Artifact: Man's Cravat
Materials: Linen lace
Dimensions: 11 x 6 1/2 in. ( 27.94 x 16.51 cm)
Date: Ca. 1795
Origin: France
Collection: LACMA
License: Public Domain
Ledger Entry: Cravat
Department: Clothing
Customer: James Joiner Atherton
Ledger Page: 93
Imported From: Most of the clothing accessories sold in the Ramsay store would have been imported from England.
Product Description
A cravat was the precursor to the modern tie. It consisted of a rectangular piece of fabric, typically lace, linen, or lawn, which was tied around a man's neck covering the collar to his shirt. These could be tied with varying levels of intricacy depending on the social status of the man, and the function he was attending.
Citation: Linda Baumgarten. Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg. (Williamsburg, Va: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986), 51.; Linda Baumgarten. What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America (New Haven: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in association with Yale University Press, 2002).
Historical Price: 3 shillings; Modern USD: $33.6
Product Variations
The databases record only one purchase of two cravats for three shillings.
