The 12 days of Codpieces

Christmas may be over, but the revelry continues at The Raucous Royals...it's quiz time! This quiz features the most famous codpieces in history. See if you can guess which king the codpiece belongs to and you could win these Swarvoski crystal earrings. The first person to guess all the family jewels correctly....wins the jewels. (sorry, couldn't resist) If there is a tie, then I will do a drawing. You can either leave your answer in the comment field or if you don't want anyone stealing your answer, then just email me at info@carlynbeccia.com

As most royal enthusiasts probably already know, a codpiece is the covering used to shield a man's bits and was most popular in the 16th century. The Renaissance codpiece sort of looks like today's athletic cups with a bit more bling. They were first designed to provide modesty and protection, but by the end of the 16th century became far more showy. Adorned with jewels, fur, ribbon and padding, any self-respecting aristocrat would never leave their palace without their codpiece bulging to the appropriate manly proportions. The codpiece may have also doubled as a man purse for coins, small weapons, snuff and jewels. (thus the term "family jewels.")

Here are the codpieces and some hints:
Codpiece #1

Hint: How could a codpiece like this not produce a son?

Codpiece #2

hint: If only I had kept my codpiece under wraps then I might not be suffering from this nasty itchiness in my nether region.

Codpiece 3
hint: My dog adores my codpiece far more than Pope Clement VII.

Codpiece #4hint: My codpiece always matches the black and white clothing worn by my mistress.

Codpiece #5
Hint: My codpiece is dressed in black because it's my favorite color.

Codpiece #6

Hint: My codpiece is not half as crazy as me.

Codpiece #7

Hint: My left eye wandered far more than my codpiece.

Codpiece #8
Hint: My codpiece offered little protection against the spill I took down the stairs, injuring my head.

Codpiece #9Hint: Queen Elizabeth was not impressed with my poetry or my codpiece.

Codpiece #10Hint: This codpiece was so virile that it could even seduce a virgin queen.

Codpiece #11
Hint: My codpiece was as strict as my protestant beliefs.

Codpiece #12 (my favorite)

Hint: Only an Italian could pull off the curved, red codpiece look.










Those hints should help.
Sorry, US residents only for this one.

Answers to the 12 days of Codpieces:
Number 1
Number 2
Number 3
Number 4
Number 5
Number 6
Number 7
Number 8
Number 9
Number 10
Number 11
Number 12

How did you do?

Tis the Season for Gout: The Disease of Kings

It is said (usually by men) to be more painful than childbirth. The pain comes on so suddenly that one minute you could be blissfully gnawing on that Christmas turkey leg, and the next minute....your big toe is swollen to the size of a coconut. Henry VIII, Charles V, and George IV suffered from it. My daughter suffers from it. Every time I put her in her crib she screams,"GeeOUT!" (Poor kid. I would want to get out of my crib too if I had gout.)

Called the “disease of kings,” gout is a form of arthritis characterized by inflammation in a joint. But doctors today are seeing more and more cases of gout, especially during the holiday season.

Christmas dinner for the gout patient
What to serve that gouty relative this Christmas? First off, hide the brandy, stuffed pigeon and goose eggs. Gout is caused by an overproduction of uric acid by the body usually brought on my eating an artery clogging diet of rich meats and alcohol. Instead, offer your guest some coffee, bananas, blueberries or celery – all foods shown to prevent gout.

Happy Holidays. Enjoy your gout-free feast!

The Historical Fiction Bloggers Round Table

My favorite blogging queens, hot new fiction books and one infamously shaped table are now holding court over at The Historical Fiction Bloggers Round Table. First up is a book that is on my must read list - O, Juliet by Robin Maxwell.

So drop that spicy egg nog and head on over to the new site.

The Top 10 Tips for Surviving Christmas - 17th century-style

I am behind on my research for some posts because I am still recovering from a nasty bout of the Norwalk Virus...otherwise known as the stomach flu...otherwise known at the sickness that will make you never eat again.

In the meantime, here is an interesting article from the Wellcome library on The Top 10 Tips for Surviving Christmas -17th century style (although I could have done without the recipe for a good purge)

Etsy Shop Grand Opening and royal giveaway!

It must have been all that "nesting syndrome" during my pregnancy, but I took up a new craft called needle felting. It is basically stabbing pieces of wool roving with a barbed needle to form a soft, woolly creation. I was so hormonal during the last month of my pregnancy that I think the constant stabbing kept me from hurting my loved ones. The wool looks like this. I have sculpted with clay all my life, but never taken on soft sculpture and now I am addicted. If anyone is interested in a tutorial on how it is done, then I will post something on my art blog. The example to the left is my version of Edgar Allan Poe.

It's hard to let go of them after spending 40+ hours stabbing away but I have some of my creations for sale now in my new etsy shop called The Queen's Coffer (of course). I will also be doing custom pet portraits (shown right). I can do horses, cats, dogs, lizards...or whatever marsupial you keep as a pet. It's a great way to memorialize a beloved pet.

I also will be selling some of my jewelry designs soon. I have a series called the six wives of Henry VIII bracelets (The Catherine of Aragon is shown to the left). So in celebration of the Queen's Coffer grand opening, I will be giving away the matching Catherine of Aragon earrings shown below. They are made with Swarovski crystals in jet black and black diamond offset with silver seed beads. ($20.00) Of course, there will be a quiz to pick the winner....more to come later this week.


Other giveaways - reminder that all newsletter subscribers are entered to win The Raucous book of the month - Wolf Hall. I have not enjoyed a book this much since I was kid hiding my smutty V.C. Andrews books from my mother. Hilary Mantel's award winning book has a tad more intellectual prowess to it and I don't have to stash it under the pillows.

Off to the Powder Room….18th century style

When I was a young, precocious thing, I was enchanted with my Grandma’s pink, fairytale sanctuary otherwise known as her bathroom. My grandma didn’t call this magical room the “bathroom.” She called it the “powder room.” And she wasn’t fooling around with the powder part. Her bathroom counters were always immaculately sterile except for one small, pink canister containing white powder and the softest, fluffiest puff applicator. My sister and I had loads of fun blowing big clouds of magical pixie dust into the air hoping to become matte goddesses. We would walk into the bathroom squeaky clean and come out with our faces starched so tightly we could barely crack a smile.

The powder room has lost its place in the world today, but if you were to go back 200 years, powder was serious business. In fact, you would have had a hard time finding an aristocrat who didn’t walk down the street with a cloud of powder trailing behind their towering head.

Powdering a wig was typically much easier because it could be done off the head, but if you wanted your own locks blended into the wig or wanted to powder your own hair…well better sit back and grab a baguette. You are in for a long process.

How to powder your hair
Layer One – the cement:
Your valet would first bring you into a special room designed specifically just for powdering called the wig closet or powder closet. Next, he would plaster your hair with grease, (usually bear grease) or if you were wealthy enough, pomatum. Pomatum was a scented paste typically composed of mutton suet and lard. Yum. Sound appetizing? Well if you were a rat you would certainly think so. Hair became so infested with rodents that beauty books contained special vinegar recipes to rid hair of vermin. We think we suffer for beauty? Imagine having to dig a rat out of your enormous coif just to get great hair. Not everyone could afford pomatum either. British sailors were forced to use tar to keep their wigs in place. I can't imagine how they got it out.

Layer Two – The powder
I had long assumed that powder was made chiefly of flour, but at the height of hair raising styles, flour was actually considered the cheap stuff. The real high-test powders were made of violet-scented orris-root powder or elaborate mixtures of civet, musk and cypress flours designed to cover up the odor of vermin and small beasties living in your hair. (Civet is an extremely strong odor so we can understand why Louis XIV complained about his overly perfumed mistresses.)

You had a number of color options too for powder. It was usually white or grey but sometimes brown, black or blond was used and for a brief time, pink, blue and lavender power became all the rage.

Getting the powder on your head was the fun part. Your servant would place a cape over your clothes and a face mask over your face (shown above left). The servant would then take a device called a bellows (shown right) and blow the powder either directly into the hair or upward over the head in a Chornobyl-like cloud. If you were female, you would wear a 'peignoir' to protect your clothing. (shown below left)

Unfortunately, this whole process didn’t always work so well, so you could count on having to spend another session in the powder room before the day was done.

And that was just the powder for your hair. Powder was also used in cosmetics...but that is a post for another day.

Sources and Further Reading:
Images from the Lewis Walpole Library and Gettty Images
Pointer, Sally, The Artifice of Beauty: A History and Practical Guide to Perfumes and Cosmetics, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2005.
Sherrow, Victoria. The Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History,Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006.
Bryer, Robin. The history of hair : fashion and fantasy down the ages, London : Philip Wilson ; Wappinger Falls, N.Y. : Distributed in the USA and Canada by Antique Collectors' Club, 2000.
Corson, Richard. Fashions in Hair, London : P. Owen, 1980.

Raucous Schools Visits - where to find a urine flask?

I am now booking school visits for Spring and Fall of 2010. Most of March is booked, but I have openings in April and May. This year, I won't be doing any out of state visits. It is just too hard with a nursing infant at home. I am rushing to get my brochures out before Christmas. If you want some information sent to your MA school then email me your mailing address at info@carlynbeccia.com

Each presentation is customized to the school's curriculum, but I have got a lot of requests for more art focused presentations this year. Usually the focus is on writing, so it's great to see art get some time in the classrooms. In my art presentation, I demo digital painting using a wacom pressure sensitive tablet and laptop. At the end, I always do a brief activity with the kids and one lucky child gets to do their activity on the tablet. I am always amazed at how quickly kids pick up digital painting. (Adults....not so fast).

For more information on school visits:
For younger classrooms go to http://www.whoballyhoo.com/ and click on school visits or download a teaching curriculum for ideas.
The Raucous Royals presentation is for older classrooms (3rd+). I am trying to finish a teaching curriculum soon. Stay tuned....


Where does one find a urine flask?
Lastly, I am trying to gather some props for my presentation on my next book, I Feel Better with a Frog in my Throat. It's a picture book illustrating history's strangest medical cures. I have been searching everywhere trying to find a medieval looking urine flask. (like the one shown in this picture). I am wondering if any festival goers know where I could buy one?

My diabolical plan is to put apple juice in it and show how physicians used urine to diagnose illness by inspecting color, clarity and most importantly...taste. But of course, I don't plan to tell kids that it is apple juice...at first. (It was either swill fake urine or demo how leeches and maggots work. It's tough to get the typical 3rd grader's attention!)