Peruke Maker

[ChristineR]

Just spotted reference to this in another forum, but better come here to ask the question.

What is a Peruke Maker? to satisfy my curiosity.

ChristineR
Australia

[Trish]

Just spotted reference to this in another forum, but better come here to ask the question.

What is a Peruke Maker? to satisfy my curiosity.

ChristineR
AustraliaSomeone who makes perukes? Sorry, Christine, couldn't resist a dumb answer...

Apparently, perukes are/were wigs so... a peruke maker made wigs.

I think it's generally understood that people didn't bathe as often in those days [when exactly were wigs most popular? the 1700s? early 1800s?] and so wore a lot of perfume and cologne to mask body odour and wigs for those bad hair days!

Ergo, there must have been a demand for people who could make wigs -- and style them. Probably more so than to style real heads of hair. So... would one have apprenticed in the trade under a master peruke maker? Or was it more like a factory -- where workers churned out wigs en masse?

Any experts on this subject out there?

Trish

[ChristineR]

Thanks Trish,

didn't think to go Google :o
(sisters not doing it for themselves - sorry Rod, I'm being cheeky :D)

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/WAT_WIL/WIG_short_for_periwig_an_alter.html

gives a good history, but text is really small, everything you ever wanted to know about periwigs - wigs for short, or Perukes.

ChristineR

[Trish]

...http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/WAT_WIL/WIG_short_for_periwig_an_alter.html
gives a good history...

ChristineRWhew, a lot to wade through... but quite fascinating. Looks like wigs had largely lost popularity by Queen Victoria's time -- at least in official circles.

Curiously, www.answers.com (http://www.answers.com/) defines a periwig as "a wig, especially a peruke."

So is peruke a subset of wig -- i.e., a special type of wig?

Digging further... Answers.com goes on to define peruke as old French for perruque, "a wig, especially one worn by men in the 17th and 18th centuries; a periwig."

Okay, so a peruke must be one of those [commonly] white wigs which most deliberately looked artifical -- like the ones still worn today by British lawyers?

Aha! www.allwords.com (http://www.allwords.com/) describes a peruke as, "a 17c and 18c style of wig, with side curls and a tail at the back."

I guess a gentleman would go to a barber and peruke-maker's shop in the 1600s and 1700s and be fitted for a peruke which was probably made to order for him. I wonder how much they cost in relative terms?

Trish

[Geoffers]

Ergo, there must have been a demand for people who could make wigs -- and style them. Probably more so than to style real heads of hair. So... would one have apprenticed in the trade under a master peruke maker? Or was it more like a factory -- where workers churned out wigs en masse?
The following may be of interest; taken from "Shops and Shopkeepers in Norwich 1630-1730" by Ursula Priestley and Alayne Payne (1985); published by The Centre of East Anglian Studies, Univeristy of East Anglia. ISBN 0 906219 19 1:
Page 18
'Barbers and Barber-Surgeons'
......By the end of the (17th) century wids were considered indispensiable and most barbers kept a stock of hair - by this time a scarce and expensive commodity. In 1700, along with a formidable battery of scissors, razors, and combs of box and horn, Thomas Blogg held in stock 'a parcel of hair for periwigs' as well as '3 browne coloured old fashioned periwigs.' This latter entry, taken in conjunction with Blogg's stock of powder boxes, shows that taste among the fashion-conscious of Norwich had moved towards the new craze for lighte coloured and powdered wigs.

Early wigs were severly crimped and inducing the hair to curl must have been a time-consuming occupation for all concerned with the trade. In order to acheive a semi-permanent kink in preparation for wig-makng, the locks were wound on to small pipe-clay curlers - known as 'pipes' - secured with rags, boiled, and finally baked in the oven. Evidently barbers carried out this lengthy procedure on the premises, sicne several references to 'haire upon the popes' occur in comntemporary inventories.

continued....

[Geoffers]

"For those unable to supplement their barbering skills with surgery, business may have been relatively slow throughout the early part of the 17th century. Some Norwich barbers had time to augment their earnings with the traditional secondary occupations undertaken by such craftsmen - such as net-making and the manufacture of small items of equipment for the weaving industry.

However the trade was transformed when wigs arrived on the fashion-scene in the early 1660's. The new vogue, introduced from France by Charles II and James Duke of York, spread rapidly throughout fashionable cricles and then to the middle ranks of society. Wig-making became a craft on its own. At the same time barbering received a fillip, since the head had to be close-shorn or shaven under the wig to ensure comfort and a good fit, while the barber's important de-lousing skills became even more essential.

The trade boomed, in Norwich, for example, 208 new barbers were enrolled as Freemen of the city between 1660 and 1710................Periwigs became the fashion in Norwich surprisingly quickly, but acceptance of the complete full-bottomed wig probably took rather longer."

Geoffers

[Trish]

Wow! Thanks for all the info, Geoffers.

So barbers/peruke-makers curled, boiled and baked the hair to get it to stay in a "semi-permanent kink for wig-making"? Wouldn't it just burn? Must've been a delicate process.

In regard to the delousing aspect: I wonder... did the lice merely jump ship from the head to the wig when the barber shaved a customer in preparation for a wig?

Trish

[Geoffers]

So barbers/peruke-makers curled, boiled and baked the hair to get it to stay in a "semi-permanent kink for wig-making"? Wouldn't it just burn? Must've been a delicate process.
I'd guess that the baking must have been at a fairly low temperature

In regard to the delousing aspect: I wonder... did the lice merely jump ship from the head to the wig when the barber shaved a customer in preparation for a wig?
Pepys mentions in his diaries about the difficulty of keeping hair clean and appears to have thought about it a long while before following fashion to get his head shaved and wig made.

If the lice did jump ship they would have been drowned and pleasantly cooked - mmmmmm tasty!

Geoffers

[ChristineR]

ooooh, you were quick
|bowdown|

thanks everyone, I now know more about perukes than I intended.
Christine

[Trish]

I'd guess that the baking must have been at a fairly low temperature Or risk having "crispy" wigs, I guess.

If the lice did jump ship they would have been drowned and pleasantly cooked - mmmmmm tasty! Tasty maybe but, actually, I was thinking about them jumping from the live head -- as the barber shaved hair off -- and then onto the wig as it was placed on the man's head. You know... any port in a storm... So could lice live comfortably in wigs?

[Sue Mackay]

Way to go you lovely Sutherland people! Thanks to Christine R spotting the answer to a lookup done for me in Essex RO, which revealed that I am directly descended from two successive generations of Essex wig makers, and whetting Trish's curiosity, I now have a lot more useful information. Thanks Geoffers! I will do some more digging of my own) and will let you know if I turn up anything of interest. Am on Broadband now |woohoo| so it makes searching a lot easier!

[Trish]

Sue,

If I may speak for Christine, we're always quite happy to help out our fellow Sutherlanders, especially inadvertently -- Christine by asking the question, me by asking more [silly] questions and, well, I guess Geoffers may have helped out a little bit with some information he threw in... All in a day's work! ;)

Trish