When loved ones die, it is customary to mourn their loss. It is my personal opinion that a lot of people today run into problems with their grief because, in today’s society, we are expected to “bounce back” much quicker so we can get back to work. Again, my personal opinion, but I think, when it comes to loss, we should expect a much longer period of time for bereavement.
This is one of the things I think the Victorians got right—at least in theory, but perhaps not in practice.
Victorian widows, according to the Australian Museum, were expected to mourn for a period of two years for the loss of their husbands. Their mourning practices were based on Queen Victoria’s period of mourning at the loss of Prince Albert in 1861.
Along with the widow in question, children and household staff were expected to enter a period of mourning.
According to my own knowledge, the mourning costume was intense. It was made of wool, silk wool, tweed, cotton gauze, or merino over a black lining. And then there was also crape (that is the spelling of the day). Today it is called crepe, and it is silk. And then there’s a silk bonnet, a silk veil, a cape, and a number of directives on bows and folds to each of these items. I won’t get into those.
Anyway, these items were all stiff as they were dyed black. A deep black that would transfer to the skin as these costumes were expensive, and as a result, many people would wear them for at least one-and-a-half years before they switched to lavender or purple garb. For the sake of this recipe, we’re dealing only with what happens to the skin when clothed in these particular fabrics, dyed with black coloring.
Here’s the recipe:
To Remove Black Stains from the Skin.
- Cream of tartar
- Oxalic acid (POISON)
You would have equal portions of the poison and the cream of tartar mixed by a druggist. You definitely didn’t want to touch the poison for obvious reasons (accidental ingestion being one, accidental death being another). I don’t know why upper class people thought druggists were immune to touching poison, but that’s another issue I won’t get into here.
I don’t really feel comfortable explaining how this particular cream is made. My reasoning in that is because plenty of people get crazy ideas and do really stupid things.
Do not make this cream–or have anyone else make this cream.
Of course, the Victorians would rub this concoction on their faces. On their hands. Necks. Arms. All over the place. Death was a constant during this era. We can see why.
Then again, the ladies with the contusions on their faces probably used this cream on their husbands. It’s not like you could get a divorce back then. And a lot of women without mental health conditions ended up in sanitoriums because their husbands wanted them dispensed with, without the dishonor of divorce.
The more I think about it, this particular cream could be seen as a preventative measure for an uncertain fate, if a lady was entering into a poorly arranged marriage (this last part is based purely on my own assumption, and what I’d probably consider if I were a Victorian lady who married poorly).
A lot of food that I’ve given a lot of thought.
Source: Australian Museum.
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