Flashback Friday: Portieres

In October 1907, The Ladies Home Journal featured the article "Artistic Designs for Portieres: Which May be Made by the Clever Woman with Needle, Thread and Brush."

A more conventional and usual idea is shown on the left, but it is one capable of very beautiful development if artistically treated. Almost any upholstery fabric could be used for the background, but, of course, it should be plain, and not figured. The dragon-motif may be cut and mounted in applique style, and would be most effective if cut from gold satin. The color of the background fabric must in that case be a dull or quiet one, to give the most artistic effect. (Volume XXIC, Number 11, p49) 

The only copyright free
picture of a portiere I could find.
Wrong period. We'll live.

Of course the first question I had is what the hell is a portiere? A portiere is a fabric hanging used in a doorway in place of a door, or indeed in addition to a door depending on whether the goal was to stop drafts or to act as a door. They were first used in Asia and made their way to Europe where they were in use by the fourth century. They were quite common in the Victorian period, so the colonies were a little behind here.

And the next is brush? I've read the whole damn article twice, and they don't once mention using a brush. My wild guess is that it would be something used to raise the nap on the project, but I cannot find any reference to nap raising. I guess you have to be a much more clever woman than I.

Other titles in this magazine include "The Chronicles of a Queer Girl," "A Stranger in the Church: The Experience of a Young Woman in One Hundred and Fifty Churches," and "How Children are Made Drunkards." You might think the later is one of those damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't articles that are so popular today whose primary purpose seems to be making all mothers feel bad about themselves in one way or another. No, this is a straight-up warning against using "harmless" "over-the-counter" medicines for children that contained opium and other things that require a prescription these days*. The arbitor of taste turns her attention to hall racks this month. Her advice seems to be the same: plainer is better.

*Except in Oregon or Colorado.

Flashback Friday: Citrus Rinds

Franz Eugen Köhler,
Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen

Flashback Friday is another of the new features around these parts. Initially, I had hoped to share craft patterns from early women's magazines with you. Unfortunately, when I was doing my research, the pages were all labeled "reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission." And I thought, "the holy hell, someone took out new copyright on 100 year old magazines?" This may just be a standard thing the college or ProQuest puts on all the materials they bring to researchers, but rather than do further research on that front, I decided that I could work within fair use* and not have to worry about copyright. That means no patterns, but it does mean I will bring a bit of delightful text from women's magazines that relates to embroidery or current craft trends in some way.

"Don't Throw Away Your Orange and Lemon Rinds" from the column "A Liberal Table on Small Means" by Mrs. S. T. Rorer. This excerpt is from Ladies' Home Journal, November 1907, Vol XXIV, No 12, page 30.

Another economy is worth practicing and that is the saving of lemon and orange rinds. When you are using a lemon for lemonade it is better if the rind is taken off; you may take it off in strips or you may squeeze the juice and keep the rind in halves; clear out the inside and throw the rinds at once into cold water; bring to a boil, boil for five minutes and drain. Cover with boiling water and boil until tender. Then make a syrup from a pound of sugar and half a pint of water; bring to a boil and skim. Put in the lemon rinds and cook until transparent; then throw them on to a sieve to drain; stir the syrup until it begins to granulate and pour it over. let it harden and dry on the lemon rinds; these are better for fruitcake and mincemeat than the commercial candied lemon rind which you usually buy. 

Believe it or not, this is only a short excerpt from this article! You probably wondered how much there was to say about lemon rinds. I'm pretty sure Mrs. Rorer was paid by the word.

Photo: Johannes Pribyl 

Other articles in this issue include "Good Taste and Bad Taste in Clocks" (bad taste seems to run to over-ornamentation and small or partially obscured faces); "What Other Women Have Found Out" (your tip could earn you a crisp new dollar bill!); and "Three Things a Teacher Should Teach" (uprightness, thoroughness, and reverence).

*basically, part of the law says that you can use short excerpts of copyrighted material verbatim for purposes like criticism, reporting, teaching, and research without permission from or payment to the holder of the copyright. We are researching our collective past. One of you will write a book about it.