DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68501#0038
18
INTRODUCTION.
INVENTIONS AND MANUFACTURES CONNECTED
WITH DRESS.
We must now proceed to dress itself, and to those
innumerable manufactures and inventions which man-
kind has created for the adornment of the person.
Silks, satins, velvets, brocades, linens, cottons, muslins,
gauzes, laces, assume, under the nimble fingers of
Fashion’s handmaids, every variety of shape, form, and
hue.
JEWELLERY.
The love of jewels and ornaments has been pre-
valent among all nations, from the earliest ages. The
savag-es deck their limbs and bodies with shells and
bones, and admire these rude ornaments as much as
does the fair European, when delightedly gazing at the
brilliant treasures contained in her velvet-lined ecrin,
whose golden clasps encircle the gifts of all lands.
This passion is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures,
and the most ancient authors speak of ear-rings, nose
and lip-rings, necklaces, chains, bracelets, anklets,
and every other variety of ornament. Their shape,
size, and the materials of which they are composed,
are changeable as the thoughts of the fickle goddess
who superintends their structure ; while every land is
searched for gems of the brightest hue, and even the
ocean is forced to give up her treasures, to satisfy this
universal love of splendour and magnificence.
“ It is a curious fact,” remarks a modern traveller
in Egypt, “ that the love of ornament, prevalent as it
is throughout the world, appears to be carried to the
INTRODUCTION.
INVENTIONS AND MANUFACTURES CONNECTED
WITH DRESS.
We must now proceed to dress itself, and to those
innumerable manufactures and inventions which man-
kind has created for the adornment of the person.
Silks, satins, velvets, brocades, linens, cottons, muslins,
gauzes, laces, assume, under the nimble fingers of
Fashion’s handmaids, every variety of shape, form, and
hue.
JEWELLERY.
The love of jewels and ornaments has been pre-
valent among all nations, from the earliest ages. The
savag-es deck their limbs and bodies with shells and
bones, and admire these rude ornaments as much as
does the fair European, when delightedly gazing at the
brilliant treasures contained in her velvet-lined ecrin,
whose golden clasps encircle the gifts of all lands.
This passion is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures,
and the most ancient authors speak of ear-rings, nose
and lip-rings, necklaces, chains, bracelets, anklets,
and every other variety of ornament. Their shape,
size, and the materials of which they are composed,
are changeable as the thoughts of the fickle goddess
who superintends their structure ; while every land is
searched for gems of the brightest hue, and even the
ocean is forced to give up her treasures, to satisfy this
universal love of splendour and magnificence.
“ It is a curious fact,” remarks a modern traveller
in Egypt, “ that the love of ornament, prevalent as it
is throughout the world, appears to be carried to the