footman's livery uniform

Summary

Footman's livery. Coat - Made from a dark blue cloth. Front edge curved out over chest fastening with hook and eye, slit pocket inside left front. Six brass buttons with crest of rampant lion on right edge, braid imitating buttonholes on left. Low standing collar of yellow cloth. Centre sections extending to form centre back skirt, open at centre below waist. Side sections padded and lined black cotton satin. Long sleeves with turned-back cuffs of ywllow cloth. Edges outlined wool braid with uncut pile with geometric pattern in blue and yellow. Collar and cuffs trimmed smaller button. Breeches - Made from yellow wool plush, partly lined twilled cotton. Straight waistband lacing at CB over gusset. Fastening at CF with three plain buttons under flap the whole width of front fastening with four buttons on waistband. Slit pocket each side of fastening under flap. Long narrow pocket in right front waistband. Buttons for braces at side front and CB. Legs fastening at outer knee with three brass buttons and kneeband with small brass buckle. Waistcoat - Made from yellow cloth, unbleached linen back, lined with cream twilled cotton. High neck with low standing collar. Fastening with five brass buttons. Pocket shaped flap each side of waist.

Display Label

Distinctive livery was a feature of male servant's dress in aristocratic households for two centuires from the Restoration of Charles ll in 1660. This livery outift with its bold yellow colouring for the breeches and waistcoat, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century and still shows features of eighteenth century dress including the style of the coat, and the breeches. This type of retrospective styling was also used for court dress, reinforcing the timeless and traditional feel, and the difference from changing contemporary fashions. With household uniforms, this distinctive garb also served to distinguish the servant clearly from his master, as well as ensuring that such employees felt noticeably subserviant. Only male servants wore such uniforms, although some advocated its introduction for female staff. In 1725, Daniel Defoe wrote a broadsheet urging the adoption of uniforms for women servants, professing that he had mistakenly kissed a chamber maid, believing her to be one of his friend's guests! It was not until the later nineteenth century that female house servants were usually dressed in similar cotton print dresses with white bibbed cotton aprons and caps.