What's a 1901 corset worth today?

crinolinegirl

crinolinegirl

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What\'s a 1901 corset worth today?

£7.23!

I bought a c. 1901 corset recently and it came this morning. No pix yet as I don't have a dress form big enough for it! It has a 36" waist and is in mint condition, still all starchy and crisp from 105 years ago. It's made from drab colored linen (not coutil!) and is lined in white cotton. It's only boned at the back, the support is acheived with cording and quilt stitching on the bust. It has a straght busk backed with a busk protector and white lace all around the top.

Anyways, it still has it's original price label on it with 2 shillings written on it. I typed it in to this <a href="http://www.measuringworth.com/index.html">website</a> and 2 shillings is worth £7.23 in modern times (it gives a date of 2005).
It just goes to show how much inflation has risen though as you couldn't buy a new corset for £7.23 today!!

Lei
 
That is so shocking when you think about it.
My Grandma was born two or three years earlier than your corset and bought her house in the 30's for £200. She lived into her 90's and once asked what my sister was earning as a 20 year old lady and nearly fainted when we told her a figure like £15,000 per year. Grandma and Grandad just could not get to grips with how inflation took off in the later years of there life.
Have you worked out or found what a average wage was then in 1900?.
My Dad earned £2.00 (old money 40 shillings) per week in the 1940's
His wedding in 1952's cost a months (£8.00) wages including the honeymoon in a guest house in London.

I have just read this about stockings (1925) so it looks as if inflation started after WW1

"In 1925, fine silk stockings cost £1 9s 6d a pair and mercerised Lisle stockings were 6s 6d, but a year later, rayon stockings could be bought for 2s 11d."

It would be interesting to know what the above stocking cost in 1901 and a corset in 1925 ( or girdle). As they are sort of related to each other, or even other items of clothing.
 
It isn't a fancy top of the line corset, just one a working class woman would have worn, I guess kind of like buying a Woolworth bra instead of a Rigby & Pellar one. 2 shillings though probably still would have taken a big chunk out of a woman's wages though back then especially since women had a limited number of jobs to choose from and weren't paid as much as men. If she was a houswife, this would have had to come out of her husband's wages which would have been used to support the whole household, 7 kids included!

That is why it's so rare to find working class garments, it's mostly the fancy and upper class things that got saved. Working class women had to wear their things until they fell apart which is weird why this one has survive in mint condition!

Yes, I'd like to find out what the average wage was back then and just how much this corset would have set a woman back.

Lei
 
Originally posted by paul
"In 1925, fine silk stockings cost £1 9s 6d a pair and mercerised Lisle stockings were 6s 6d, but a year later, rayon stockings could be bought for 2s 11d."
Click to expand...

I'm a bit behind on my English coinage terms. I'm familiar with shillings (although I don't know their American counterparts) pennies (which I think is pence); guinnies (spelling, and again their counterparts - obviously the source of ethnic reference) and half crowns (both learned from "A Christmas Carol" when Scrooge yells out the window to the boy to get the goose in the window for Cratchet and when he chases the maid down the stairs and finally gives her enough money to buy, well, probably a nice corset!), and I know pennies are divided into sub-pennies, which I think was done here, too.

BUT, what does the little "d" stand for and what is its counterpart? I think other than pennies, the 1776 folks here made darn sure the currency was unlike the Motherland's, I believe.

Back then, Paul, I'm sure people would have been appaled at the coins that can be found on the street these days. Who would let a penny drop to the sidewalk and leave it?!?

Although, I think it wrong, too, as I'm a penny-picker-upper. :saint:

So, Lei, what will that corset FETCH today?

Janine
 
You can buy bras in our local Giant Tiger store for $9.99 which is about GBP 4.50, so it is all relative. I own a woman's afternoon walking suit from c. 1913 that came with its original bill from a dressmaker and that bill is $225.00. That is about $4,500 in today's money! the equivalent of a VERY nice evening dress from Bergdorf Goodman's or a simple couture suit from a Paris couturier.
 
Originally posted by hipvintage
Originally posted by paul
"In 1925, fine silk stockings cost £1 9s 6d a pair and mercerised Lisle stockings were 6s 6d, but a year later, rayon stockings could be bought for 2s 11d."
Click to expand...

I'm a bit behind on my English coinage terms.



Janine
Click to expand...
Janine not the only one! in my very first years at school when we changed over our money system so I was taught the "new" way at school and had to use the old one at home . That was hard because Mum & Dad did not understand the new money.

"d" = Pennies in old money do not know why they called that
pre 1956
4 farthings = 1 d (penny)
2 1/2 d = 1 d (penny)
12 1 d (penny) = 1 Shilling
4 threepence = 1 shilling
2 sixpence =1 shilling
half crown = 2 1/2 shilling
1 crown = 5 Shillings
20 shillings £1
1 Gunnies = £1 and 1 Shillings
there was a 2 shilling coin as you say gunnies and gold sovereign prior to 1843 I think 1/2 farthing and 1/3 farthing

Then all the notes from 10 shillings upwards

By the way the crown is still legal tender today along with gold sovereign these are carried by the army special forces as international money.

See why we changed

Yes a penny back in say 1901 was worth a lot.

P.S I am not 100% if the price for silk stocking is right. That is what I read. I think it was still too steep as i was under the impression the silk falling in price because of Artificial silk coming onto the market ( Rayon):eureka:
 
Originally posted by hipvintage
Back then, Paul, I'm sure people would have been appaled at the coins that can be found on the street these days. Who would let a penny drop to the sidewalk and leave it?!?

Although, I think it wrong, too, as I'm a penny-picker-upper. :saint:

So, Lei, what will that corset FETCH today?

Janine
Click to expand...

I ALWAYS pick up coins when I see them!! It's the teenagers that are the worst aruond here from throwing good money away. Everyday when I take Jake to school, we pass by the high school and there are always loads of money on the floor so we pick everything up!
I've been in shops where I have been short ONE PENNY (Boots the Chemist to be exact) and they haven't sold me the thing so I always pick up pennies when I find them as you never know when you will be short.

My lovely "new" corset is probably worth about $350 these days so I think the original owner would get a kick out of knowing how well her 2 shilling investment did. $350 in 1901 money would be about £2, 8 shilling and six pence!! I've seen £2 corsets in antique catalogs so those would have been the equivalent of buying a Rigby and Pellar bra today.

Ironically, if it had a smaller waist size, it would probably be worth more now. With antique corsets, anything with a waist of 24" and under tends to go higher than larger sized corsets. It's this whole fetish thing with tiny waists that drive up the corset prices these days. No one wants the "fat lady's" corset as they aren't that dramatic to display but I love them and PROVE that people were all shapes and sizes back then not tiny like history books would have you believe.

Lei
 
Originally posted by hipvintage
BUT, what does the little "d" stand for and what is its counterpart?
Click to expand...

THANK YOU, Janine! I've been wondering this for a long time, as a lot of my '30s patterns are priced with "d", but I kept forgetting to post a question about it.

And thank you, Paul, for answering!

Laura
 
Thank you so much, Paul, for posting that! :bouncing:

I knew you would be very detailed in your response. ;)

Now, I've got it all MEMORIZED!! :rolleyes:

I think shilling was the one I was trying to think of. It's all as straightforward as teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces, stones, drams, etc., even yer' basic 'cup' measurement.

Janine
 
the SAD thing is I still chnage things back to Imperial even now, often l'll say do you realise that a first class stamp is now 7 shillings and 9 pence halfpenny!!!! I remember when they were elevenpence (imperial)..jeepers!!

and walking to scool looking at shop windows with clothes in one shop was calle dmargot gowns and everything was in 'guineas' in the window, l thought it so posh and expensive!! (no not hamster like creatures)
 
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