… the more they stay the same.
Men readers, beware. This may not be a suitable post for you.
Last week, I had the heroine in my WIP walk into the mercantile with a list of items she wanted to buy. Cleaning supplies to be exact. Soap and brushes for scrubbing floors and making sure her home was spic and span. So I pulled down my trusty mail order catalogs from the 19th Century and began thumbing through them. Always a good source, even if the years aren't the same.
I stopped thumbing when I arrived at THE PRINCESS BUST DEVELOPER AND BUST CREAM OR FOOD (1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co.). I've owned this catalog replica for a good many years, but this listing hasn't ever caught my eye before. I had no idea! I thought the desire for a larger bust came out of the 1960's. Silly me. Back then, girls & women could order a small spring-loaded device that you pressed between the heels of your hands to work and develop those chest muscles. It was pink. How do I know? I bought one when I was about 14 or 15! {see Robin blushing}
Another revelation? I thought that advertising of personal women's products prior to the latter half of the 20th century was done more discreetly. Somehow, I don't think advertising in Sears, Roebuck would be considered discreet. Do you
The Princess Bust Developer makes me think it was a precursor for a breast pump. You needed to order it in either 4 or 5 inch sizes, although I'm not sure how you were supposed to know which size you needed. But it is the other product that caught my fancy. Why didn't someone tell me I could avoid working out and just apply a cream to get the shape I wanted?
The Bust Cream or Food was applied as a massage. "It is a delightful cream preparation, put up by an eminent French chemist, and forms just the right food required for the starved skin and wasted tissues… You need no longer regret that your form is not what you would like it to be. Ladies everywhere welcome the Princess Bust Developer and Cream Food as the greatest toilet requisite ever offered."
Starved skin and wasted tissues. Great mental image, huh?
My grandmother was born in 1881. She died when I was 12, but right up until the last couple years of her life, she wore a corset. Not that it gave her a great hourglass figure but apparently women don't give up hope easily, even in their waning years.
Do you suppose that eminent French chemist still puts up that delightful cream?
~robin
PS Men, you can open your eyes and ears now.
