[Illustration: _The Barber’s Candlestick._]
He describes it to be “a wooden turned stick, having a socket in the
streight peece, and another in the cross or overthwart peece; this he
sticketh in his apron strings on his left side or breast when he useth
to trim by candlelight.”
* * * * *
Without going into every particular concerning the utensils and art of
“Barbing and Shaving,” some may be deemed curious, and therefore worthy
of notice. It is to be observed, however that they are from Randle
Holme, who wrote in 1688, and relate to barbers of former days.
[Illustration: _Barber’s Basin._]
The barber’s washing or trimming-basin had a circle in the brim to
compass a man’s throat, and a place like a little dish to put the ball
in after lathering. Holme says, that “such a like bason as this, valiant
Don Quixote took from a bloody enchanting barber, which he took to be a
golden head-piece.”
The barber’s basin is very ancient; it is mentioned by Ezekiel the
prophet. In the middle age it was of bright copper.[299]
[Illustration: _Razor._]
This is a figure of the old razor of a superior kind, tipped with
silver; “that is,” says Holme, “silver plates engraven are fixed upon
each end of the haft, to make the same look more gent and rich.” The old
man, being fidgetted by this ornament, declares, “it is very oft done by
yong proud artists who adorne their instruments with silver shrines,
more then seting themselves forth by the glory that attends their art,
or praise obtained by skill.” Before English manufactures excelled in
cutlery, razors were imported from Palermo.[300] Razors are mentioned by
Homer.
[Illustration: _Barber’s Chafer._]
“This is a small chafer which they use to carry about with them, when
they make any progress to trim or barb gentiles at a distance, to carry
their sweet water (or countreyman’s broth) in; the round handle at the
mouth of the chafer is to fall down as soon as their hand leaves it;” so
says Holme. Mr. J. T. Smith remarks, that “the _flying barber_ is a
character now no more to be seen in London, though he still remains in
some of our country villages; he was provided with a napkin, soap, and
pewter bason, the form of which may be seen in many of the illustrative
prints of Don Quixote.” The same writer speaks of the barber’s chafer as
being--“A deep leaden vessel, something like a chocolate pot, with a
large ring, or handle, at the top; this pot held about a quart of water
boiling hot, and thus equipped, he flew about to his customers.” These
chafers are no longer made in London; the last mould which produced them
was sold in New-street, Shoe-lane, at the sale of Mr. Richard Joseph’s
moulds for pewter utensils, in January, 1815: it was of brass and broken
up for metal.[301]
[Illustration: _Barber’s Chafing Dish._]
This was a metal firepot, with a turning handle, and much used during
winter, especially in shops without fire-places. It was carried by the
handle from place to place, but generally set under a brass or copper
basin with a flat broad bottom, whereon if linen cloths were rubbed or
let remain, they in a little time became hot or warm for the barber’s
use.
[Illustration: _Barber’s Crisping Irons._]
This is their ancient shape. “In former times these were much used to
curl the side locks of a man’s head, but now (in 1688) wholly cast aside
as useless; it openeth and shutteth like the forceps, only the ends are
broad and square, being cut within the mouth with teeth curled and
crisped, one tooth striking within another.”
_Scissors._
_Hair_-scissors were long and broad in the blades, and rounded towards
the points which were sharp.
_Beard_-scissors had short blades and long handles.
The _barber’s_ scissors differed in these respects from others; for
instance, the _tailor’s_ scissors had blunt points, while the
_seamster’s_ scissors differed from both by reason of their smallness,
some of them having one ring for the thumb only to fit it, while the
contrary ring or bow was large enough to admit two or three fingers.
~Beards.~
[Illustration: _Pick-a-devant Beard._]
“A full face with a sharp-pointed beard is termed, in blazon, a man’s
face with a _pick-a-devant_ (or sharp pointed,) beard.” Mr. Archdeacon
Nares’s “Glossary” contains several passages in corroboration of Holme’s
description of this beard.
[Illustration: _Cathedral Beard._]
This Holme calls “the _broad_ or _cathedral_ beard, because bishops and
grave men of the church anciently did wear such beards.” Besides this,
and the _pick-a-devant_, he says there are several sorts and fashions of
beards, viz. “the _British_ beard hath long mochedoes, (mustachios) on
the higher lip, hanging down either side the chin, all the rest of the
face being bare:--the _forked_ beard is a broad beard ending in two
points:--the _mouse-eaten_ beard, when the beard groweth scatteringly,
not together, but here a tuft and there a tuft,” &c.
* * * * *
Guillaume Duprat, bishop of Clermont, who assisted at the council of
Trent, and built the college of the Jesuits at Paris, had the finest
beard that ever was seen. It was too fine a beard for a bishop, and the
canons of his cathedral, in full chapter assembled, came to the
barbarous resolution of shaving him. Accordingly, when next he came to
the choir, the dean, the _prevot_, and the _chantre_ approached with
scissors and razors, soap, basin and warm water. He took to his heels at
the sight, and escaped to his castle of Beauregard, about two leagues
from Clermont, where he fell sick for vexation, and died.[302]
* * * * *
Ancient monuments represent the Greek heroes to have worn short curled
beards. Among the Romans, after the year 454, B. C., philosophers alone
constantly wore a beard; the beard of their military men was short and
frizzed. The first emperors with a long and thick beard were Hadrian,
who wore it to hide his wounds, and Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius,
who wore it as philosophers: a thick beard was afterwards considered an
appendage that obtained for the emperors veneration from the
people.[303]
~Wigs.~
[Illustration: _A Peruke._]
It is figured as seen above by Holme, who also calls it in his peculiar
orthography a “perawicke,” and says it was likewise called “a _short
bob_, a _head of hair_--a wig that hath short locks and a hairy crown.”
He describes it with some feeling. “This is a counterfeit hair which men
wear instead of their own; a thing much used in our days by the
generality of men; contrary to our forefathers who got estates, loved
their wives, and wore their own hair; but,” says he, “in _these_ days
(1688) there is no such things!”