Parfilage
Parfilage ([paʁ.fi.laʒ], "unravelling")[1] was a fashionable pastime among women at the Versailles in the 1760s and 1770s.[2] While most forms of ladies' handwork involved making something, parfilage was the opposite: women spent their time unraveling gold and silver braid, lace, or epaulets. As the fad grew – Grimm's Correspondence littéraire referred to a "furor" for it in winter 1773[3] – ornaments were made and sold solely for the purpose of being unmade. Ladies carried small sacks with them for the gold and silver threads they had salvaged. Taken to a goldsmith, the thread could be melted down and made into bullion. In Britain, parfilage was sometimes known as "drizzling."[4][5]
References
[edit]- ^ Kavanagh, Julia (September 13, 1893). "Woman in France During the Eighteenth Century". Smith, Elder and Company – via Google Books.
- ^ "THURS 12 & FRI 13 AUGUST - Antiques Trade Gazette" (PDF).
- ^ Grimm, Melchior (1829–1831). Correspondance littéraire. Furne.
- ^ Kane, Kathryn (December 14, 2018). "Of Parfilage or Drizzling Through the Regency".
- ^ Helen Clifford, "A Commerce with Things: The Value of Precious Metalwork in early modern England," in Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, eds., Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe, 1650-1850 (Manchester University Press, 1999).
External links
[edit]- Parfilage (drizzling) – costume history blog
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