Grymm

The duelling scene towards the end of Dangerous Liaisons in all it's ragged, ameturish, nastyness is the one that made me want to take up smallsword. For sheer fun the fight in the pub in Musketeers with them gathering food, flicking chickens to (The Late) Roy Kinnear.

Cheers chap =o) comes from not having much of a life outside historical stuff, started as a hobby and has ended up as my job. Mr Swashbuckler; For muddyevil straw hatness have a look at the lovely Karen Larsdatters site http://www.larsdatte...m/strawhats.htm Many many luvverly pictures, in fact it's always worth bookmarking her site, makes for a good 'jumping off' point for image searches and 'taint just mud eater stuff either, Karen also has started putting together an 18thC version too. Muddyevil http://www.larsdatter.com/index.html 18thC http://larsdatter.com/18c/index.html I I I I I I say boy!

Keep looking chap they're out there =o) Try looking in 'books of hours' they do turn up.

Sewn straw plait rather than woven straw. Like in this titfer In England it was a big industry in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Bedfordshire from the 16thC right through to the end of the 19thC. Women and girls were paid to strip and split the straw then plait it into long lengths then soaked and sewn in a spiral into hats bonnets and the like. Italy produced the finest straw, called leghorn, for those low crowned hats worn by women in the 18thC by pauper or princess alike. By the late 17thC the term straw could also mean various grasses, paper and occassionally wood chip plaited or woven into hats like straw can.

The roundhats issued to Marlboroughs troops had white lace (or silver for the orificers) on them, certainly a British military thang right through the long 18thC for infantry and dragoons. So possible for an occasional pirate to have his ex military hat. The Dropshorts(artillery) have yellow for other ranks and gold for the Wodneys. Certainly by the 1740s British RN leiutenants are allowed silver lace and gold for higher ranks, but that's post GAoP as are the obvious/contrasting cocking laces, handy place to stow a claypipe though. Tricorns (Cocked or geometricly cocked hats pre 19thC) are about in the very late 17th early 18thC but they tended to be for the more well off gentry and officers and they were (sweeping generalisation here) bigger & looser, not as 'tight' as the later ones. The small ones, samosa stylee, worn by the men do, to me at least, point towards the mid century+. Not saying they aren't about, just not very common compared to roundhats and knitted caps. The one 18thC 'feathered' hat I got to handle in the MoL collection had ostrich feathers split in half down the quill and stitched behind the 'leaves' of the hat. Shoes if I'm being picky are too pointy, more rounded for a working shoe or square toed for the posh guys like in the Rogers painting. But then this is history not maths so in history terms; 2+2? Well, current evidence points to it equalling 4, however research is, and hopefully always will be ongoing =o)

For some f*%£ing gorgeous period correct glassware these chaps are the bee's knees, wasp's nipples, grasshoppers privates, in fact name an erogenous zone and and insect and they are it.......well I think so =o) http://www.georgianglassmakers.co.uk/gallerybalusters.htm Luckily they were having a sale at TORM so I got me some of their bootiful handblown/made drinking glasses without having to rent The Mem Sahib to passing sailors. For period pewter I go to AE Williams in Birmingham direct, I was luck enough to have a mooch round their mould store and they have quite a few that date back to the 17th & 18thC so what comes out is pretty much spot on apart from the alloy itself. Reiver Trading also sell Williams stuff http://www.reivertrading.co.uk/index.html

There I was stood on this burning deck and........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gra3KgJZ5K4&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Now why the perkinelmer has it done that, I did nowt different, If I could I be thumping it with a gurt big hammer by now, bummocks!

A selection of Rowley for your perusal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyQxQjYuif0&feature=endscreen&NR=1 But I can only post one at a time and the stupid bloody software doesn't let me just leave it as a URL link

I always wanted to see Rowley Birkin QC rock up in PoTC as a Hanging Judge and mebbe even Sparrows Granddad Depp was a big fan of The Fast Show and even did a cameos on a couple of shows, pretty sure he knicked a bit of Rowley for Capt'n Jack One of my fav Rowley sketches Of course I was ver ver drunk

Sorry, missed this'un 'til now Looks like a cooks case of knives, I have summat very similar looking sets for my Henrican and Georgian cooks outfits, but given the subject it could also be steels, stones and or paddle strops for finishing/touching up razors knives and the like.

They do make a bullet hard tarred hat a tad more comfy to wear and, mebbe not period but, they protect against the chemical burns you get if the tar's not cured proper. I got bitumen on me whilst painting water tanks many years back and it tanned, dried and shrunk my skin on my face and hands very rapidly so it split red raw when I moved.

To me it's the hats, shoes and the 'syrup' that look wrong for pre 1720 Trousers are okay from about 1540, if not earlier, see this chap from The Embarkation at Dover painted 1540's Canvas trews, short blue jacket, knitted hat, bog standard (English) sailor kit (With minor variations) right up to Nelson. Now where's that other early one with the sailors wearing flares and hooded tops.......... Rogers in civvies with family

Reasonable repros by'ere http://www.periodglasses.com/order%20form.html Styles 2,4 & 5, all need thread loops to hold them on if you need them for general wear rather than peering sagely at books =o) Trevor is a nice chap and knows his stuff, he also has a stock of original frames for reglazing mostly 19thC and early 20thC but the occasional 18thC pair as well. Give him a call but remember the +4(east coast)-+8(west coast)hr time differences if phoning from Stateside.

It really doesn't want to make antiquespecs' a link, tried 3 times to fix it so here goes again http://www.antiquespectacles.com/

Yeah, serves me right for believing one set of blurb and not double checking. I've been doing a bit more swotting up on period specs and the sliding arm is v late 18thC and the oval lenses put them into the 19thC....bugger! More sites more info http://www.college-optometrists.org/ go to knowledge centre then musEYEum in the drop down. http://​www.antiquespectacles.com/

Slipware and stoneware is what I tend to use for late 17th-early 18thC Mostly from these guys http://www.trinitycourtpotteries.co.uk/trintiycourt_home.htm or http://www.hudsonclaypotter.co.uk/ Both have been known to do commissions, and the websites show a teeny amount of what they can and do produce. Best speak to them.

Where did you get you silver lace from?

Lovely job and you lined it, brilliant!

Interlinings, especially at CF, and batting for the pleaty bits make a big difference in how a coat hangs, a wee bit of padding in the slight hollow 'tween shoulder and pecs gives a nice period shape too.

Snoopy cussed them out good, it's lucky he's using signs there coz it would've been X(R?) rated, also he does a version of 'The Cuckolds Horns' in that scene (1min 18) Erect wiggling fingers above ears. If he'd been in France f'real the driver behind would've shoved a baguette where the sun don't shine =o)

The Lady from Dawnmist has been busy over the summer banging out a good range of GAoP claypipes Things of beauty =o) http://www.dawnmist.demon.co.uk/pipesale.htm She's doing colours other than white too Like these red clays similar to those found at Port Royal There are more at the site I pasted up at the top, I do own a couple of this Ladies pipes but I'm not on commission just thought them worth sharing.

Chapter of gestures from Rabalais GARGANTUA AND HIS SON PANTAGRUEL Book 2 ch19 http://www.gutenberg...0/1200-h/p2.htm Some sound obscene but are never 'translated'. Chapter 2.XIX.—How Panurge put to a nonplus the Englishman that argued by signs. Everybody then taking heed, and hearkening with great silence, the Englishman lift up on high into the air his two hands severally, clunching in all the tops of his fingers together, after the manner which, a la Chinonnese, they call the hen's arse, and struck the one hand on the other by the nails four several times. Then he, opening them, struck the one with the flat of the other till it yielded a clashing noise, and that only once. Again, in joining them as before, he struck twice, and afterwards four times in opening them. Then did he lay them joined, and extended the one towards the other, as if he had been devoutly to send up his prayers unto God. Panurge suddenly lifted up in the air his right hand, and put the thumb thereof into the nostril of the same side, holding his four fingers straight out, and closed orderly in a parallel line to the point of his nose, shutting the left eye wholly, and making the other wink with a profound depression of the eyebrows and eyelids. Then lifted he up his left hand, with hard wringing and stretching forth his four fingers and elevating his thumb, which he held in a line directly correspondent to the situation of his right hand, with the distance of a cubit and a half between them. This done, in the same form he abased towards the ground about the one and the other hand. Lastly, he held them in the midst, as aiming right at the Englishman's nose. And if Mercury,—said the Englishman. There Panurge interrupted him, and said, You have spoken, Mask. Then made the Englishman this sign. His left hand all open he lifted up into the air, then instantly shut into his fist the four fingers thereof, and his thumb extended at length he placed upon the gristle of his nose. Presently after, he lifted up his right hand all open, and all open abased and bent it downwards, putting the thumb thereof in the very place where the little finger of the left hand did close in the fist, and the four right-hand fingers he softly moved in the air. Then contrarily he did with the right hand what he had done with the left, and with the left what he had done with the right. Panurge, being not a whit amazed at this, drew out into the air his trismegist codpiece with the left hand, and with his right drew forth a truncheon of a white ox-rib, and two pieces of wood of a like form, one of black ebony and the other of incarnation brasil, and put them betwixt the fingers of that hand in good symmetry; then, knocking them together, made such a noise as the lepers of Brittany use to do with their clappering clickets, yet better resounding and far more harmonious, and with his tongue contracted in his mouth did very merrily warble it, always looking fixedly upon the Englishman. The divines, physicians, and chirurgeons that were there thought that by this sign he would have inferred that the Englishman was a leper. The counsellors, lawyers, and decretalists conceived that by doing this he would have concluded some kind of mortal felicity to consist in leprosy, as the Lord maintained heretofore. The Englishman for all this was nothing daunted, but holding up his two hands in the air, kept them in such form that he closed the three master-fingers in his fist, and passing his thumbs through his indical or foremost and middle fingers, his auriculary or little fingers remained extended and stretched out, and so presented he them to Panurge. Then joined he them so that the right thumb touched the left, and the left little finger touched the right. Hereat Panurge, without speaking one word, lift up his hands and made this sign. He put the nail of the forefinger of his left hand to the nail of the thumb of the same, making in the middle of the distance as it were a buckle, and of his right hand shut up all the fingers into his fist, except the forefinger, which he often thrust in and out through the said two others of the left hand. Then stretched he out the forefinger and middle finger or medical of his right hand, holding them asunder as much as he could, and thrusting them towards Thaumast. Then did he put the thumb of his left hand upon the corner of his left eye, stretching out all his hand like the wing of a bird or the fin of a fish, and moving it very daintily this way and that way, he did as much with his right hand upon the corner of his right eye. Thaumast began then to wax somewhat pale, and to tremble, and made him this sign. With the middle finger of his right hand he struck against the muscle of the palm or pulp which is under the thumb. Then put he the forefinger of the right hand in the like buckle of the left, but he put it under, and not over, as Panurge did. Then Panurge knocked one hand against another, and blowed in his palm, and put again the forefinger of his right hand into the overture or mouth of the left, pulling it often in and out. Then held he out his chin, most intentively looking upon Thaumast. The people there, which understood nothing in the other signs, knew very well that therein he demanded, without speaking a word to Thaumast, What do you mean by that? In effect, Thaumast then began to sweat great drops, and seemed to all the spectators a man strangely ravished in high contemplation. Then he bethought himself, and put all the nails of his left hand against those of his right, opening his fingers as if they had been semicircles, and with this sign lift up his hands as high as he could. Whereupon Panurge presently put the thumb of his right hand under his jaws, and the little finger thereof in the mouth of the left hand, and in this posture made his teeth to sound very melodiously, the upper against the lower. With this Thaumast, with great toil and vexation of spirit, rose up, but in rising let a great baker's fart, for the bran came after, and pissing withal very strong vinegar, stunk like all the devils in hell. The company began to stop their noses; for he had conskited himself with mere anguish and perplexity. Then lifted he up his right hand, clunching it in such sort that he brought the ends of all his fingers to meet together, and his left hand he laid flat upon his breast. Whereat Panurge drew out his long codpiece with his tuff, and stretched it forth a cubit and a half, holding it in the air with his right hand, and with his left took out his orange, and, casting it up into the air seven times, at the eighth he hid it in the fist of his right hand, holding it steadily up on high, and then began to shake his fair codpiece, showing it to Thaumast. After that, Thaumast began to puff up his two cheeks like a player on a bagpipe, and blew as if he had been to puff up a pig's bladder. Whereupon Panurge put one finger of his left hand in his nockandrow, by some called St. Patrick's hole, and with his mouth sucked in the air, in such a manner as when one eats oysters in the shell, or when we sup up our broth. This done, he opened his mouth somewhat, and struck his right hand flat upon it, making therewith a great and a deep sound, as if it came from the superficies of the midriff through the trachiartery or pipe of the lungs, and this he did for sixteen times; but Thaumast did always keep blowing like a goose. Then Panurge put the forefinger of his right hand into his mouth, pressing it very hard to the muscles thereof; then he drew it out, and withal made a great noise, as when little boys shoot pellets out of the pot-cannons made of the hollow sticks of the branch of an alder-tree, and he did it nine times. Then Thaumast cried out, Ha, my masters, a great secret! With this he put in his hand up to the elbow, then drew out a dagger that he had, holding it by the point downwards. Whereat Panurge took his long codpiece, and shook it as hard as he could against his thighs; then put his two hands entwined in manner of a comb upon his head, laying out his tongue as far as he was able, and turning his eyes in his head like a goat that is ready to die. Ha, I understand, said Thaumast, but what? making such a sign that he put the haft of his dagger against his breast, and upon the point thereof the flat of his hand, turning in a little the ends of his fingers. Whereat Panurge held down his head on the left side, and put his middle finger into his right ear, holding up his thumb bolt upright. Then he crossed his two arms upon his breast and coughed five times, and at the fifth time he struck his right foot against the ground. Then he lift up his left arm, and closing all his fingers into his fist, held his thumb against his forehead, striking with his right hand six times against his breast. But Thaumast, as not content therewith, put the thumb of his left hand upon the top of his nose, shutting the rest of his said hand, whereupon Panurge set his two master-fingers upon each side of his mouth, drawing it as much as he was able, and widening it so that he showed all his teeth, and with his two thumbs plucked down his two eyelids very low, making therewith a very ill-favoured countenance, as it seemed to the company. Can you tell I'm avoiding doing proper work by looking this stuff up........ 'S far more interesting than George III household diet lists at Kew.

Gobbing or spitting towards someone still is pretty offensive to most cultures.