Risky Regencies

This Girl Friday

Updated on December 10, 2010 by megan

First off, thanks to all who suggested titles–facetious and not–for my Secret Scot Baby story last week. I compiled a list of them and sent them off to my agent for her review.

Second, I have done no writing this week. None. Nada. Zilch. I have barely even thought about writing either. This is because,

Third, I have taken on a part-time job that has me trekking into an office three days a week. It is working with something I love (books and romance), but it is a big change. I expect I will adjust in the next couple of weeks, but for right now, it’s been all I can handle to dress like an adult and show up somewhere on time.

Fourth, those pesky holidays. Yes, I love them and all, but they take a lot of work, especially since The Particular Spouse is . . . particular. I have failed at finding the perfect black sweater vest, a wooden iPhone case and a particular NY Knicks jacket (no, he never visits over here, so no spoilage). I have succeeded in getting some cooking gadgets and books, and I plan on buying a particular type of super-peaty Scotch, but I am not sure that will suffice.

And Fifth–wait, is there a fifth? Oh, yes, a fifth: My agent is out with two manuscripts, both of which are in various stages of consideration, and I am hopeful of some positive outcome with one or both of them. I’m not holding my breath, and I know that my writing won’t sell at all unless I actually write, so I am planning on doing some writing this weekend with my friend Liz Maverick, while the Frampton Boys are out of town.

Sixth, who’s the hardest person to shop for on your list? What are you getting them?

Megan

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan | 6 Replies

In which I invite you to a party

Updated on December 9, 2010 by Janet Mullany

Some things on my mind today, mainly that I should be writing, but I’ve spent most of the day so far running around and buying xmas gift wrap (no presents as yet but it’s a start) and in a little while I’ll be going out to rake leaves, my last chance before the town picks them up tomorrow.

First, some news–Mr Bishop and the Actress is coming out early, in February 2011, and is available for preorder at bookdepository.com (free shipping worldwide). And if you’re on my mailing list you’ll see the cover early and get word of the next contest (a twinkle in my eye at the moment–sign up on my website).

A week today is a very special day, the birthday of Jane Austen, born December 16, 1775, which we’re celebrating all week. On the day itself a whole bunch of blogs, including the Riskies, will have a party, offering, naturally, valuable prizes. In fact our party begins on Monday and runs all week, but on The Day itself, next Thursday, we’re participating in a group blog party.

Masterminded by Maria Grazi (who designed the wonderful graphic) at My Jane Austen Book Club, the following gracious hostesses will be blogging about Austen on December 16:

Austenprose
Austenesque
Jane Austen World
November’s Autumn
Karen Wasylowski
Jane Austen Addict Blog
Lynn Shepherd
Reading, Writing, Working, Playing
Jane Austen Sequels
First Impressions
Regina Jeffers
Cindy Jones

The following prizes will be offered:

Signed Books:
Willoughby’s Return by Jane Odiwe
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd
Intimations of Austen by Jane Greensmith
Darcy’s Passions: Fitzwilliam Darcy’s Story by Regina Jeffers
First Impressions: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice by Alexa Adams
Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany
Bespelling Jane Austen by Janet Mullany & co.

Other prizes:
Austen bag offered by Karen Wasylowski
DVD Pride & Prejudice 2005 offered by Regina Jeffers
Package of Bingley’s Tea (flavor “Marianne’s Wild Abandon” ) offered by Cindy Jones
DVD Jane Austen in Manhattan offered by Maria Grazia
3 issues of Jane Austen Regency World offered by Maria Grazia

I’ll link back to this post on The Day so you know who to visit. You don’t have to buy Miss Austen a present, you don’t have to dress up–just plan to have some blogging fun!

In the meantime, let’s talk about our holiday preparations–how are they going or are you pretending it’s just not going to happen?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged blog tour, Jane Austen | 9 Replies

Pull up a Chair, Let’s talk!

Updated on December 8, 2010 by carolyn

Way back when, I had a job where there was, quite literally, nothing to do for weeks at a stretch. I shared an office with another woman, Joyse, who I still keep in touch with. Joyse and I sometimes spent our afternoons going to the movies or, one of my favorite pastimes, heading out to Jackson Square (this job was located in San Francisco) to hit the antique stores. I didn’t have the money to buy anything — these were very high end stores for the most part.

I’d gotten into antiquing even farther back in time when I was in a position to replace the furniture that came with my Rent Controlled furnished Berkeley apartment. Or so I thought. I discovered that new furniture was 1) most pretty ugly 2) Not very well made and 3) WAY too expensive given 1 and 2. There were antique stores less than a mile from my apartment, including Lacey’s, which has to this day an amazing collection of period fabric and dresses which they would let you look at. I wish I’d been more of a sewing geek… At any rate, I noticed that antique furniture was 1) quite often lovely 2) solidly made and 3) well within my price range.

There was, in one of these antique stores, a Georgian highboy (refinished, someone had stripped off the paint, but probably that happened in the mid-to late 1800’s) that was stunning. To this day I wish I’d scraped together the money to buy it. At any rate, I got into the habit of going to antique stores looking for furniture I wouldn’t mind having in my apartment. And I found it, slowly. I also discovered there was magic in the words “What can you tell me about this piece.” The owners who actually knew something about antiques had interesting stories about the furniture.

I talked one woman into setting up a layaway on a Georgian oak secretary/butler’s desk. My desk stayed in her store while I paid $100 a month until I had the cash to pay the balance. Which I did. The shape of the desk there to the left is essentially this, but mine is the lighter color of oak, and does not have the carving which, to be honest, looks to very Victorian to me (and possibly mahogany rather than oak). The description says 1820 which would help explain all the overdone carving, and if I were forced, just based on this picture, I’d have said 1830’s. Mine has the cubby holes and drawers, but on mine, there are two columns on either side of the middle space that are actually vertical drawers that slide out if you know where to put your fingers. Just based on this picture, I’d guess the lower drawer’s hardware is not original. Original hardware is rare, of course.

With antique furniture, there is a smell that goes along with old wood. You can smell if something has been refinished, so it’s important to open the drawers and breathe in. Does the piece smell old? How were the drawers put together? Nails or mortice and tenon? Have interior boards been replaced? Can you smell turpentine or other chemicals? Do the pieces fit together or did someone marry two different pieces of furniture? The desk to the right shows the color mine is. It’s identified as 1790’s and that’s a date I’m comfortable with. This one has fancier legs — note the scroll shaping on the feet compared to the plainer feet of the darker one. The hardware looks more at home than the other piece, but you’d have to look inside the drawers to see if it’s original (did someone have to drill new holes for new hardware, eg) If you go here you can see additional pictures of the inside of this desk. Much finer and in keeping, in my opinion with what is a finer desk than the other. You can also see that on the hardware on the right of the middle drawer is broken – the lower bit is missing. That sort of thing happens to old furniture, by the way.

Here’s another one, from the 1770’s. This one looks like it has original hardware! It’s elm, by the way, More pictures of this desk here – including the documentary evidence of 1770 as a manufacture date. If you compare these two pieces with the dark one above, you can see why I think there’s something off about that first desk. This page of Georgian desks makes that first one even odder. That desk is Georgian in shape, sort of. Look back at the first desk — its appears to be taller than the actual Georgian pieces. To me, the shape is subtly off, and the carving is completely atypical. I’d want to see that first desk in person and talk to the dealer about where they found it and hear their explanation for why a Georgian piece is so Victorian in color and sensibility. Take a look at all the other Georgian pieces. There isn’t any carving on any of them. Not a one. The more I think about it, the more suspicious I am about that first desk. Again, you’d really have to see it in person to decide. Of course a desk can be atypical for the period in which it was made, but it’s off.

As you can see, I’ve geeked out on you, but that’s part of the point of the Riskies, right?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Antiques, Desks, Furniture | 9 Replies

Royal Wedding Mania

Updated on December 7, 2010 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

I have a terrible confession to make. I am Amanda, and I am an avid royal watcher. Yes, there it is, terrible but true. I think it all started when I was a preschooler, and got up in the middle of the night to sit on the couch with my mother and watch Princess Diana’s wedding. I insisted on wearing my ballet recital tiara and a bedsheet tied around my waist for a train for days after, and I guess I never totally got over it. The best Christmas gift I ever received came that year, when my aunt bought me a porcelain Diana doll complete with massive train (which I still have). I buy British tabloids whenever possible just to read about them. And the thought of a royal wedding coming up soon fills me with guilty glee, and I have a secret longing to go to London this spring just to sit on the sidewalk with thousands of other people and watch the procession go by. (See “Kate Middleton will be sixth Queen Katherine”)

Now you know my secret. So I thought we could take a brief look at some of those other Queen Katherines and their weddings (and a few Charlottes and Victorias as well…)

Catherine of Aragon married Prince Arthur of England on November 14, 1501 (having been already married by proxy in 1499!). This was a sort of affirmation for those upstart Tudors, landing a Spanish infanta for a bride, and they did it up big-time for the 15-year-old couple. The wedding was at St. Paul’s Cathedral, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury and witnessed by dozens of courtiers (and hundreds of commoners lined up on the procession route outside). The bride wore a white gown embroidered with silver thread, pearls, and diamonds, with her auburn hair loose to her knees and a Spanish lace veil. She was escorted up the aisle by her 10-year-old brother-in-law Henry. The celebrations went on for two weeks of jousting, balls, and masques, and then the couple (consumated or not? Who knows…) were packed off to damp Wales. Arthur died 6 months later. When Catherine went on to marry Henry, it was a quiet and private affair. In fact, all Henry’s weddings were quiet–some were even totally secret.

Catherine’s daughter Mary I married Philip of Spain in another lavish ceremony, this one at Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554. There were thousands of guests packed into the church to witness the ceremony, conducted by Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner. The cathedral was hung with gold and crimson cloth, and everyone was dressed in their most lavish fashions despite the rain outside. Philip wore white and gold; Mary wore a purple and gold gown, “rich tissue with a border and wide sleeves, embroidered upon purple satin, set with pearls.” An immense banquet followed at the Bishop’s palace. (Here is a reproduction of her gown, as well as the chair she used for the ceremony, both seen at Winchester Cathedral. I actually quite like that dress!):

Charles II married Catherine of Braganza three times. The first was by proxy in April 1662, followed on her arrival at Portsmouth by a secret Catholic ceremony and a public Protestant one, presided over by the Bishop of London on May 21. It was a cozy affair, with a few privileged courtiers to witness it. The bride wore a rose-pink gown sewn with blue love knots, which were then cut off and passed out as favors. She was deemed quite dowdy by the fancy Court ladies, but the groom wrote to his sister, “I think myself very happy, for I am confident our two humors will agree very well together.” This is a medal struck for the occasion of their marriage:

George III married Queen Charlotte only a few hours after her arrival in England, when she was bundled into a lavish white and gold Court gown and mounds of jewels and carted off to the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace for the wedding on September 8, 1761. Despite this abrupt beginning, the marriage was a harmonious one (despite the madness and all that). The same could not be said of their son, George, the Prince Regent.

His wedding to Caroline of Brunswick on April 8, 1795 was famous for the deep inebriation of the groom. Like his parents, the wedding was at the Chapel Royal. It was attended by dozens of snickering courtiers, presided over by the (presumably taken aback) Archbishop of Canterbury, and the bride wore a gown of silver tissue and lace with a train of ermine-lined velvet so heavy she could hardly walk. Somehow they managed to beget a child within the next few days, and that was the end of that.

That unfortunate child, Princess Charlotte, grew up to marry Prince Leopold on May 2, 1816 at Carlton House in front of 50 guests. Despite the small size of the wedding, it was a lavish one. The bride’s dress of silver lame on net embroidered with silver shells and flowers and trimmed with Brussels lace, was said to cost 10,000 pounds! It still exists today.

Princess Charlotte’s Wedding Page

Regency Weddings

Queen Victoria was really the one who started all the stuff we consider to be “wedding-y” today. White dresses, veils, flowers, bridesmaids, etc. She married Prince Albert at the Chapel Royal on a rainy February 10, 1840, with crowds of people lining the route to see the royal procession. She had 12 bridesmaids to carry her train, and a gown of white satin trimmed with lace, a lace veil held by a wreath of orange blossoms, satin slippers, and a sapphire brooch given to her by her groom. (the lace was said to have cost over 1000 pounds! The veil was later worn by her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice, and Queen Victoria was buried in it). The wedding breakfast was at Buckingham Palace, after which the couple dashed off to honeymoon at Windsor. The honeymoon must have been a great success, for Princess Vicky came along 9 months later! Her wedding to the Crown Prince of Germany was also hugely lavish…

And that’s only a tiny taste of royal weddings! What is your favorite historical wedding? Are you looking forward to the next royal wedding like I am??

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Royal weddings | 16 Replies

How the Regency is like Today

Updated on December 6, 2010 by Diane Gaston

The Arts Journal website (thanks, JA for this resource) led me to an article on Big Questions Online: A Not-So-Distant Mirror by Alan Jacobs, a professor of English at Wheaton College, who writes the Text Patterns blog.

The article is about how the 18th Century is similar to the 21st. His article is based on a social history of Georgian England, English Society in the Eighteenth Century by Roy Porter.

Because people often lump the Regency into issues relevant to the late Eighteenth Century, I thought this article was relevant to “our” time period. But, I warn you, my “social worker” self will be peeking out here.

Here are some of Jacobs’ (and Porters’) points:

1. The English in the 18th century were developing a social conscience, showing more concern for the poor and for children than their ancestors. Certainly through our modern times, we’ve developed more services for the poor–welfare, food stamps, unemployment, disability, etc. We’ve shown concern for children–education, head start, WIC, Child Protective Services, Foster Care, etc.
Of course, Jacobs quotes Porter as saying, “Tears for the exploited, the unfortunate and the afflicted flowed freely, but sympathy cost little, and was only occasionally translated into action.” I suppose we could make a case for this in our present society, too.

2. Child rearing practices were changing. Porter says, “Many ladies abandoned the wet nurse and experimented with breast-feeding; swaddling disappeared, partly in response to mothers’ new-found desire to fondle, dandle and dress their infants.” Our Regency mothers are more apt to breast feed than their mothers. From, say, the 1950s, when formula and scheduled bottle feeding was the norm, in more recent times mothers have turned back to breast feeding. Jacobs also notes that 18th century parents were more apt to turn away from physical punishment and to rely on “reasoning, coaxing and kindness” in disciplining their children. We in modern times have also turned away from physical punishment, relying on “consequences” and “time out.” Jacobs also notes that 18th century parents could tend to be over-protective and we can certainly relate that to parenting today where parents are involved in every aspects of their children’s lives.

3. Jacobs notes that ethical norms were loosening in the 18th century, much like today, and were more apt to be based on an individual’s own psychological make-up and what feels right and good to the individual. An 18th century version of the Me Generation!

I thought of other parallels, more attuned to the Regency, like, maybe:

1. An economic downturn and high unemployment? Certainly that was the experience in the Great Britain after the Napoleonic Wars. The populace complained about what the Parliament enacted to try to solve the problems (which did protect the wealthy landowners who tended to be themselves)

2. More relaxed fashions? Enter in the era of grecian fashions, empire waists for women, and elimination of brocades, lace, and a rainbow of colors for men. No more powdered hair or wigs. Of course, we have turned even more casual than the Regency. Remember when we used to dress up to ride in airplanes?

3. A long war? The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1803 to 1815.

Can you think of any other social or political parallels between today and the Regency?

Don’t forget to enter the Harlequin Historical Holiday Contest. Prizes are awarded every day and the Grand Prize is a Kindle. Go here for more information. This Thurday is my day! Come to Diane’s Blog on Thursday for a chance to win your choice of a signed copy of one of my backlist books and a $10 Amazon gift certificate.