Panniers and the Quilted Petticoat:
I know it may seem like I'm going on about this but...I am currently reading C.Willet and Phillis Cunnington's Book 'The Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century' and what did I see on page 115 but a drawing of a portrait where the lady is actually wearing a quilted petticoat with a pair of panniers (or hooped petticoat).
I am so excited about this! It wasn't that I was stubbornly refusing to be believe it, it's just that it's really exciting to find absolute proof that these two items were worn together; conclusive as the lawyers would say. So please find beneath, a rather bad image of Arthur Devis' painting of the one Miss Lavinia Fenton.
Miss Fenton was an actress of the period and was the first actress to play Polly Peachum in Hogarth's Beggar's Opera. She later married the Duke of Bolton and therefore became the Duchess of Bolton. I believe Hogarth also painted her portrait along with featuring her in his paintings of the scenes from the Beggar's Opera.
I am so excited about this! It wasn't that I was stubbornly refusing to be believe it, it's just that it's really exciting to find absolute proof that these two items were worn together; conclusive as the lawyers would say. So please find beneath, a rather bad image of Arthur Devis' painting of the one Miss Lavinia Fenton.
Miss Fenton was an actress of the period and was the first actress to play Polly Peachum in Hogarth's Beggar's Opera. She later married the Duke of Bolton and therefore became the Duchess of Bolton. I believe Hogarth also painted her portrait along with featuring her in his paintings of the scenes from the Beggar's Opera.
Miss Lavinia Fenton by Arthur Devis 1743-45
I'm also going to scan in a copy of Cunnington's drawing of this painting used in his book - but not yet - I'm too tired tonight.
#UPDATE: Here's the drawing from Cunnington's Book 'Handbook of English Costume in the 18th Century'
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