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Facsimile Regency visiting cards
(Rachel Knowles's experimental history 2022)
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Visiting cards
Visiting cards
or calling cards were small rectangular pieces of card similar to a business card today. They
were inscribed with a person’s name and often but not always with their address.
An important part of Regency etiquette, visiting cards could be used for initiating
contact with a stranger, as well as letting someone know you had called.
What did a
Regency visiting card look like?
They varied in
size and design, but the consistent theme seems to have been small and
rectangular.
Some were plain
rectangles of parchment or card, whereas others came with a pre-printed design
around the edge.
Several of the
printed cards I looked at were by William Sharp (1749–1824) – one of the most
distinguished British line engravers. He engraved plates for trade cards as
well as visiting cards.
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Trade card for William Sharp, Engraver
London (1749-1824) The Met Museum DP885194 |
Calling cards were
always inscribed with the person’s name. I came across a few examples of cards
with two names on—typically, a lady and her daughter. The cards did not always
include their address. Some mentioned the person’s position.
Some cards had
the details handwritten, others had the name engraved onto the card. Some, like Colonel Roche’s card designed by Cipriani, had the name incorporated in an
elaborate design.
You can look at a large collection of calling cards in the British Museum collections here.
How big were
Regency visiting cards?
The visiting
cards I looked at in the British Museum’s collection varied in size, ranging
from 32mm X 66mm to 78mm X 121mm. The majority of cards were at the smaller end
of the scale.
To put this into
context, a standard US business card today is 50.8mm X 88.9mm (3.5 X 2 inches)
and a standard British card today is a little wider and shorter at 55mm X 85mm.
I decided to do a
little bit of experimental history. Using the cards on the British Museum’s website
as a guide, I created a number of facsimile Regency visiting cards for
characters in my novels using the dimensions of actual cards and similar
designs.
The photo below
shows my card (based on US measurements despite being in the UK!) and a selection
of the cards I made. As you can see, most of the calling cards are smaller.
Although many of the
plainest and smallest cards I looked at were for men, some gentlemen’s cards
were as big and as elaborate as those used by ladies.
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Facsimile Regency visiting cards with a modern business
card to show relative sizes
(Rachel Knowles's experimental history 2022) |
Leaving cards
when someone was ‘not at home’
The etiquette of
leaving cards is linked to the etiquette surrounding morning calls.
You can read about morning calls here.
When making a
morning call, it was customary to present your card on arrival. By this means,
the visitor discovered whether the host was ‘at home’ to visitors and
specifically, whether they were willing to receive you.
If the visitor
was an acquaintance, then the response of ‘not at home’ either meant that the person
was out, or that it was simply not a convenient time for visitors.
In Domestic
Duties or Instructions to young married ladies on the management of their
households (1825), Mrs Parkes wrote:
As the words ‘not
at home’ have become synonymous with ‘being engaged’, they neither deceive ,
nor are intended to deceive; therefore they may be employed innocently, as far
as regards our friends and ourselves.1
If the visitor
was a stranger, then ‘not at home’ might mean the same, but it might indicate
that the person did not desire the acquaintance.
Either way, if
the person was not at home, the visitor would leave their card. They might turn
down the corner of the card to indicate they had visited personally.
Alternatively, as in one example I found at the British Museum, they might
write the words ‘called’ or similar on it to indicate that they had left the
card in person.
In Sense and Sensibility,
Elinor Dashwood knew that Edward Ferrars was in town because he left his card:
Edward assured
them himself of his being in town, within a very short time, by twice calling
in Berkeley Street. Twice was his card found on the table, when they returned
from their morning’s engagements. Elinor was pleased that he had called; and
still more pleased that she had missed him.2
Etiquette
dictated that the person should return the visit as soon as possible. However,
if the visitor was a stranger and the person did not desire the acquaintance,
it was sufficient to send a card instead.
In February 1807
Jane Austen wrote of a visitor they had missed whose visit they were unable to
return because the visitor had left no address:
Mary has for
some time had notice from Mrs Dickson of the intended arrival of a certain Miss
Fowler in this place. Miss Fowler is an intimate friend of Mrs Dickson, and a
good deal known as such to Mary. On Thursday last she called here while we were
out. Mary found, on our return, her card with only her name on it, and she had
left word that she would call again. The particularity of this made us talk,
and, among other conjectures, Frank said in joke, “I dare say she is staying
with the Pearsons.” The connection of the names struck Mary, and she
immediately recollected Miss Fowler's having been very intimate with persons so
called, and, upon putting everything together, we have scarcely a doubt of her
being actually staying with the only family in the place whom we cannot visit.3
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19th century silver calling card tray, Redlich Co.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
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How many cards
should be left?
It was polite to
leave a card to each person in the household whom you had intended to visit.
In Domestic Duties
(1825) Mrs Parkes wrote:
Where cards
are to be left, the number must be determined according to the various members
of which the family called upon is composed. For instance, where there are the
mother, aunt, and daughters (the latter having been introduced to society),
three cards should be left.4
Leaving cards
on arrival in town
When a person arrived
in a town where they had some acquaintance, it was customary to call or leave
cards to let them know of your arrival.
In Jane Austen’s Sense
and Sensibility, Mrs Jennings left cards on her return to London:
The morning
was chiefly spent in leaving cards at the houses of Mrs Jennings’s acquaintance
to inform them of her being in town.5
Some hotels had
printed cards for those staying there to use. A hotel guest could write their
details on these cards and leave them with their acquaintances so they would
know where they were staying.
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Facsimile hotel cards with handwritten names
(Rachel Knowles's experimental history 2022)
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Leaving cards to
begin an acquaintance
If you deemed
someone worthy of being included in your circle of acquaintance, you could leave
your card in the hope of initiating a relationship.
In Persuasion,
Sir Walter Elliot and Miss Elliot made such an impact on Bath society that they
were inundated with cards:
Their
acquaintance was exceedingly sought after. Everybody was wanting to visit them.
They had drawn back from many introductions, and still were perpetually having
cards left by people of whom they knew nothing.6
In a letter to
her sister in January 1807 Jane Austen complained that their acquaintance was
growing too quickly:
Our
acquaintance increase too fast. He was recognized lately by Admiral Bertie, and
a few days since arrived the Admiral and his daughter Catherine to wait upon
us. There was nothing to like or dislike in either. To the Berties are to be
added the Lances, with whose cards we have been endowed, and whose visit Frank
and I returned yesterday.7
Leaving cards
to convey thanks
Cards could also
be sent to convey thanks. In Arthur Freeling’s The Pocket Book of Etiquette (1837)
he wrote:
After dining
at the house of a lady , it is customary to leave a card the next day, or as
soon after as circumstances will permit.8
Leaving cards
to take leave
When a person was
leaving the area, such as going from London to the country, it was customary to
take leave in person, or by leaving cards.
Leaving a
calling card after receiving a verbal invitation
In The Pocket
Book of Etiquette (1837) Freeling wrote that it was advisable to leave a
card after a verbal invitation from an acquaintance:
Occasionally
verbal invitations are given to evening parties, by persons with whom you have
not been in habits of intimacy. To prevent the awkwardness of being an
unexpected visitor, you will, previous to the party, leave your card with the
lady of the house.9
Sending and
receiving cards when someone got married
When a gentleman
married, he might have acquaintances that he would not wish to be part of the
circle he would introduce to his wife. After his marriage, he and his wife
would send cards to those acquaintances they wished to keep. If you did not
receive a card, you assumed that the relationship had been dropped.
In The Pocket
Book of Etiquette (1837) Freeling wrote:
When a man is
about to be married, it is customary for him to give a dinner to his bachelor
friends. He then informs them of the intended alteration in his circumstances;
the health of the bride elect is drank, and it is understood that the visiting
acquaintanceship ceases, unless a special invitation is received, or unless a
desire to renew it be intimated by his sending his own and his wife's cards,
with the customary favors.10
Etiquette required
the couple to send cards in return for any left at their house after their
marriage. Mrs Parkes wrote in Domestic Duties (1825):
A newly
married woman, on arriving at her future home, will have to send her cards in
return for those which are left at her house, after her marriage. She may
afterwards expect the calls of her acquaintance; for which it is not absolutely
necessary to remain at home, although politeness require that they should be
returned as soon as possible. But having performed this, any further
intercourse may be avoided (where it is deemed necessary) by a polite refusal
of invitations.11
In Sense and
Sensibility, the self-interested Lady Middleton
…determined
(though rather against the opinion of Sir John) that as Mrs Willoughby would at
once be a woman of elegance and fortune, to leave her card with her as soon as
she married.12
Leaving cards
when someone died
It was customary
to leave a card in condolence rather than visiting someone who had been
bereaved unless you knew the person very well.
Sending a card
with a letter of recommendation
Sometimes, a
stranger was given a letter of introduction by a mutual acquaintance or someone
of importance. In these cases, it was customary to deliver the letter in
person, and to include a visiting card with the letter.
Etiquette
demanded that the person receiving the letter of introduction should respond by
sending a card as soon as possible. They were not, however, obliged to receive
the person.
Putting your connections on display
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Facsimile Regency visiting cards for the Earl and
Countess of Castleford (the couple from A Reason for Romance)
I'm sure Sir Walter would have wanted these cards on display too!
(Rachel Knowles's experimental history 2022) |
Having the right connections could make a lot of difference to your standing in society. In Persuasion, Sir Walter Elliot is desperate for his relative, the Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple, to recognise him:
Sir Walter, however, would choose his own means, and at last wrote a very fine letter of ample explanation, regret, and entreaty, to his right honourable cousin. Neither Lady Russell nor Mr Elliot could admire the letter; but it did all that was wanted, in bringing three lines of scrawl from the Dowager Viscountess. "She was very much honoured, and should be happy in their acquaintance." The toils of the business were over, the sweets began. They visited in Laura Place, they had the cards of Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple, and the Honourable Miss Carteret, to be arranged wherever they might be most visible: and "Our cousins in Laura Place,"—"Our cousin, Lady Dalrymple and Miss Carteret," were talked of to everybody.13
Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian Regency era romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.
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Notes
- Parkes, Mrs William, Domestic Duties or Instructions to young married ladies on the management of their households (London, 1825).
- Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility (1811).
- Austen, Jane, Jane Austen's Letters, Collected and Edited by Le Faye, Deirdre (1995).
- Parkes op cit.
- Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility (1811).
- Austen, Jane, Persuasion (1817).
- Austen, Jane, Jane Austen's Letters, Collected and Edited by Le Faye, Deirdre (1995).
- Freeling, Arthur, The Pocket Book of Etiquette (Liverpool, 1837).
- Ibid.
- Freeling op cit.
- Parkes op cit.
- Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility (1811).
- Austen, Jane, Persuasion (1817, London)
Sources used include:
Austen, Jane, Emma (1815, London)
Austen, Jane, Jane Austen's Letters, Collected and Edited by Le Faye, Deirdre (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Austen, Jane, Mansfield Park (1814, London)
Austen, Jane, Northanger Abbey (1817, London)
Austen, Jane, Persuasion (1817, London)
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice (1813, London)
Austen, Jane, Sense and Sensibility (1811, London)
Freeling, Arthur, The Ladies' Pocket Book of Etiquette (7th edition) (London, 1840)
Freeling, Arthur, The Pocket Book of Etiquette (Liverpool, 1837)
Parkes, Mrs William, Domestic Duties or Instructions to young married ladies on the management of their households (London, 1825)
Trusler, Rev Dr John, A System of Etiquette (1804)
All photos © RegencyHistory.net
