Having a fit of the vapours? Let's go shopping!

Northern Light

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Victorians were interesting people. Determined to show how "couth" they were, they invented stuff just for the sake of having more stuff. They invented and indeed lived the phrase," Conspicuous Consumption". Having the Smiths over for dinner? Impress them With 30 pieces of cutlery to perform every little task and fill up that mile long table that you bought yesterday. It also confuses the guests. "What's this fork for, Matilda?" Shush, Freddie, it's for the aspic." The WHAT???" It goes on.

One of the most useless and yet fashionable things the Victorians came up with was the Fainting Couch, Yup, you heard it here. The Fainting Couch, a piece of furniture that was meant to catch a woman when she was in the throes of tremendous angst. Your fiance just broke your engagement? Faint! Your husband just gambled away the family fortune? Faint! Your husband asks why you spent $1,000.00 on a new dress? Faint! The dog ate the Sunday Roast? You've got it! Faint!
Hang on there though, you can't just go around fainting ANYWHERE!!!!! That could be dangerous, especially if your husband is standing there with the dress bill in his hand and not feeling inclined to catch you. You need to be prepared for these situations, so you have a safe landing. Enter the Fainting Couch. Every woman needs one (or two, one for each floor?) Besides providing you with something to break you fall, you are going to look really good splayed on these babies!
1551914910077.png

They come in left and right falls, so you call faint left or right -handed.
1551917199684.png



Who knew that that fainting was ambidextrous?

Now you will notice that there is a fair amount of wood on these puppies, so you need to learn to faint carefully. DON'T JUST DROP! Well, not unless you want a concussion, which you don't, trust me on that!
You need to practice fainting. Seriously.

This is not what you want.
1551917200640.png


A face plant in the gravel is not good.

This is better, but not great. That floor is HARD!
1551917978513.png


This is how to do it!
1551918396396.png

So elegant, so refined.
Just make sure your sister isn't around to throw a bucket of water on you. Ehhmmm.

Now here are some more repositories for your faints, because in the Victorian vernacular, more is.. well, MORE!
1551918726186.png
1551918762783.png
1551918837628.png
1551919040843.png
1551919150864.png


When you are not in the mood for fainting, you can use your couch for other pastimes, like reading.
1551919424186.png
.

Or resting.
1551919473134.png


Or......

1551919559305.png

Use your imagination.













.

1551915057127.png
 
Last edited:
Great Thread. My GrandMaMa had one in her parlor and the last time I heard the "Vapours" was out of her mouth. Thank You for bring back a GREAT Memory.
 
Great Thread. My GrandMaMa had one in her parlor and the last time I heard the "Vapours" was out of her mouth. Thank You for bring back a GREAT Memory.
Thanks, UCV, it is always nice when something you post touches a "mystic chord of memory".

I don't know what happened with all the duplicate photos. They weren't in the preview and I can't get rid of the last one.
 
I learned from my grandfather as I got older that "She'll Be Fine, She Just Needs A Libation and down the stairs to the bar he would go. And you know what, He was right:D
 
Oh No, She didn't hide it. "Pink Squirrel" Cocktails were severed at 5 and dinner at 6:30. When she was in the hospital before she died, I ask her what she wanted and she told me a Pink Squirrel, She had one in 30 minutes and I didn't say a word about it being 1:00pm.
 
And just what is in a pink squirrel, I wonder?

Ahha!
Pink Squirrel Cocktail


15843053-1acc-4ef6-9970-23a370571899.jpg



Booze and ice cream–what could be better? (Almond liqueur and vanilla ice cream, to be exact.) This simple milkshake-style cocktail would be right at home on the set of Mad Men.




Ingredients


1/3 cup crème de noyaux (also called crème de almond)
1/3 cup white crème de cacao (plus extra for rimming glasses, if desired)
2/3 cup vanilla ice cream

Maraschino cherries, for garnish (optional)

Coloured sugar or sprinkles, for rimming glasses (optional)

1. If rimming glasses, moisten edges of rims with liquor or simple syrup, then dip into the sugar or sprinkles. Set glasses aside.

2. Add both liqueurs and the ice cream to a blender and process until smooth.

3. Pour into two large martini glasses and serve immediately.

A good drink to die with!


Where does the squirrel come into it??
 
Last edited:
What about the Victorian obsession with paleness and frailness ?
Wasn't it a part of the (mostly) English romantic ideal ?
Tuberculosis or consumption proved proved attractive in the lowercase romantic ideal of the times.
 
What about the Victorian obsession with paleness and frailness ?
Wasn't it a part of the (mostly) English romantic ideal ?
Tuberculosis or consumption proved proved attractive in the lowercase romantic ideal of the times.
Attractive? Hardly, when TB was such a major cause of death in young people.
 
Last edited:
Great Thread. My GrandMaMa had one in her parlor and the last time I heard the "Vapours" was out of her mouth. Thank You for bring back a GREAT Memory.
Victorians were interesting people. Determined to show how "couth" they were, they invented stuff just for the sake of having more stuff. They invented and indeed lived the phrase," Conspicuous Consumption". Having the Smiths over for dinner? Impress them With 30 pieces of cutlery to perform every little task and fill up that mile long table that you bought yesterday. It also confuses the guests. "What's this fork for, Matilda?" Shush, Freddie, it's for the aspic." The WHAT???" It goes on.

One of the most useless and yet fashionable things the Victorians came up with was the Fainting Couch, Yup, you heard it here. The Fainting Couch, a piece of furniture that was meant to catch a woman when she was in the throes of tremendous angst. Your fiance just broke your engagement? Faint! Your husband just gambled away the family fortune? Faint! Your husband asks why you spent $1,000.00 on a new dress? Faint! The dog ate the Sunday Roast? You've got it! Faint!
Hang on there though, you can't just go around fainting ANYWHERE!!!!! That could be dangerous, especially if your husband is standing there with the dress bill in his hand and not feeling inclined to catch you. You need to be prepared for these situations, so you have a safe landing. Enter the Fainting Couch. Every woman needs one (or two, one for each floor?) Besides providing you with something to break you fall, you are going to look really good splayed on these babies!
View attachment 295559
They come in left and right falls, so you call faint left or right -handed.View attachment 295563


Who knew that that fainting was ambidextrous?

Now you will notice that there is a fair amount of wood on these puppies, so you need to learn to faint carefully. DON'T JUST DROP! Well, not unless you want a concussion, which you don't, trust me on that!
You need to practice fainting. Seriously.

I've also seen these referred to as "swooning couches," where swooning is synonymous with fainting.

"Swooning was simply one method of a woman showing her delicate nature in the form of an extreme emotional reaction to a particular event. Today, simply gasping might be the best social-cue equivalent."
Source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/05/women-fainted-much-19th-century/

One gets the impression that the exaggerated affectation of fainting or swooning was definitely an upper class thing. You had to have the time to swoon, and the money to afford a fainting couch and/or an entire separate room in your house in which to swoon--I doubt women working in factories or farms, or as laundresses, seamstresses, servants or pioneer mothers could afford to faint and swoon, unless it was from sheer exhaustion or not having enough to eat.
 
Last edited:
I've also seen these referred to as "swooning couches," where swooning is synonymous with fainting.

"Swooning was simply one method of a woman showing her delicate nature in the form of an extreme emotional reaction to a particular event. Today, simply gasping might be the best social-cue equivalent."
Source: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/05/women-fainted-much-19th-century/

One gets the impression that the exaggerated affectation of fainting or swooning was definitely an upper class thing. You had to have the time to swoon, and the money to afford a fainting couch and/or an entire separate room in your house in which to swoon--I doubt women working in factories or farms, or as laundresses, seamstresses, servants or pioneer mothers could afford to faint and swoon, unless it was from sheer exhaustion or not having enough to eat.
Swooning was also away to avoid dealing with unpleasant things. If you recall Aunt "Pitty-Pat " Hamilton in Gone with the Wind, she was always fainting to avoid dealing with anything that she found upsetting. Faint, and everyone is distracted from the topic that causes distress and worries about bringing you out of the faint. It was an effective way of changing the subject.
 
Back
Top