Free Printable Miniature Books for Dollhouses #11 : 18th Century Banyans, mini books by Tara Maginnis:
Pinterest Page : Boys and Banyans
Making an 18th Century Banyan (YouTube)
Custom Made Banyans sold on Etsy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_(clothing)
Old post on Banyans at The Costumers Manifesto
This little catalog was stamped with the name of Charles Altemus, the owner of The Opera House Hat Store in Easton, Pennsylvania which he owned from around 1896 until he went bankrupt in February of 1912.
The Opera House Hat store was a fancy haberdashery selling fine menswear especially hats. It was a thriving business as early as 1872 when it was known as Ramaley’s Opera House Hat Store, (owned and founded by Mr. Ramaley) primarily in making and selling men’s hats and fur goods. Sometime around 1896 the business passed to Mr Altemus who branched out into other men’s furnishings including collars. This catalog therefore definitively is from sometime between 1896-1912.
However, the catalog may be able to date to a smaller window of time by comparing the prices and names of the collars to newspaper ads of the collars in it. Newspaper ads typically only advertise collars heavily within their first year of launch, while long popular collars stay in catalogs as long as people buy them. This 1900 newspaper clipping below has names of quite a few of the same collars as this catalog, and you can see the ad at this link:
Wed, Aug 22, 1900 – 6 · The Troy Messenger (Troy, Alabama) · Newspapers.com
Three other Ads from 1902 and 1903 have more of the collars from the catalog, as well as a similar style in the artwork, so 1903 is (so far) the more precise date I would guess this catalog is from:
It also has a similar style to the side-images in the memorable Glencoe Collar as a Postcard from the Philippine Front ad in the December 1902 Pearson’s Magazine. [On a side note, I recently obtained a detachable cuff that had been used this way and sent from Oklahoma to Missouri in 1908!].
However there is an equally good argument for 1905 as the date, as there is an ad that mentions more of the collars from the catalog, although it is primarily pushing the “Four Ply Fold” feature rather than “New” collars:
Comparing the central “Correct Dress Chart” with similar charts in The Haberdasher, The Sartorial Art Journal, etc. would most likely give a definitive year so if anyone cares to go to the Library of Congress to check for me, I’ll be happy to alter my judgement on this if I get further info!
Is a series of books by W. D. F. Vincent that covered tailor’s pattern drafting for all sorts of garments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
When my Costumer’s Manifesto Site was working I had a bunch of these (not all) online (and hope to do so again), but in the meantime, all the parts I posted in PDF form are still available online at assorted sites at these outside links:
the Victorian Patterns Board has all of them listed by Volume on this page.
Hathi Trust link to nicer scan of the the University of California PDF of Cutter’s Guide volume on Children’s Clothing
Hathi Trust link to the University of California PDF of The Cutter’s practical guide to cutting and making shirts, undergarments, collars, and specialty clothing for various occupations
Very good scan of the Volume on Women’s Clothing
Archive.org copy of: Vincent’s systems of cutting all kinds of tailor-made garments : part 1 : dealing with the cutting of various styles of trousers, breeches, knickers, pantaloons, leggings and gaiters, and waistcoats 1903 by Vincent, W. D. F (William D. F.) 1860-1925
Siam Costumes has a bunch of these, as well as other tailoring, costume, and needlework copyright expired pdfs at “Cutter’s Guides” pages. Click on “Pattern Guides Female” and “Pattern Guides Male” to find loads of volumes of WDF Vincent’s Cutter’s Guide, including British Military Uniforms, Clerical Dress, Lounge & Sportswear, Livery, etc.
W D F Vincent “The Cutter’s Practical Guide” Part 10 – Waistcoats (3rd Edition)
Archive.org copy of 1890 volume on Women’s Garments
Wikisource 1898 Volume 1 on Juvenile & Youth Garments
The Group, The Victorian Sweatshop Forum has a large number of the volumes available to registered members of the forum, so if you have a strong interest join and go to their Cutter’s Guide Files
The Tailor’s Handbook of Useful Information on Social, Literary, Historical, Practical and Scientific Subjects (also by W.D.F. Vincent)
About The Vincent Square (Tailor’s Ruler)
Also co-authored by W. D. F. Vincent: The sewing machine : an historical and practical exposition of the sewing machine from its inception to the present time : containing explanations showing the modern methods of garment making applied to all kinds of tailor-made garments c.1910, by Lyons, Lewis; Allen, T. W; Vincent, W. D. F. (William D. F.), 1860-1926; Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture. NcD
Buying Collars:
Amazon Drygoods (Predates Amazon.com to which it is not related. It is a long standing historical clothing supply store, it sells new paper and cloth ready-made collars in historical styles, collar buttons and shirt fronts. The pressed paper and laminate , and can usually last through a 3-weekend run of a college play. The collars are made on the original 1860s machinery of the Reversible Collar Company, original maker of Linene collars, a paper-cloth laminate, which Amazon Drygoods purchased in the 1980s when after the R.C. Co. and it’s successor Gibson-Lee went under after over 100 years of business. So, though these are laminate, they are actually some of the most period-correct collars you can get).
Etsy Store: Fogey Unlimited (Sells vintage and new menswear including new linen collars in vintage designs).
Historical Emporium (Reenactor Clothing, lots of cool stuff.)
Etsy Store: Hidden River Finds (Vintage/antique clothing including many early 20th Century collars).
New & Lingwood (UK company that makes menswear including Eton uniforms since 1865, still makes collars).
Premiere Designs Historic Clothing (Victorian/Edwardian historical reenactor supply, including collars.
Darcy Clothing (Has historical style collars both made like original models. and in machine washable stays stiff with no starch models).
Barker Collars (UK Sells formal wear, including bespoke (aka custom-made) collars, and has a starching service.)
Luke Eyres Specializes in making parts for all those old and fun traditional British uniforms for sports (cricket of course) and professions (clerical, legal, military) that still use styles worked out 100+ years ago. As a result, they sell styles of collar that are not available in the usual Victorian/Edwardian reenactor sites in the US. So if you need legal or clerical bands or 19th Century style military collars etc, they have the lot.
USHist.com (Sells new made Victorian collar styles to reenactors).
Vintage Dancer page on “Where to buy detachable collars”, that lists even more places.
Laundering Collars:
Wizner Dry Cleaning NYC Dry Cleaner – Dry Cleaning Specialists in Fine Garments, Rugs, Linens, Theatrical Costume, Mascot Cleaning. Also does Starched Detachable Collars!
Barker Laundry Service (UK. The folks who did Downton Abbey’s Collars.)
Live Journal posts on Starching
Fedora Lounge: Instructions for Home Starching
I’ve been working on assigning dates to Detachable Starched Collars I own with information I’ve found through advertisements in Newspapers.com , Patent Records, clipped ads for sale on eBay, etc but was looking for more. Now I have run into some online copyright expired books and magazines that I think may help with doing this also. Many later collars have a lot of information about brand names, place of origin and manufacturing company names printed on the inside that help with this, and these books seem like they may be useful for narrowing down dates on collars by tracking the history of the name changes in the companies. Collar companies in the US were constantly eating one another, combining, breaking apart and vanishing through the whole second half of the 19th Century and first half of the 20th Century. Cluett for example went through all sorts of changes that may help date their collars. Some parts of these books seem to track a few of the dates of these mutations. If there is someone with better obsessive compulsive genes for working on forming this into cheat sheets and databases of collar names and dates faster, feel free to try. Meanwhile, if you are looking to “date” your own collars this is a good place to start.
New! Online Articles on Collars & Related Topics:
Library and Museum Collections for Study Related to Collars
More of my drawings made c.1980.
More collars from my early collection drawn c.1980
So, continuing with the drawings I made back c.1978-80 of my collar collection, here is another example.
One of the things that has weirdly defined my life is that pretty much since I went to college and first got serious about costuming I have been working on writing a costume book. It never gets finished, but I make lots of components for it. In the 1990s this morphed into The Costumers Manifesto web site, but back around the late 1970s and early 1980s it was just a few random things that interested me. Detachable hard collars have always had a fascination for me and so in those pre-Internet and pre-home printer/scanner/copier days I set out to make life size drawings to be used as patterns of my then small collar collection (back when it still fit in a single large cookie tin) in imitation of my hero Janet Arnold. These were laboriously hand drawn with a Rapidograph, a high maintenance technical pen that is the ancestor of my now favorite Signo Uniball pens.
The idea with all these is that since both sides of the collar are identical, you can use them to form a pattern that you can lengthen to the needed size so long as you have the basic shape. In all cases seam allowance must be added!
As 1906 ends this campaign of these single column mini ads gives way to a more varied group of large and small ads of different designs in 1907.
