#wigmakers

A Gentleman at his Wigmakers

Artist: Théodore Maillot (French, 1826–1888)

Date: 1861

Medium: Oil on canvas

Yak, Horse, Goat, Human?

Nope, it’s not part of a riddle. it’s the choice of hair for your wig if you lived in the 18th Century in Virginia and have enough money for a wig. After choosing your hair, the wigmaker would attach it to the base of netting--see the second photo-- in order to create the style you were after. The third picture is a fancy lady’s wig. The wooden block that is exposed on the lower left is where her face would be, and the rest of that towering structure, feathers including, would be above and behind her face. As you can see it is huge, but that was the fashion, and if you watch movies from the 1960s, you can find similar sizes, without feathers, which were created by hairspray, teasing, and hair attachments, or just plain wigs.

The last photo is a lot of men’s wigs, including the bagged wig which puts part of the hair into a bag, which is tidy but seems to defeat the purpose of all that hair. The long parts were called queues or tails. They varied by profession and station in life. And some men would shave their heads for a good fit for their wigs.

I saw all of these at Colonial Williamsburg at the Wigmaker’s shop. Which was not far from the Shoemaker’s shop and the Mantuamaker’s which is why when the Costume Society of America met in April at CW, it was like its members found themselves in 18th-Century-fashion Disneyland.

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