Keep it Clean! Part 4: Gotta Brush those Pearly Whites

It’s always interesting to read the descriptions of beautiful women from past centuries and see how they might compare to today’s beauties. One of the common attributes often noted is their teeth: having white, even teeth was a definite attribute of especial attractiveness (Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, was often cited as beautiful despite her bad teeth, which caused her to assume a close-mouth smile. However, Napoleon himself seems to have done a better job of taking care of his teeth--see his toothbrush above!) Breath, too, was often cited, particularly when it was bad. So what did young women do to achieve these signs of beauty?

Dental science, like other medical science, was in its infancy in the 19th century. Even so, it had been understood since ancient times that keeping one’s mouth clean would help prevent tooth decay (though not why--the idea that tooth decay is caused by bacteria was not proposed until the 1890s). Two common methods for cleaning teeth were rubbing them with a damp rag dipped in salt and ashes, or using a cleaning stick, a twig (often of some aromatic wood) chewed at one end until it was fibery and brushlike, which would then be used to clean tooth surfaces (the other end was often sharpened to a toothpick-like point to remove matter from between teeth). Of course, not everyone bothered; the situation was exacerbated by the increasing availability and dropping cost of refined sugar in the 18th century…which is why white teeth and good breath were noteworthy.

The Chinese created the first bristled tooth-brush in the early 1600s using bamboo handles and pig bristles, and some of these made their way to Europe, where the design was modified to use softer horsehair. But the idea didn’t really take off until the 1780s, when an Englishman named William Addis, while serving a temporary jail term, created a toothbrush containing rows of bunches of pig bristles set in tiny holes drilled into the end of a bone handle—essentially the modern toothbrush (see above). After his release he began to sell his brushes, now made with horsehair, which caught on and became very popular. William died in 1808, leaving his thriving toothbrush business to his son (and by the way, the company is still in the toothbrush business 230 years later) By the 1840s the modern three-row brush had been invented, and toothbrushing became widespread.

Toothpaste has a more recent history. Ancient peoples including the Egyptians, Greek, and Romans used various compounds to clean the teeth: ingredients included iris root, chalk, ground oyster shells, or pulverized charcoal. As mentioned above, a combination of salt and ashes was sometimes used as a sort of polish to rub on teeth.

The first commercially sold preparations used for cleaning the teeth were 19th century in origin. I have several advertising supplements from La Belle Assemblee containing ads for such products as “Chevalier Ruspini’s Dentrifice” (“most salutary during the winter season, the effects of cold and damp air on the Teeth and Gums being repelled and counteracted by its balsamic and astringent qualities.”) and “Trotter’s Oriental Dentrifice or Asiatic Tooth Powder” (“Patronized and used by Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Clarence and Kent, and Gentlemen in the Navy and Army, who have found the good effects in long voyages.”) It sounds as though toothbrushes were dipped in the powder, rather than the powder being made into a paste with added water; from what I’ve been able to find, actual toothpaste didn’t supplant tooth powders until after the first world war.

Keep it Clean! Part 2: Soap

So our young lady in need of a good wash has her hip bath filled with warm water (and I’m still thinking about those poor maids having to carry it all up for her!) set before the fireplace in her room and surrounded by screens for privacy and to keep the drafts out. There’s probably a chair set nearby too, with a towel warming on it. Our hypothetical young lady steps in and sits down, knees drawn up, maybe scoops some water over her shoulders…and then what?

Well, she reaches for the soap, of course.

Although Castile soap from Spain had been imported into England since the 16th century, the London Soapers’ Company was established in the 1630s to try to give them some competition. After some setbacks in mid-century (the puritanical Roundheads evidently did not believe that cleanliness was next to godliness), by 1700 there were sixty-three soap factories in London making soap in various qualities: speckled was the best and most expensive, then came white, and finally the cheapest, gray. Purchasers bought soft soap by the firkin (a small bucket) and added their own perfume, if they liked; lavender was a favorite.

In 1789 a new soap appeared on the market when an apothecary named Andrew Pears created his transparent bars of hard soap (and yes, that’s the Pear’s Soap you still see on market shelves today). The tax on soap, which had been established in the early 1700s, rose over the decades to three shillings per pound in 1815…which, considering that soap cost about that, meant the tax on soap was 100%—not exactly an inducement to cleanliness!

Fortunately for the noses of London, the tax was cut in half in 1833 and abolished in 1853, which may or may not have had something to do with the growing interest in bathing for health.

So our young lady lathers up…and that includes her head. Shampoo as we know it didn’t exist, so regular old soap was used for hair washing as well. The problem was that it tended to be very harsh and strip away too much oil, leading to a head full of straw-like frizz…which is why 19th century beauty manuals always exhort young ladies to brush their hair one hundred strokes morning and night—in order to redistribute naturally occurring oil and cut down on the frizzies.

I was going to discuss shampoo today as well, but my research turned up such an interesting (and multi-national) story that it deserves its own entry. And so, stayed tuned till next week for "Keep it Clean Part 3: Dean Mahomet, Therapeutic Massage, and Champi."

P.S. Below are some ads for soap drawn from the February 1808 Advertising Supplement to La Belle Assemblee magazine. Short and snappy ads had obviously not yet been thought of!!

"The CELEBRATED VEGETABLE SOAP PASTE.
The Nobility, Gentry, and Public are respectfully informed, that J. DELACROIX has prepared the above valuable Soap Paste from a recipe of Mr. Profkosky, his friend, an eminent Chemist at Warsaw, who is the sole inventor and proprietor of this precious Composition, which has universally been approved of by persons of the first rank, inhabiting that bleak and frozen country, for softening, nourishing, and whitening the skin, and allowed to be a certain preventive against the cold air, chopping [I presume it means 'chapping'!] the face and hands.

This article cannot be offered at a more proper time than at the winter season, when a trial of two days will convince of its superior virtues, as well as superiority over any discovery of the kind ever presented to the public."

***

"TONQUIN BEAN SOAP,
For preserving and softening the Skin, possessing also the true Flavour of that much admired Perfume, from which this newly invented Article takes its name.

Prepared by, and sold at J.T. Rigge's Perfumery Warehouses, No.65, Cheapside and No.52, Park-street, Grosvenor-square: where may also be obtained his much-admired Royal Almond Compound, and celebrated Violet-scented Almond Soap. with a most extensive assortment of every fashionable and useful Preparation for the Skin. Warren's genuine Milk of Roses; Gowland's Lotion; Cream of Almonds; and Blake's celebrated Cream of Almond Soap."

***

"The skin preserved from Chopping &c. during the most intense Winter, by the emollient Properties of

MIDDLEWOOD'S ROYAL ABYSSINIAN FLOWER SOAP,

which is held in the highest repute throughout the Universe, for washing the Hands and Face beautifully clean, white, and smooth--preserving the delicate texture of the skin, particularly young Children, even if washed with hard water, and Gentlemen highly approve its efficacy in shaving.

When this celebrated Soap, which is the sole property and invention of J.W. Middlewood, Wholesale Perfumer, High-street, Whitechapel, London, was introduced to the Royal Family, they were graciously pleased to approve its agreeable properties, by honouring the proprietor with the appointment of Perfumer and Abyssinian Flower Soap Maker to the Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York, and the Duke of Cumberland, to whom, with the many illustrious Families, the Gentry, his Friends, and the Public in general, he feels deeply impressed with gratitude for their distinguished preference, and hopes, by unremitting attention to its fragrance, &c. to merit a continuance of their protection.

The Proprietor feels it his duty to caution the public against counterfeits, which are now circulating--one under the assumed title of Genuine--another the Improved Abyssinian Soap; indeed the word improved is become the denomination for deception, and which can only be effectually guarded against by desiring servants or carriers to be careful to ask for Middlewood's Soap, and to observe his name, with the Duke and Duchess of York's Arms, &c. are on the outside wrapper. Price 1s. the square, or 10s. the dozen."

Keep it Clean! Part 1

I may love to talk about the 19th century and sometimes dream a little about stepping into a time machine and visiting it, but there are a few facets of life in which I am firmly 21st century…and one of those is taking a nice hot shower every morning. How did our 19th century counterparts keep clean?

By the early 19th century, hundreds of years of aversion to getting wet had given way to the theory that bathing might actually be good for you. The health benefits of visiting places like Bath, where the Romans had built extensive public baths to take advantage of the natural hot mineral springs, were accepted and those who could afford it flocked to bathe in the public and private baths there. Sea-bathing also became a fashionable “cure” for everything from skin complaints to digestive problems. Eventually, keeping up the habit at home gradually caught on as cleanliness was accepted as a desirable—and healthful—quality.

If you were a young lady of fashion, how would you keep clean?

Unless your home had been recently built, it was unlikely it that it had a bathroom, at least in the way we define that word. Instead, the usual method of bathing was in a portable tub (often a hip bath, which we discussed here) set up by the fireplace in your bedroom on an oilcloth sheet in case of splashover and surrounded by screens to block drafts and provide privacy. Hardworking servants had to tote cans of hot water up from the kitchen to fill your bath for you. But taking a bath wasn't your only option; by this time a shower apparatus had been invented as well, though they were generally used with cold water which was poured into the top and released when the bather pulled a cord or chain to open the sluice. According to the wife of prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, her husband had great moral courage but no physical courage, so whenever he took a cold shower-bath (as they were called), she always had to come and pull the chain for him!

In between baths, you could have a sponge-bath in your room; a standard piece of bedroom furniture was the washstand, which held a broad, deep basin which your maid would fill with warm water. It was easy to wash the upper body this way, and certainly much easier than dealing with the hip bath.

By mid-century more houses were being built with bathrooms located near the bedrooms; earlier bathrooms had often been built on the ground floor, with the bathtub doubling as a clothes-washing vessel. Advances in plumbing engineering took a while to catch up, though, and there was often insufficient pressure to get water to those upper floors…which meant those maids had to continue toting water, poor things!

Next week, in Part 2: soap and shampoo