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| The "Lord and Lady Clapham" Dolls, 1690-1700 This and all related images from The Victoria & Albert Museum |
This coat is part of a whole suite of items which were made for one of a pair of famous dolls. The doll, known as Lord Clapham, is thought to have belonged to the Cockerell family, descendants of the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)—the first man in Britain to record the presence of our Mr. Punch. The daughter of Mr. Pepys's nephew John Jackson (the son of his sister Pauline) married a Cockerell, who had a family home in Clapham, in south London.
The doll known as “Lord Clapham” shows us a range of examples of both formal and informal dress for a gentleman of the 1690s. His formal outfit includes a coat, waistcoat and breeches, while his informal dress is made up of a nightgown and accessories such as the stockings. Other accessories include a stock (a form of stiff, close-fitting neckcloth) and gloves. Miraculously, these all still survive! They now live at the V&A along with Lord and Lady Clapham—the dolls, not the actual aristocrats. Clearly, the dolls were never really played with by children, and were, no doubt, made to be collectible objects.
Let’s take a look at the little Lord’s little coat. The coat is made of red wool with a full skirt, lined with pale blue spotted silk. The cuffs are created of silver tissue trimmed and fastened with silver thread spangled buttons--seven buttons down the front, three under each pocket, three on each sleeve cuff and one over each skirt gather on the hip. Two horizontal pockets on the front are lined with the same pale blue spotted silk.
Because of their perfect condition, the Lord Clapham doll and its partner, Lady Clapham, are now considered perfect costume documents--their clothes being, “in style, cut and material, perfect miniatures of the fashions of the late 17th century.”
Both dolls are crafted of wood and wool, with faces that are gessoed and painted. They both wear wigs of human hair.
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