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Tag Archives: lace

Miss Clarke, lace warehouse

21 Wed May 2014

Posted by Baldwin Hamey in Suppl. 03 Regent Street Division 3 nos 116-210

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

clothing, lace

Street View: 3 Suppl.
Address: 154 Regent Street

elevation

In 1847, in the third Supplement to Tallis’s Street Views, we find the ‘Antique and modern lace warehouse’ of Miss Clarke on the corner of Beak Street and Regent Street. She has succeeded William Vickery, a dealer in glass, who occupied the corner shop when the first series of Street Views came out. Miss Clarke is already present in the 1841 census for Regent Street, but as that does not show any house numbers and the scan is a bit vague, it is a bit difficult to determine whether she was already at number 154, but she was certainly in the area. Where she came from is a bit of a mystery. There is a notice in The London Gazette of 27 April 1827 that one Jane Clarke, “formerly of Wellington, Somersetshire, and late of No. 42, Brook’s-Mews, Berkley-Square, Middlesex, Milliner and Straw Bonnet-Maker” had gone bankrupt, but whether these two Janes are the same or related is unclear.

An 1849 advertisement in The Morning Post mentions ‘British moire antiques’ as being sold by Miss Clarke, both at 154, Regent Street and at 79, Bold Street, Liverpool. Expansion indeed. In 1851, the census mentions her living at number 170 Regent Street and with her some 30 unmarried ladies with job descriptions ranging from assistant to milliner and servant. And amongst all these women, just one man, 24-year old George Getbars. No indication as to his role other than servant.

Illustrated Exhibitor (Source Uni-Heidelberg)

The Illustrated Exhibitor (Source Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg)

1851 was of course also the year of the Great Exhibition and Jane Clarke sent in the following:
– Royal Irish snow point lappet
– Head dress of Irish rose point
– Scarf of Belfast loop point
– Chalico cover of Irish point
– An Irish lace flounce, with point roses
– Hibernian point collar
– A pocket handkerchief of Irish lace(1)

click for larger picture

click for larger picture

Jane also expanded her lace emporium into Manchester, but that was one step too far. In 1854 she had to sell the establishment at 80 Mosley Street by auction and with it her “stock of foreign and English silk mercery, &c. including a magnificent display of long and square shawls of French, Austrian, Persian, Indian, Turkish manufacture …”. The list of what was auctioned went on and on, see the illustration.(2)

And there were more problems. In 1857, Colonel William Petrie Waugh was examined at the Bankruptcy Court and as part of the exhibits, a milliner’s bill from Miss Clarke was reported in the newspaper to be £2745 in total of which only £900 had been paid. Most of the articles bought had been for the daughter by a previous husband of Mrs Waugh on the occasion of the daughter’s marriage to Sir Pigot and ranged from handkerchiefs to veils and from bonnets to any number of dresses. As Mrs Waugh only had a settlement of £600 a year from her former husband, the likelihood is that poor Colonel Waugh had to fork out the rest. Add to that the other outstanding bills for jewellery and boxes at various theatres, and it is not surprising that the Colonel had himself excused from attending the Court by “an affidavit from a continental physician” which caused some of those attending the case to “burst into an audible titter”.(3)

And then in 1859, we suddenly find advertisements of one Madame Elise at 170, Regent Street, who will be showing the “choicest specimens of antique and modern laces, &c &c, selected from the stock of the late Miss Jane Clarke”.(4) It transpired that Miss Clarke had died suddenly at her house in St. Peter’s Square, Hammersmith, on the 28th of January, or, as Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper would have it “the great creator of ‘Clarke’s Bonnets’ has made her last chapeau“. The newspaper remarks “how subtly she has fed the vanity of English women, and made Englishmen pay for the feast”. The reporter is obviously male and no admirer of women wanting only the latest fashion. He used phrases as ‘squander’, ‘shallow vanity’, ‘to cheat men into a false admiration’, ‘the satisfaction of out-dressing a neighbour’, and of course he reminds the reader of poor Colonel Waugh. Young women used to make their own clothes – he says – and now they have turned themselves into young ladies who want everything the shops have to offer. And even in death Miss Clarke set the fashion by directing in her will that she should be buried in point lace. On the other hand, he grudgingly admits, she left £80,000, bequeathing much of it to charities.(5) The reporter is a bit optimistic there as the probate record shows a value of £45,000, later resworn as £50,000(6), but still a sizeable fortune.

Dyckmans, Blind BeggarAnd she did not just leave money to charities; some of her worldly goods found a charitable new home, as can be seen in a notice of the new pictures that were placed in the National Gallery.(7) One of these paintings, “The Blind Beggar” by J.L. Dyckmans of Antwerp was received from the estate of Jane Clarke (see here for the NG’s page on the painting).

Madame Elise who took over 170 Regent Street was not, as Miss Clarke was, a single woman, but the wife of Frederick Isaacson and her name was not really Elise, but Elizabeth Marie Louise Jaeger. A very unfortunate death occurred at the premises in 1863 when a 20-year old seamstress, Mary Ann Walkley, died of apoplexy, brought on, or at least accelerated, by the long hours in overcrowded apartments and ill-ventilated bedrooms. It prompted the coroner to recommend new regulations for workroom and living conditions.(8) Apparently the women were housed in partitioned-off cubicles, two to a bed, with no ventilation and their working hours were long, sometimes right through to the following morning. You can read more about the appalling situation of dressmakers on Amanda Wilkinson’s blog here.

I’ll leave you with the first stanza of “The Song of the Shirt” (read the rest here).

With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread —
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the “Song of the Shirt”.

lace border c. 1880 (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum)

lace border c. 1880 (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum)

(1) Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue, vol. 2, p. 560.
(2) Manchester Times, 25 April 1854.
(3) The Bradford Observer, 24 September 1857; and The Hampshire Advertiser, 26 September 1857.
(4) The Morning Post, 15 March 1859.
(5) Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 3 April 1859.
(6) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1859.
(7) The Daily News, 4 April 1859.
(8) The Leeds Mercury, 26 June 1863.

Neighbours:

<– 156 Regent Street 152 Regent Street –>
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Blue plaque John Tallis

Blue plaque John Tallis in New Cross Road (photo by Steve Hunnisett)

Categories

  • 01 King William Street London Bridge nos 1-86 and Adelaide Place nos 1-6
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  • 03 Holborn Division I nos 14-139 and Holborn Bridge nos 1-7
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  • 28 Strand Division 3 nos 143-201 and nos 260-342
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  • 46 St. Paul's Churchyard nos 1-79
  • 47 West Smithfield nos 1-93
  • 48 Oxford Street Division 5 nos 161-200 and nos 261-292
  • 49 Tottenham Court Road Division 1 nos 91-180
  • 50 Wigmore Street Cavendish Square nos 1-57
  • 51 Bishopsgate Street Division 3 nos 53-162
  • 52 Tottenham Court Road Division 2 nos 46-226
  • 53 Tottenham Court Road Division 3 nos 1-46 and nos 227-267
  • 54 Goodge Street nos 1-55
  • 55 Aldersgate Street Division 2 nos 26-79 and nos 114-163
  • 56 Fenchurch Street Division 2 nos 44-124
  • 57 Blackfriars Road Division 1 nos 1-30 and 231-259 Also Albion Place nos 1-9
  • 58 Blackfriars Road Division 2 nos 31-76 and 191-229
  • 59 Shoreditch Division 2 nos 30-73 and nos 175-223
  • 60 Norton Folgate nos 1-40 and nos 104-109 Also Shoreditch Division 1 nos 1-30 and 224-249
  • 61 Shoreditch Division 3 nos 74-174
  • 62 Wardour Street Division 1 nos 1-36 and 95-127
  • 63 Wardour Street Division 2 nos 38-94 Also Princes Street nos 24-31
  • 64 Rathbone Place nos 1-58
  • 65 Charles Street nos 1-48 Also Mortimer Street nos 1-10 and nos 60-67
  • 66 Coventry Street nos 1-32 and Cranbourn Street nos 1-29
  • 67 Bishopsgate Street Without Division 2 nos 1-52 and nos 163-202
  • 68 Wood Street Cheapside Division 1 nos 1-36 and 94-130
  • 69 Westminster Bridge Road Division I nos 4-99
  • 70 Old Compton Street nos 1-52
  • 71 Burlington Arcade nos 1-71
  • 72 Oxford Street Division 6 nos 201-260
  • 73 Parliament Street nos 1-55
  • 74 Fenchurch Street Division I nos 1-44 and 125-174
  • 75 Chiswell street nos 1-37and 53-91
  • 76 Trafalgar Square nos 1-12 and 53-91
  • 77 Cockspur Street nos 1-4 and nos 22-34. Also Pall Mall nos 1-21 and 117-124
  • 78 New Bridge Street Blackfriars nos 1-42 also Chatham Place nos 1-13 and Crescent Place nos 1-6
  • 79 King Street nos 1-21 and New Street Covent Garden nos 1-41
  • 80 Bridge Street Westminster nos 1-28 and Bridge Street Lambeth nos 1-13 Also Coade's Row nos 1-3 and 99-102
  • 81 Lowther Arcade nos 1-25 and King William Street West Strand nos 1-28
  • 82 Charlotte Street Fitzroy Square nos 1-27 and 69-98
  • 83 High Street Islington nos 1-28 Also Clarke's Place nos 1-45
  • 84 Cockspur Street nos 16-23 and Charing Cross nos 9-48 and Pall Mall East nos 1-18
  • 85 Soho Square nos 1-37
  • 86 Cornhill nos 7-84
  • 87 Wood Street division 2 nos 37-93 and Cripplegate Buildings nos 1-12
  • 88 Moorgate Street nos 1-63
  • Suppl. 01 Regent Street Division 1 nos 1-22 and Waterloo Place nos 1-17
  • Suppl. 02 Regent Street Division 2 nos 32-119
  • Suppl. 03 Regent Street Division 3 nos 116-210
  • Suppl. 04 Regent Street Division 4 nos 207-286
  • Suppl. 05 Regent Street Division V nos 273-326 and Langham Place nos 1-25
  • Suppl. 06 Haymarket nos 1-71
  • Suppl. 07 Cornhill nos 1-82 and Royal Exchange Buildiings nos 1-11
  • Suppl. 08 Strand Division I nos 1-65 and 421-458
  • Suppl. 09 Strand Division 2 nos 67-112 and 366-420
  • Suppl. 10 Strand Division 3 nos 113-163 and nos 309-359
  • Suppl. 11 Strand Division 4 nos 164-203 and nos 252-302
  • Suppl. 12 Strand Division 5 nos 212-251 and Fleet Street Division 1 nos 1-37 and nos 184-207
  • Suppl. 13 Fleet Street Division 2 nos 40-82 and nos 127-183
  • Suppl. 14 Fleet Street Division 3 nos 83-126 and Ludgate Hill Division 1 nos 1-42
  • Suppl. 15 Ludgate Hill Division 2 nos 15-33 and Ludgate Street nos 1-42
  • Suppl. 16 St. Paul's Churchyard nos 1-79
  • Suppl. 17 Cheapside nos 33-131
  • Suppl. 18 King William Street nos 7-82 and Adelaide Place nos 1-5

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