Fine Feathers, Fine Birds

 Nicola here!

I’ve just returned from an amazing trip to Africa. Amongst the huge variety of wildlife we saw were these iconic birds – ostriches. I knew that in the Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth century ostrich feathers were highly prized as fashion items but I had no idea that the demand had been so high that the ostrich almost went the way of the dodo and was hunted to near-extinction. These days most the wild ostriches in South West Africa are descended from domestic stock that were farmed to meet the huge demand. So today I thought I would blog about the illustrious ostrich in history!

The ostrich puzzled early naturalists so much that they gave it the name “struthio camelus”, the
“sparrow camel”. Long before ostrich feathers became a fashion item the birds were figures of fascination, represented in paintings from Ancient Egypt and the Roman world. Their eggs were used as water containers.

 As early as the 16^th century the “estridge” was a type of felt hat made of the soft down of ostrich feathers and in the 17^th century it was men who primarily wore ostrich feathers in their hats and it was a staple item for the dashing cavalier of the English Civil War! Even the military headdresses of the British Army introduced feather bonnets in 1763, entwining ostrich feathers into a cage to produce the height.

By the later 18^th century wearing the ostrich feather was primarily a female fashion and it adorned everything from headdresses to furniture. Feathers were a tricky thing to wear; the height of the headdresses meant that they could not be worn in closed carriages and a room was set aside for ladies attending balls and assemblies in which they could affix their feathers. There was a genuine danger of huge feathers catching fire on chandeliers laden with candles. A number of caricatures of the Georgian and Regency period poke fun at the outrageous feather fashion and the dangers associated with it.

Feathers were everywhere. This ostentatious looking tester bed at Windsor castle dating from 1780 is topped by a dome of ostrich feathers. A similar concoction in Paris dating from 1775 is hung with silk and has ostrich plumes on the corners of the four posts!

Some of the earliest Egyptian and Chinese fans had been made from feathers and by the turn of the 19^th century the feather fan came back into fashion as an evening accessory. It’s an often- quoted fact that when the Titanic sank the value of the feathers lost in fans and hats was £20 000.

The town of Oudtshoorn in South Africa was know as the feather capital of the world for the huge fortunes its occupants made from the trade in ostrich feathers, So great was the demand that ounce for ounce the feathers were more precious than gold. In the early 20^th century these feather merchants were so rich that they build grand “feather palaces” in the town off the proceeds of their trade. A total of 100 000 tons of plumes were supplied to trim the hats and gowns of the fashion-conscious in 1913 alone. Feather auctions were held in cities such as London, Paris and New York every fortnight, with prices becoming ridiculously inflated. But finally the First World War put an end to such conspicuous consumption although ostrich feathers remained a recognised part of English court dress right up until 1939.

These days, ostrich feathers are farmed and can be harvested every 8 months with no harm to the birds but the ostrich feather is no longer either the fashion accessory or the status symbol it was. What do you think of feathers in fashion? Smart or tacky, eccentric or stylish? Would you wear them?

 

Comments

[Georgie Wickham]

This site (http://madameguillotine.org.uk/2010/02/04/the-amazingly-eccentric-lady-salisbury/) suggests the Marchioness of Salisbury might have been a victim of Death by Ostrich Feathers.

[Anne Gracie]

Welcome home, Nicola. Love this blog -- love feathers, too They're fun, decorative and can be wonderfully silly and frivolous. I had a pink feather boa long before I became a romance writer -- apart from my band performances, it was used in many a school play as well. I also have an ostrich feather duster that works wonderfully well.

And apart from the feathers, didn't they use ostrich skin for gloves? Or fans? Can't remember.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks for this link, Georgie (though people using it need to knock off the bracket at the end or the link won't work.) I've always liked what I've known about Lady Salisbury, but I didn't know about her death by feathers. Terrible, but fascinating.

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you for the link, Georgie. I love the article and she sounded to be an extraordinary woman, but what a terrible accident. It does illustrate perfectly the dangers of huge feathers!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you, Anne! I'm so pleased you like the blog piece. I read that ostrich leather is the strongest leather there is so whether it was appropriate for gloves (or boots!) I'll have to check! As you know, I love your pink feather boa and you wear it very well - not everyone can carry off feathers with aplomb, I think!

[Andrea Penrose]

What a fun and fascinating blog, Nicola. And how wonderful that you were able to see those magnificent birds in the wild!

Plumes in Regency fashion are so fun to look at . . .but I can't say I'd want to wear them. All that worrying about bumping into ceilings or catching fire! I'm more of a simple kind of girl. Sweatpants and t-shirts would, alas, look rather silly crowned with feathers! But I can appreciate their beauty from afar!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thanks, Cara! Yes, they were fun to watch in the wild. They are very wary of humans (understandably when you think what happened to them!) so will run away very quickly if approached!

I love the caricatures of plumes in Regency fashion but I know I couldn't carry it off myself!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nicola--

What a fascinating look at something I've never much thought about! Poor ostriches, almost driven to extinction by fashionistas. I'm glad they've recovered. I once visited am ostrich farm in Curacao in the Caribbean, but they didn't talk about all this interesting history.

[Elinor Aspen]

I have worn Victorian-style hats with feathers (and one with a whole bird on top), and I have a brooch made from the tip of a peacock's tail feather (I have friends who keep peafowl). I have to carefully pack those accessories to keep the feathers from being damaged. I am just five feet tall, so I would look rather ridiculous with an ostrich plume on my head. Nowadays, tall feathered headdresses make me think of Las Vegas showgirls.

[Nicola Cornick]

That sounds an interesting visit, Mary Jo. I would like to visit an ostrich farm (now that I know they aren't killed off for their feathers any more!)

[Nicola Cornick]

A whole bird! I would have loved to see that, Elinor! How marvellous! I love peacock feathers too but don't really have the panache to wear them. Yes, I agree, ostrich plumes can have a rather cabaret reputation these days!

[Sue W. McCormick]

I like the look of feathers in pictures, but I wouldn't want the worry of caring for them as wearable items. I also don't like the idea of killing birds for their feathers. Farming them and harvesting feathers is one thing, killing them to get the feathers is quite another.

One of the authors I read frequently in my teen years was Gene Stratton Porter. She was a naturalist at heart. Her novels have a great deal to say about the waste of natural resources for fashion purposes — all of it negative. I am sure that her novels help set my purposes to care about natures.

[Sonya Heaney]

Well... peacock feathers are very pretty. And almost every day I can pick up perfect sulphur-crested cockatoo feathers from our garden - they just drop to the ground!

However, I think of the ostrich the way I think of the emu: evil and enormous! I'm frightened!

[Jenny]

Love looking at feathers Nicola, but not wearing them. Ostrich feather were used here in Australia in the hats of the light horse regiments. In fact they still are. I understand they tried emu feathers but they weren't as good as the ostrich, nor were they as showy and emus were also harder to farm. At the outbreak of WWI there were quite a number of ostrich farms here.

When I was a little girl my dad made me a jewel box using galah feathers (galahs have pink and grey feathers for non-Australians). One of my earliest memories. I remember the feel of those feathers.

[Nicola Cornick]

I haven't read Gene Streatton Porter, Sue, but that is very interesting about her books shaping your views on nature.

[Nicola Cornick]

The cockatoo feathers sound very pretty, Sonya.

Poor ostriches and emus! I don't find them evil but they are huge and I imagine they could so a fair bit of damage. The ones we met were scared of humans though!

[Nicola Cornick]

That's interesting about the ostrich feathers working better for the military hats, Jenny. I love finding out stuff like that. And what a fabulous memory of that jewel box!

[nancy]

How interesting. I had thought it was the use of the skin of the ostriches for shoes and gloves that led to their deaths though. never really investigated it.
I think I read somewhere that the fashion for beaver hats for men was very destructive of the beaver population.
I do not understand fashion fads nor fashion and have often wondered how some item becomes a fashion necessity. Nor why some seem impelled to go overboard.
Of course, when feathers had gone out of fashion among the ladies generally, Queen Charlotte insisted on their being worn at court.

[Nicola Cornick]

I think they used the whole bird, Nancy! I'd read that about beavers too - that the fashion for hats led to their dying out in England. These days it seems inconceivable but it happened to so many birds and animals, driven to extinction for fashion.