style headdress cut out to be assembled; 3, the slanting cuts; 4, the false hem.
Fig. I, brassiere-style shift for infants. [the details are missing from the text.]






Here is plate 2.



Well, there we are. I am going to have a look at the full text of La Lingère, and see if it might be interesting to translate it, as well, or if I should move on for the moment to a subject from the same source which is just itching to get some air: the wigmaker!

You might be wondering where in tarnation that sleeveless spencer is. Welllll, I can't see the eye in any needle right now; a stronger eyeglass prescription was already in order, but since last week, things are even blurrier. New glasses are forthcoming; then we'll get back to work :}

La Lingère, by M. Panckoucke: Plate 1 Captions Translated

Last post I promised to translate the captions from La Lingère in M. Panckoucke's Encyclopédie Méthodique. Voilà: herewith a translation of the captions for plate 1.

Let us waste no time on preludes, except one: I am not nearly the French translator that Cassidy is over at A Most Beguiling Accomplishment, and admit so candidly. Dictionary consulted when necessary:  Mr. A. Boyer, The Royal Dictionary, French and English, and, English and French..., 1764. Another version, French, 1729.

Edit, 02/12/13: Kind corrections/explanations provided by Cassidy. Thank you!

Match the "fig" (figure) numbers to those shown on the plates, and you're in business. I've blown up the labeled parts of each of the two plates.

Here's the upper half of the captions for plate one. I divided the image of the caption text into two parts, for easier matching between image and text. Look at the left column only.

PLATES, EXPLAINED.

FIRST PLATE
Vignette representing the boutique of a lingère.
Fig. 1, the whip stitch.
Fig. 2, the side stitch, serving to make a hem.
Fig. 3, the back stitch.
Fig. 4, the front stitch. (if you follow the letters in the drawing, it looks like running stitch.)
Fig 5, manner of making a folded (turned down)[rabattue] stitch to join two pieces without selvage (border) [lisière], or of which one one piece has one (a selvage). d c, are the stitches front and back at which one begins to unite the two pieces; a, a, is the protuding edge [excédent] of the selvaged piece which one brings down (presses down) on b b, in which to sew with side stitches (hemming stitches), in order to hide the d c stitches. If the piece has no  Si la piece a a has no longer any selvage, one makes there a little "turn down" [rempli].
Fig 6, the blanket stitch, or lockstitch.
Fig 7, the cross stitch.

Here's the bottom half of the caption text for plate one...in the left-hand column.

Fig. A, cut (pattern piece) of a slipper; a, the upper of the foot represented by d, before it is cut slopingly (cut ballow); b the under-piece.
Fig. B, night-rail or combing cloth, in pagoda style. [A night-rail is defined by A New General English Dictionary as "an ornamental garment made of muslin, or other fine linen, in the shape of a short cloak without a cape, for a woman to wear in the house."]
Fig. C, an assembled (literally "mounted") cap; a a, the ruffles (literally "butterflies"); b b the beards (wattles, whiskers); d d the bottom (the ground).
Fig. D, the pieces of a headdress (coif); p, the ruffles; b full beard [I take this to be a lappet].
Fig. E, quilted cap.
Fig. F, a large [sleeve] ruffle, pleated and mounted on its ribbon.
Fig. G, two rows of [sleeve] ruffles, neither sewn [directly to the garment] nor mounted [sewn to a tape and basted to a gown].
Fig. H, a round cap; a a, the channel; b, the bottom (ground, base); c c, the muslin which creates the "bat-the-eyelid" [Generally the term means "I don't care", a wink, a little nothing. There are other, scatological meanings to the term, but let's leave them alone.]; d, the channel (groove) where one passes the ribbons.

Now please see the top two lines of the second column, shown in the first text image.
Fig. I, the cut (pattern) of a headdress (coif), a, the part that one cuts slopingly; d, the sloping cut that one brings back on b. [Per Cassidy, Cut out d and bring it over to be b.]

Don't you love the idea of ruffles as butterflies, and lappets as beards? Evocative. Please take particular note of the unmounted sleeve ruffle. It seems to be pure lace, the design ideal for a graduated, narrow-to-wide ruffle.

 


There you go. Next time, plate 2.

By the way, I am on the mend -- again. A day or so after the last post I came down with sepsis from a medical device used post surgery. Had a number of desperately ill days in the hospital. Now am home and on intravenous antibiotics and feeling stronger daily. Thank Heaven for family, friends, and prayers! As a result of all the excitement, stress, and what have you, there are some changes on the way for the costuming I do, and for this blog. Am still mulling everything over, but have about made up my mind.

Until next post, be well, everyone.

A Followup to Diderot's Encyclopedie? You Bet: Meet M. Panckoucke and the Encyclopédie Méthodique

Was he a kook, Mr. Charles Joseph Panckoucke, thinking in 1781 that he could publish another giant French encyclopedia? Mais non, at least in the content department -- in the affairs of indexing, perhaps his plan was rather insufficiently cooked, but let's not be too hard on the man. Before he and his family were done, fifty years later, France was blessed with an estimated 166 1/2-tome Gargantua, under the title Encyclopédie Méthodique, explicating everything from fish to grammar to popular games to brocade patterns to -- lingerie.

The authors for each subject tended to both prolixity and exactitude, if these two characteristics can be considered simultaneously, which is a treat for us, all these years later. Further, technological advances since Diderot's time had exploded. In this encyclopedia, you can see the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and its giant machines. In our world of fabric, for instance, the encyclopedia describes enormous looms and spinning machines, alongside earlier technologies. It's abundantly clear why Napoleon would soon have a strong base on which to build his economic empire.

All of the trades and manufactured items that costumers might be interested are covered: buttonmaking, lacemaking, manifold types of passementerie, silk weaving, dressmaking, tailoring, feather-working, jewelry making, embroidery, fan-making, glove-making and other leatherwork... Are you dizzy yet?

Hey, Where Have We Seen That Before?

Oh, a side note: previous costume professionals have made use of this content before; it's just that many of us haven't been aware of it.

For example, do you recognize one of the figures in the half of  a plate below, which goes with Manufactures: Arts et Métiers, Tome 1, section title "Habillemens"? Where have you seen it before, pray tell? Does anyone recognize it?

How about this one, which I'll only name Plate 64? Anyone know where they've seen this one elsewhere?

No don't go fishing in Google for these: let's let your visual memories do the work.

Now, more seriously. Let's cover an example: the work of the lingere, makers of underclothing and suchlike.

La Lingere: an Example of Content We Love

There are those of us who have studied Diderot's Lingere plates and L'Art de la Lingere, hoping to understand better the making of women's underclothing, circa 1760s-1770s. M. Panckoucke has an update for us, circa about a decade later. Feast your eyes, my dears. Alas, there are fewer plates devoted to the subject in this second encyclopedia, but they are fascinating. By the way, M. Panckoucke employed M. Bertand, the same designer who had done the plates for the Diderot/D'Alembert effort, for the Encyclopédie Méthodique. Some of the drawings within the plates on first view look very similar, nay, identical, but there are changes.

The First Panckoucke Plate, Compared to Diderot

Panckoucke: Lingere, first plate



Diderot: Lingere, first plate

The first thing you likely notice is the scene of the inside of the shop. It looks pleasant, no? What about the clothing the workwomen are wearing? Why yes, those gowns are a bit newer than those in Diderot: fascinating to see what they chose to work in.

Look at the patterns for caps, lace, and sleeve ruffles, and for lace: mmmm. The cap in particular is later in style than the smaller caps shown in Diderot.




Look at the sewing stitches. The way they are drawn I think is a bit clearer than in the Diderot version, because the stitches are shown in progress.

The Second Panckoucke Plate, Compared to Diderot's Subsequent Plates

Aha: patterns for shifts, and a man's shirt and stock. Interestingly, they are the same as within Diderot, although drawn in white. Sadly, there are fewer garments covered in the Panckoucke plate than within Diderot.



Panckoucke: Lingere, second plate

Diderot: Lingere, second plate

Diderot, Lingere, third plate



Diderot, Lingere, fourth plate
In Panckoucke, the cross-stitch
plate is moved to one of the Brodeur
plates, I think.

Panckoucke's Plate Captions

 

Here is the original text:

Over the next posts, I will attempt a translation of these plate captions for those of you who desire it, and maybe, if time and inclination both coincide, perhaps I'll get to translating the main text. It's pretty fascinating and makes the plates come alive.

Later on, I might have a go at the dressmaking or feather-trade sections. We will see.

Sources

 

Because the Encyclopedia Méthodique is so enormous, far larger than that of Diderot, it's hard to find a complete collection. Further, because there appear to have been multiple editions or particular volumes, sometimes the content is split different ways.  I've spent quite a bit of time over the last days seeking out the text, the captions, and the plates to the portions of the encyclopedia I was interested in. It got to the point that I was trolling deep within Google Images, parsing out URLs to find potential sources, following up on citations. The volumes that concern me are the Manufactures: Arts et Metiers, the Arts et Métiers Mécaniques (both sections in multiple volumes), and the Recueil de Planches (first bunch of volumes).

I tended to find repeats in each collection located: for example, Hathitrust has indexed the plates (planches) from the Universidat Complutense de Madrid, while Gallica and what I think may be a Hungarian archive hold various volumes of the text.

A rough-and-ready index, with notes to myself, has been put on this blog's Research and Resources page. Perhaps it will get prettified at some point, perhaps not.

Want to know more about the history of Mr. Panckoucke's life's work? Visit the University of Cambridge, and read Encyclopédie méthodique (1732–1834) Acton.b.45.27–176; XXVI.1.1–178, 2.1–11.

Fun, wasn't that? I'm just thrilled with my new research resource, and the chance to practice some French!

By the way: my hiatus is over a little early. The surgery was a success, recovery is underway, and I am well enough to read and write, if not do much of any sewing.

Second "by the way": what got me thinking about this encyclopedia, other than an interest in anything French-encyclopedia-esque? Kendra Van Cleave's recently republished article, "Late 18th Century Skirt Supports: Bums, Rumps, & Culs" draws a quotation from the Encyclopedia Méthodique. Curious to see if the original source was online, I sniffed around, promptly fell down a veru long rabbit hole, and came up here :}

Garsault Online...Le Tailleur, et Plus, La Lingere

Oh for heaven's sake: Garsault is online! Yes, Art du Tailleur, Contenant Le Tailleur D'Habits d'Hommes; Les Culottes de Peau; Le Tailleur du Corps de Femmes & Enfants: La Couturiere; & la Marchande de Modes. From 1769. That means men's clothes, naturally, but also stays and gowns and caps.

Wait, there's more!

L'Art de la Lingere. From 1771. Caps! Shifts! And etc.

Here's plate 5 from Art du Tailleur, with all useful stitches, drawn from profile, top, and underneath.

With all of the text, and the the plates, and their captions!  Here are the captions to the part of plate 5 having to do with stitches. Ah... With a little effort, you can understand them all.

The rest of the text and the patterns await you.

Go ye now to Bunka Gakuen Library and find it under the 18th century listing of their holdings. Bless that library!*

Maybe everyone else has long known the volume was there; somehow I managed to miss it...and now that I look, so many other very good books! I hadn't visited in awhile.