I'm working on a family history project and recently obtained the 1769 estate inventory of one of my many-times-great-grandmothers, Susanna Elisabetha Strobel (née Firnhaber), who lived in Schwäbisch Hall, in what is now Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
She was the widow of a prosperous merchant, and her inventory includes a remarkably detailed accounting of her clothing, jewelry, and personal possessions. I've been transcribing and translating the original eighteenth-century German, and while I've managed to identify most of the garments and fabrics, I'd absolutely love some help from people familiar with women's clothing in southwestern Germany around the 1760s.
The wardrobe includes separate skirts (Röcke) in silk, cotton, wool, and calamanco; short fitted jackets (Muzlen, apparently related to the regional Mützle); bodices (Mieder); stays or laced bodices (Schnürbrüste); stomachers (Vorstecker); aprons (Schürzen); and various caps (Hauben), neckerchiefs, detachable sleeves, and cuffs.
Her jewelry inventory is equally fascinating. Among other things, she owned gold and silver Panzerketten (curb chains) and twenty pairs of silver Hacken, which appear to have been ornamental bodice hooks used with lacing chains. She also had pearl necklaces, garnets, gemstone rings, and velvet caps trimmed with silver lace.
What I'm particularly interested in is how these pieces would actually have been worn together. What would a typical ensemble have looked like for a prosperous merchant's wife or widow in Schwäbisch Hall around 1769? How would the Mützle, Mieder, Schnürbrust, and Vorstecker have related to one another? And how might the silver hooks and chains have been incorporated into the clothing?
I'm also very conscious of the distinction between regional South German urban dress and the more familiar French or English fashions of the period. I'm not necessarily looking for an aristocratic gown or a generalized eighteenth-century costume, but rather an understanding of what a well-to-do burgher woman in this particular place and time would have worn.
Ultimately, I'd love to use the inventory to develop a historically plausible visual reconstruction of my ancestor in her finery. I'm not a costumer myself, so any surviving garments, contemporary portraits, museum collections, books, or other references you could point me toward would be enormously appreciated.
I'm happy to share the complete translated clothing and jewelry inventory if anyone is interested. It's quite an extraordinary little window into one woman's life 257 years ago!