#marryat's watch fob is visible in the behnes portrait

[marryat92]

Frederick Marryat just indirectly answered one of my most burning Regency fashion questions, and I almost feel embarrassed that I didn’t know the answer until now. In Peter Simple the protagonist’s wealthy grandfather offers him an expensive gift: “Don’t be afraid; what shall it be — a watch and seals, or — any thing you most fancy?”

Watch and seals: so that’s the bell-shaped ornament on the end of the ribbon watch fob of the early 19th century! Useful for sealing letters with wax, and of course communicating a genteel status for the wearer. As an example here is a real, historical person who could be a character in a Marryat novel: midshipman Robert Deans, born in 1792 and painted around 1807 in a Royal Navy midshipman’s uniform, according to the UK National Maritime Museum.

The visible shirt frill and high black silk cravat are familiar accessories of the well-dressed Marryat hero, and at the young gentleman’s waist you can clearly see a watch key and a seal. The ribbon that would connect these objects to his pocket watch is concealed by his waistcoat. (A showier, longer ribbon might be discouraged, as Marryat’s characters in Peter Simple warn that a captain “gave a youngster five dozen the other day for wearing a scarlet watch-riband”)

For more on the intersection of civilian fashion and Royal Navy uniforms I strongly recommend Amy Miller’s book Dressed to Kill: British Naval Uniform, Masculinity and Contemporary Fashions 1748-1857