The Rightful Complacency of Servitude
Seated, from left: Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne (1835-1914); Hon. Oscar Montague Guest (1888-1958); Rear, The luckiest manservant to ever fall reluctantly into the occupation of valet. (photo courtesy of the inimitable http://lafayette.150m.com/)
The worst part of this dude’s job was mandatory outings seated in the rear of a 12 h.p. Panhard motor coach built by Muhlbacker et Fils, Paris (c. 1902). Today was especially burdensome, having had to persevere through a daguerreotype shoot for The Car Illustrated (edited by Hon. J. Scott Montagu) before motoring across Canford Manor, Wimborne, Dorset (seat of Baron Wimborne) to an autumnal afternoon foxhunt. His job upon arrival most likely consisted of preening tweed jackets and tending to the repair of negligible rifle shaft pitting.
Retiring home to the manor, it was doubtless his responsibility to return the Baron’s wardrobe to repair – replace the morningwear collar, collar studs, cuffs, cuff studs, cuff links, feathered hat, cravat, cravat pin, braces, shirt front, shirt studs, shirt, pants, stockings, stocking garters, riding boots, pipe, tobacco pouch, gloves and moustache wax; thereupon laying out His eveningwear collar, collar studs, cuffs, cuff studs, cuff links, silk hat, tie, braces, shirt front, shirt studs, shirt, pants, stockings, stocking garters, gaters, opera shoes, gilded cigar case, kid gloves and moustache wax – before sitting down, himself, to sup a grand couvert served on Sèvres porcelain.
Yes, that is what it used to mean to have a menial, service job.
Lesson: If you enjoy any facet of being alive in this post-modernist existence, you should be ashamed of yourself.
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 | Daguerreotype!!
(Anonymous)
2007-02-27 02:12
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What an awesome word!! That was my favorite part.
Marc(Reply to this) (Thread) |
| use of images
(Anonymous)
2007-07-12 14:36
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While I love the fact that you have illucidated upon the Lafayette photograph, you really should state that you have lifted the image (which I scanned) from the Lafayette Archive of the V&A Museum in London, and in an ideal world you would have contact me (my email is all over the Lafayette site rvondeh@dircon.co.uk ) to request permission. Moreover, this was not a daguerreotype shoot for The Car Illustrated, as dry collodion was in use and if you had read the website where you took the photograph from, you'd have noted that the negative size was 12" x 15" - not a daguerreotype size at all. (Reply to this) (Thread) |
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