Let’s
see what interesting shreds of personal and social history we can read about,
courtesy this week of the Monthly Compendium of Literary, Fashionable, and
Domestic Advertisements from the August 1810 edition of La Belle Assemblée...
WIND-UP
SHOWER BATHS
JOHN
FELL, sole inventor of the PORTABLE WIND-UP SHOWER BATHS, respectfully informs
the Public that he has ready for Sale, a number of the above universally
approved Machines, at his Warehouse, 161, High Holborn, near Broad-street. This
invention has received, as it is undoubtedly entitled to, unlimited Patronage.
There is a Moveable Cylinder, so admirably contrived as to furnish the utmost
facility in filling, and afterwards by gradually elevating it, to produce a shock
in such proportion as the feelings, age, or habits of Bathers may require. It
is, moreover, made to take to pieces, and pack up most conveniently.—Price from
Five to Seven Guineas.—N.B. J.F. is Inventor and Vender of the Corking Machines
so much in present use.
Showers
weren’t so much used for getting clean as they were for a sort of
do-it-yourself health treatment, rather
like sea-bathing was done for curative, not recreational, purposes. Interestingly,
when I went to look for more information on Mr. Fell, I found mention in 1887 of
a John Fell and Co., suppliers of bath and lavatory valves and beer machines and bar fittings—which covers both his shower
baths and the Corking Machines mentioned in the ad.
FORTU-NATE
CLUBS
The
Clubs met with great success in the last Lottery at HORNSBY and Co.’s,
Cornhill; part of the 20,000 l. sold by them, was divided among Thirteen jolly
Watermen of St. Catherine’s; besides Shares in the Borough, and many other
places in the Metropolis; and also at Liverpool, Bath, Chester, Taunton, Leith,
and Deal—Many Clubs are now forming from Gravesend to Richmond, and every other
place in the Kingdom; and additional £20,000 in the present Lottery, to be
drawn October the 19th, creates a strong desire of adventuring.
Lotteries
were quite the thing at this time, as Regina once posted about here...but I
love the “Thirteen Jolly Watermen of St. Catherine’s” touch in this particular
ad.
Entertainment,
Rational,
Pleasing, and useful.
No.
14, Tavistock-street, Covent Garden.
THE
CIRCULATING LIBRARY
Greatly Enlarged.
The
Public are respectfully informed, that valuable and expensive Works, in every
class of Literature, are daily added to this Library; which now consists of
sixty thousand Volumes of modern Publications, really valuable, useful, and entertaining.
Catalogues
and Cards of the terms may be had on application at the Library.
Books
were expensive to purchase outright; a typical three-volume novel could run
upward of several guineas for a heavily illustrated tome. Enter the
subscription library, where for a fee books could be borrowed before the free public
library became a fixture of philanthropic giving later in the century. Even small towns and villages could
often boast of at least one small one, and London
and other cities were rife with them, and advertised their wares frequently...as we can see here.
1 comment:
An episode of Sanditon features a shower bath! Here are some period images of shower baths in a post by The Two Nerdy History Girls. https://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2015/06/taking-shower-in-1800s.html
The Duke of Wellington enjoyed an invigorating shower bath and yikes... here's an account of a shower bath NOT being helpful "“Lady Worcester died after a week’s illness of inflammation brought on by going into a cold bath after dancing at the ball at Carlton House."
http://numberonelondon.net/2018/05/the-wellington-connection-the-marchioness-of-worcester/
The duke seems to have popularized it since I see other names pop up in my search.
About the subscription library- while I love the public library, the subscription library has a to-die-for atmosphere and plenty of old books to drool over. (Plus modern books, DVDs, a children's library and great programs.)
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