An early example of a cravat is shown in the portrait of old William Stoughton in my later chapter on Cloaks. His cravat is a distinctly new mode of neck-dressing, but is found on all American portraits shortly after that date. One is shown with great exactness in the portrait [here], which is asserted to be that of “the handsomest man in the Plantations,” William Coddington, Governor of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Governor Coddington.
He was a precise man, and wearisome in his precision—a bore, even, I fear. His beauty went for little in his relation of man to man, and, above all, of colonist to colonist; and poor Governor Winthrop must have been sorely tormented with his frequent letters, which might have been written from Mars for all the signs they bore of news of things of this earth. His dress is very neat and rich—a characteristic dress, I think. It has slightly wrought buttonholes, plain sleeve ruffles and gloves. His full curled peruke has a mass of long curls hanging in front of the right shoulder, while the curls on the left side are six or eight inches shorter. This was the most elegant London fashion, and extreme fashion too. His neck-scarf or cravat was a characteristic one. It consisted of a long scarf of soft, fine, sheer, white linen over two yards long, passed twice or thrice close around the throat and simply lapped under the chin, not knotted. The upper end hung from twelve to sixteen inches long. The other and longer end was carried down to a low waistline and tucked in between the buttons of the waistcoat. Often the free end of this scarf was trimmed with lace or cut-work; indeed, the whole scarf might be of embroidery or lace, but the simpler lawn or mull appears to have been in better taste. This tie is seen in this portrait of Thomas Fayerweather, by Smybert, and in modified forms on many other pages.
Thomas Fayerweather.
We now find constant references to the Steinkirk, a new cravat. As we see it frequently stated that the Steinkirk was a black tie, I may state here that all the Steinkirks I have seen have been white. I know no portraits with black neck-cloths. I find no allusions in old-time literature or letters to black Steinkirks.
A Steinkirk was a white cravat, not knotted, but fastened so loosely as to seem folded rather than tied, twisted sometimes twice or thrice, with one or both ends passed through a buttonhole of the coat. Ladies wore them, as well as men, arranged with equal appearance of careless negligence; and the soft diagonal folds of linen and lace made a pretty finish at the throat, as pretty as any high neck-dressing could be. These cravats were called Steinkirks after the battle of Steinkirk, when some of the French princes, not having time to perform an elaborate toilet before going into action, hurriedly twisted their lace cravats about their necks and pulled them through a buttonhole, simply to fix them safely in place. The fashionable world eagerly followed their example. It is curious that the Steinkirk should have been popular in England, where the name might rather have been a bitter avoidance.