Ackermann’s Fashion Plates January 1810

The first fashion plates of the year 1810 feature an evening dress and a carriage or promenade dress. The latter is lined with “the spotted American squirrel skin,” which seems an unusual, and likely expensive, choice, if the squirrel in question is the spotted ground squirrel, one of the smallest squirrels found in North America, and one native only to Mexico and the western half of the continent. Arbiter Elegantarium suggests an alternative of leopard skin—which do you think would be more expensive?

From Ackermann’s Repository, January 1810, 1.3, pages 45-47.

This month’s fabric samples include a lovely ruby damask for furniture, and two fabrics for clothing. Unfortunately, the flowers in sample 3, which the copy reports as being “orange,” appear to have faded.

Anyone know what “mole velvet” is? After receiving a copy of Fairchild’s Dictionary of Textiles for my birthday last month, I thought I’d be able to define any fabric term for you, but unfortunately there’s no listing for “mole” or for “velvet, mole” in the 7th edition of Fairchild’s…