AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
November, 1912 
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The old-time bandboxes were various and gorgeous in design, pattern and color and 
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an important adjunct to the wardrobe of yesterday 
Bandboxes of Olden Days 
By Harriet Gillespie 
T is a pity that the gentle fashion of carry- 
ing the pictorial bandbox of Colonial days 
has, along with much else of fact and fancy, 
passed away, until, to-day, it is only in some 
great museum or the treasured collection of 
an antiquary that these quaint olden time 
receptacles are to be found. In all the domain of by-gone 
relics, the bandbox possesses a charm peculiarly its own, a 
charm quite apart from the fascination peculiar to that of 
old china or of antique furniture, because it brings with it 
from the dim and misty past such intimate suggestions of 
the character and personality of the owner. Like an old 
silken gown, resurrected from some long forgotten chest, 
it radiates a sentient vitality that recreates for one a sense 
of the atmosphere of the past as few other such things can 
do. 
But happily, though it has long since passed from the 
realm of latter day customs, many beautiful specimens still 
remain intact in collections to gladden the heart of the art 
lover and to furnish a golden key to the sartorial fancies of 
Colonial maids and mat- 
rons. One of the most ex- 
tensive of these collections 
is that owned by Mr. Alex- 
ander W. Drake of New 
York, comprising some 300 
boxes, from which the illus- 
trations accompanying this 
article are taken. 
The importance of the 
bandbox as an adjunct to 
the feminine wardrobe of 
the times contemporary to 
its vogue can scarcely be 
over-estimated, since econo- 
my of space by fair travel- 
ers on pillion or stage 
coach was a matter of stern 
necessity, so  bandboxes, 
many and various, filled the 
place of the modern ward- 
robe trunk. 
It was in the be-flowered 
Two bandboxes in the collection of 
Mr, A. W. Drake 
bandbox that the belle of 1830 carried her calash, musk- 
melon hood or poke bonnet, a striking contrast to the smart 
English hatbox which the girl of to-day includes in her lug- 
gage. Within the kindly enclosure of other boxes, ker- 
chiefs, gowns and stays were packed, for the largest of them 
according to an expert, were the size of a bushel basket. 
None of the writers on things Colonial have done more 
than touched upon the bandboxes of the Eighteenth cen- 
tury. The chroniclers of old time customs and costumes, 
make but brief mention of their use and few reproductions 
of photographs of them have been published. 
The author of an entertaining volume “The Heritage of 
Dress” says of bandboxes: ‘‘We may pause to recall a sim- 
ple article which is known as a bandbox which has been 
diverted from its original purpose of holding bands and is 
now commonly used as a receptacle for hats. Though not 
itself a part of dress, the bandbox furnished an interesting 
instance of adaptation to circumstances. It was well suited 
to contain articles of dress other than those for which it was 
primarily intended and hence it has survived in the strug- 
gle for existence.” Thus 
one may emphasize the fact 
that primarily bandboxes 
were the more or less 
ornate receivers of the 
starched ruffles and rich 
textile bands of gay cav- 
aliers but which receptacles 
for finery, women later 
monopolized as suiting 
more particularly the de- 
mands of the feminine 
wardrobe. 
And now, while neither 
the poke bonnet nor the 
calash or any other of the 
dainty “‘fal-lals”’ of olden 
beaux and belles are likely 
to return to their former 
mode and favor, their im- 
print on the fashions of the 
day remains in the captivat- 
ing old-fashioned bandbox 
Old land-marks have been immortal- 
ized by the bandbox 
, re 
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