American (New Hampshire)
Further images
Woman's pair of stays. The exterior of tan linen with natural linen tape and white kid-leather edging; finished with two silk ties at CF (visible on interior) and reinforced eyelet holes at CB. The interior in undyed natural linen, with whalebone/baleen boning.
Very good condition overall. The center front cut vertically with added pink and black silk ties (possibly late 18th or 19th century). Minor discoloration and staining. The white silk lacing at back modern.
Provenance
From the estate of the Mack family, Londonderry, NH.
The interior also with affixed early handwritten note of provenance in ink on paper: "Corsets worn by Mrs. Dolly Wittemore wife of Rev. James Wittemore before her marriage in 1785." Genealogical records document the marriage of a James Whittemore (1734–1811) and Dorothy "Dolly" Green (ca. 1741–1808), both of Leicester, Massachusetts, on December 31, 1761. The stays may have descended through the Whittemore family to Arthur Benjamin Whittemore (1896–1993), who married Lillian Wallace Mack, daughter of Wallace P. Mack, Sr., in 1917.
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