ABSTRACT
One can only guess the early uses made of whalebone, but it is occasionally mentioned in connection with mediaeval dress, as, for instance, plumes on helmets, stiffening for the elaborate women's headdresses, and the long peaked shoes. When stiffened bodies and farthingales appeared in the sixteenth century it could not have been long before the superiority of whalebone over wood and cane supports brought it into use wherever available. The first description of the Biscay whale was given by Ambroise Paré, who visited Biarritz in 1564; he described how "des lames qui sortent de la bouche, on en fait des vertugals, busques pour les femmes". Although records are scarce a considerable trade in whalebone must have arisen to meet the demand made by the extravagant Elizabethan and Jacobean fashions. In the archives of the City of London there is a letter, dated December 12th, 1607, from the Lord Mayor to the Lords of the Council, enclosing a petition for certain merchants trading to "Biskey" , and "such as used the trade of making Vardingales, Boddyes, and Sleeves for Women in and about the C i t y " , requesting that the duty proposed, 6d. in the pound upon whalebone-fins, might not be enforced.
