Rue de la Paix

This week's collage features a somewhat more sedate and romantic interpretation of Scarlett getting ready for the dreaded night of Ashley's birthday. If only it had really been this tranquil...

You little coward; you are going to that party by carol@themovies on Polyvore.com

Slap Slap Kiss, Tall Dark And Snarky, and Other Things

Just some (light) reading fare for a lovely Sunday evening. If you haven't checked it out already, the Gone with the Wind entry on tvtropes.org offers a pretty long and amusing list of the main tropes/themes from our favorite book and movie.  

Some of my favorites? 

• Manipulative Bastard: Scarlett and Rhett both revel in this. Naturally, it makes their relationship somewhat difficult. 
• Slap Slap Kiss: Rhett and Scarlett are all over this one.
• Unreliable Narrator: If you ignore Scarlett's obstinate insistence throughout the book that she loves Ashley and that Rhett doesn't love her, you can actually see the evidence to the contrary very clearly.

The full list is available here: 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoneWithTheWind

Inside Scarlett's Jewelry Box

“You can have all the cash you want for the house and all you want for your fal-lals.  And if you like jewelry, you can have it but I'm going to pick it out.  You have such execrable taste, my pet.”

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XLVIII

On the heels of what certainly was our most somber post to date, we decided that we needed a much more lighthearted topic today to balance things out. (And, yes, never let it be said that we don't know how to kick off the weekend in style here at How We Do Run On, posting an entry on prison camps on a Friday evening.)  

So on a much less grim note, today we bring you a discussion about the jewelry that could have found its way into Scarlett's jewelry box following her marriage to Rhett (provided, of course, that Mr. Butler didn't deem it execrable). As a handy visual aid to guide our discussion, I put together a collage that shows a possible glimpse into Scarlett's jewelry box, complete with all circa 1870 jewelry. You can scroll over any item to click on it and get more information, while below I've outlined some of the main trends in 1860-1870s  era jewelry (which, of course, are all visible in the collage). A complete list of all jewelry pieces with links is also available after the jump at the end.

Scarlett O'Hara's Jewelry Box by gwtwscrapbook on Polyvore.com

Bigger is Better.

With the rise of the voluminous hoop skirt in the early 1860s, jewelry started to become larger and heavier in order to stay in proportion with the broad silhouettes of the time. And as the 1860s turned into the 1870s, ladies’ dress of course only got more elaborate with bustles and fringe and flounces and pleats galore--meaning big jewelry continued to rule supreme. And big often went hand in hand with dramatic details, like clustered gems, intricately engraved metals and tassel and fringe accents (examples of all of which you can find in the collage above). 

Overall, the general motto of the time pretty much was "bigger is better." Massive jewelry was seen as not only conveying high-quality, but durability. So Scarlett’s love of gaudy jewelry, while perhaps on the outer boundaries of what we’d call tasteful today, was well aligned with her era’s standards.  Just forget that part where MM said that "It was an era that suited her, crude, garish, showy, full of over-dressed women, over-furnished houses, too many jewels..." Oh well. 

Color, Color and More Color.
Not only was jewelry of the period generally oversized, it was also awash in colors--so many  colors of gems, in fact, that I will gladly let Harold Clifford Smith, author of Jewellry (1908), take over and provide you with a full account:  

“The general tendency lay in the direction of the coloured stones popular in ancient times — the topaz, peridot, aquamarine, and amethyst; together with precious stones, such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, and with pearls. The latter were generally reserved only for the most sumptuous ornaments, but were occasionally used in conjunction with jewels of less value. The stones most commonly used were carnelians, moss-agates, turquoises, garnets, pink and yellow topazes, as well as coral, mingled together.”

--excerpted from Jewellery (1908)

In the collage, you'll find the following rainbow of gemstones on display: garnets, amethysts, peridots, pearls, emeralds, rubies, diamonds, citrines, and turquoise. 

Cameos Make a Cameo.

The quote excerpted above actually offers us another clue about period jewelry, with its mention of "stones popular in ancient times." For the Victorians were just wild about ancient cultures, especially those falling within in the Greco-Roman tradition and, more broadly, all things Italian (as we'll see with the Etruscan Revival). Out of this fascination came the revival of the cameo style. Cameos first returned to jewelry boxes in the late 18th century, thanks in part to Napoleon's interest in the Roman world, but would only become widespread starting in the mid-Victorian era. Cameos were made out of a variety of materials--shell, lava, coral, ivory, jet, onyx, and even gemstones--and, beginning in the 1860s, they became larger and more ornate (shocker). So in homage to this trendy style, we have a fancy pair of cameo earrings on display for you in the collage. 

Trust in the Etruscan Revival.

I wasn't lying when I said the Victorians were wild about ancient cultures. In fact, jewelry of the 1860-1870s featured too many 'revivals' of ancient and medieval jewelry styles to count. But one of the most popular was what was called the Etruscan or Archaeological Revival. As its name suggested, it got its inspiration from the archaeological digs in Italy which unearthed gold treasures from the ancient Etruscan civilization. The Etruscan style featured an intricate form of metal decoration called "granulation." A nice period description of the technique can be found in a 1877 account from Harper's New Monthly Magazine:

"[I]t is found that the effect is produced by minute globes of gold, each one perfectly round and smooth, soldered on the surface in exact lines, each globe touching the next... How were they made, and how were they soldered on in such absolutely true lines? The ablest gold-workers in America (and that is to say the ablest in the world) tell us they cannot explain it."

Although gold-workers might not be able to explain how their ancient predecessors created the technique, they were certainly able to reproduce it themselves--and reproduce it they did in droves. You can find several examples of the Etruscan Revival in our collage (the Etruscan pendant necklace, the love-knot brooch-pin, the fringed earrings, and Archaeological Revival bracelet). Additionally, close-up looks at the granulation technique can be seen here and here.   

Diamonds Become a Girl’s Best Friend.

Prior to 1871, only alluvian diamonds (diamonds discovered via the natural erosion of earth) were available. So it's no surprise that diamonds were extremely rare and expensive in the early Victorian era. But the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1866, followed by the opening of the Kimberley mine in 1871, started to change that, kicking off a 'diamond rush' of  fresh supplies of the highly coveted stone and making diamond jewelry the height of style. While still the purview of the wealthy, diamonds increased availability meant more diamonds in more jewelry, allowing it to become the new best friend of a whole era of well-to-do Victorian women, perhaps our dear Scarlett included. 

So that in a nutshell (or a jewelry box) concludes our look into Scarlett's jewelry. Wouldn't it be nice to borrow a piece or two from her collection?

The Rock Island Prison

"Ashley was not dead! He had been wounded and taken prisoner, and the records showed that he was at Rock Island, a prison camp in Illinois. In their first joy, they could think of nothing except that he was alive. But, when calmness began to return, they looked at one another and said 'Rock Island!' in the same voice they would have said 'In Hell!' For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there."

--Gone with the Wind, Chapter XVI

While the above-quoted paragraph may not be the absolute truth in what concerns the Illinois Rock Island Prison, it does sum up the general attitude towards prisoner-of-war camps at the time, on both sides. And it was not an unjustified attitude either. Due to poor organization, lack of resources and sometimes just vindictive measures, military prisons during the Civil War were, as one author calls them, true "portals to Hell." The Rock Island Prison, where Ashley Wilkes was held, was no exception, though the conditions there were by no means comparable to the ones at the Confederate Andersonville or the Union Elmira prisons.

Bell tower outside entrance at Rock Island Prison

The camp at Rock Island was built during the summer and autumn of 1863. The number of Confederate prisoners of war had steadily increased with the collapse of the prisoner exchange system and after the Union's victory at Gettysburg, and the existing facilities were proving insufficient, so new prisons had to be added. One of the Union's westernmost, the Rock Island Prison was located on a government-owned island in the Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois, to which it was connected by 3 bridges. The island, as you can see in the image below, was not big--only half a mile wide and about 3 miles long. From 1862, it also hosted an arsenal for the Union (hence its modern name--Arsenal Island).

Rock Island and its prison in 1864. Iowa to the right.

What did the prison look like?

Shakespeare in Gone with the Wind: A Place Called Philippi

You know when I said that the only things that get to be compared to Caesar in GWTW are Rhett Butler and the Confederacy? Well, turns out I was wrong. There is at least one other character that is mentioned somehow in connection with dead Roman emperors, and it's quite an unlikely one at that too. It's Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Chapter XLVII, when she opposes "her lamb" marrying Rhett:

"Without waiting for a reply, Mammy turned and left Scarlett and if she had said: 'Thou shalt see me at Philippi!' her tones would not have been more ominous."

The line quoted above is from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and one of the two direct references to Shakespeare's plays in Gone with the Wind that don't come from Rhett himself. (Or at least one of the two direct references that I am aware of.) The famous "Thou shalt see me at Philippi" line is uttered in Act 4, Scene 3 by Caesar's ghost. You all know the story: Brutus participates in the plot to kill Caesar who couldn't be bothered to beware the damn Ides of March. Caesar dramatically shouts "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!" and then promptly follows his own advice and falls dead. Later on, he returns as a ghost to tell Brutus that they will meet again, at Philippi. Very appropriate and very ominous, since it is at Philippi that Brutus will lose the battle against Octavian and Mark Antony--and his life.

So it's with a face speaking of great misfortunes to come that Mammy accepts Scarlett's decision to marry a third time. Now, we know she changed her mind on that, like she changed her mind on Captain Butler being a gentleman, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this. For most of the Butler marriage, she must have considered him to be a good husband. But what about when things started to seriously deteriorate, after the mill incident? Rhett is clearly not without his share of blame, but do you think Mammy saw it that way?

Poster of the Week

We're switching things up this week, changing both languages and continents, to bring you this week's poster--a 1970 print from Japan, measuring in at 20 x 28 1/2. 

And, yes, it looks like the trend of changing colors on Scarlett's barbeque dress continues unabated, as we get violet accents in place of green this time around, to follow Scarlett's red sprigged dress from last week. 

Image from moviegoods.com. Poster information cited from Herb Bridges' "Frankly My Dear..." 

Paint Your Family in Ultramarine and Carmine

So I guess I'm on a roll lately of finding little anecdotes that remind me of Gone with the Wind in dusty, old very fascinating books. But sometimes things just seem to pop out  and shout, "Is that you, Scarlett O'Hara?". As a result, I have another small morsel to share that reminded me of our favorite green-eyed heroine. 

It comes to you from an article titled The Use and Abuse of Colors in Dress, written by one Mrs. Merrifield in the August 1861 edition of Peterson's Magazine. We'll likely return to this article in greater depth at some point, as its writer, dear Mrs. Merrifield, goes on a pretty entertaining Mrs. Merriwether-style lecture about the vulgarity of certain colors and the general lack of sartorial taste demonstrated by ladies of the period. But for now, I must apologize for the short post and instead just leave you with a little excerpt from Mrs. Merriwether Merrifield that made me think of Scarlett in "interior decorating mode" for the lavish Butler Mansion:

"There is one class of persons, possessed of more money than taste, who estimate colors by their cost only, and will purchase the most expensive merely because they are expensive and fashionable. Of this class was a certain lady, of whom it is related that, in reply to Sir Joshua Reynold's inquiry as to what color the dress of herself and husband, who were then sitting, should be painted, asked which were the most expensive colors? 'Carmine and ultramarine,' replied the artist. 'Then,' rejoined the lady, 'paint me in ultramarine and my husband in carmine!'"  

--Excerpted from Peterson's Magazine, August 1861

While Scarlett wouldn't have been able to procure the services of the long-deceased Sir Joshua Reynold, an 18th century English painter, I'm sure she'd no doubt appreciate her wealthy predecessor's extravagant taste in color selection.  Oh, what I wouldn't give to see a painting of the Butlers decked out in ultramarine and carmine garments!

Update: Oh joy, Scarlett seems to come close to that color already. Now, if only someone would photoshop a Clark Gable dressed in carmine in that painting...