Smallswords, why the terms pillow and mourning swords?

Hotspur · 17th August 2010, 02:38 AM

Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820

!n 1751 Aris's Birmingham Gazette, and no doubt other provincial papers too, published Orders from the Lord Chamberlains office concerning mourning for the Prince of Wales. Ladies were to wear black BOMBAZINE with HOODs made of CRAPE and crape FANs, while a gentleman's wear was to be made of black cloth with a crape HATBAND and black SWORD and BUCKLEs. Such announcements of royal deaths, particularly if unexpected, could spell both peril and profit for retailers. Disaster might befall those unfortunates who had just filled their shops with the new season's fashionable textiles that might well be out of date before the period of mourning was over. Conversely, some retailers made a steady profit on stocking black goods to supply the needs of their customers when death struck near home [Diaries (Turner)]; [Newspapers (1760)].

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=739

And so on

Cheers

GC

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17th August 2010, 02:38 AM	#24
Hotspur Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Nipmuc USA Posts: 514	Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820 !n 1751 Aris's Birmingham Gazette, and no doubt other provincial papers too, published Orders from the Lord Chamberlains office concerning mourning for the Prince of Wales. Ladies were to wear black BOMBAZINE with HOODs made of CRAPE and crape FANs, while a gentleman's wear was to be made of black cloth with a crape HATBAND and black SWORD and BUCKLEs. Such announcements of royal deaths, particularly if unexpected, could spell both peril and profit for retailers. Disaster might befall those unfortunates who had just filled their shops with the new season's fashionable textiles that might well be out of date before the period of mourning was over. Conversely, some retailers made a steady profit on stocking black goods to supply the needs of their customers when death struck near home [Diaries (Turner)]; [Newspapers (1760)]. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=739 And so on Cheers GC