Fig. 26.—Turned-back cuff, end of seventeenth century (after Bonnart).
To find an explanation of this feature we shall have to go back again to the seventeenth century, when so much was expended upon coats that it became advisable to turn back the cuffs out of harm’s way. To hold them in position, series of buttons and buttonholes were devised, and just as the turning back of the skirts was at first temporary and afterwards came to be done once for all when the coat was made, so the turned-back cuff grew into a permanent institution. In Figure [26] the buttons are one above the other as in modern dress, but in the next two Figures ([27] and [28]) they are horizontal.
Fig. 27.—A coat sleeve (after Hogarth) with a horizontal row of buttons.
Fig. 28.—Sleeve of a coat of the seventeenth century, reputed to have been worn by Charles I.