The Handkerchief: One person’s token of love is another person’s nose guard

Linda Woods, Moore Museum

It all starts with someone wearing a square cloth on the top of their head to keep out the burning rays of the sun. Another person sees this, and they think, “Could I use one of those for something?”

From the days of necessity to romance and practicality, handkerchiefs have been the best thing for humankind. Used for all parts of the body, from snotty noses, tokens of love, and to show one person’s prosperity.

Not many years ago you might have had a grandparent or uncle that used a handkerchief. The men for nasal constraint, women to keep the dirt off little children’s faces, a little spit and a handkerchief and you have a brand-new child.

I remember when I was a young girl of five, I received my first purse. It had a long handle and a rectangular bottom, and it was all vinyl. Inside the purse I found two things, some change and a handkerchief. It was bad luck to give a purse without money in it and the handkerchief, my very own. It was probably an old one, but it was so precious the Queen of England didn’t have a handkerchief as good as the one that lay inside my vinyl purse. In just a few short minutes I had become the most fashionable girl around.

Handkerchiefs were first noticed in the early BC years by Catullus, a poet by trade, who mentioned one when a person used it to wipe away sweat from their brow. Later in France the handkerchief became a fashion statement, wrapped around one’s neck keeping the sweat off your body, women wrapped them around their purse handle for a spot of free-flowing fashion. Sometimes men kept them in their hats or their front suit pocket and women in their cleavage. Enough said about where grandma kept her hanky.

If you are looking for a strange but true fact about the valuable cloth, let’s consider Queen Marie Antoinette, and her King, Louis XVI (of France). In 1784, Antoinette wanted her husband to make a law that handkerchiefs could only be square in shape, and her husband wanted none of them to be bigger than his handkerchief at 16 inches squared.

The second strange fact would be how the rich handkerchiefs were made of fine cloth, covered in lace, brilliant embroidery and even your initial stitched in the corner. These handkerchiefs were forbidden to go anywhere near your nose. You could wipe your nose with your sleeve or anything else, but not that handkerchief. Often the wealthy would take their fancy handkerchiefs to balls, parties, the theatre for some private talk to the men. Yes, ladies you could silently send messages to men with the delicate cloth! Never do this in a church (for that was a sin in God’s eyes) but most importantly your neighbours could see this happening and think quite badly of you.

A few messages were:

1.) Drawing it across the cheek - I love you

2.) Across the eyes – I am sorry

3.) Across the forehead – Look we are watched

4.) Through the hands – I dislike you

5.) Dropping it – We will be friends (I am unsure what kind of friend they mean)

6.) Folding it - I wish to speak with you.

I love the old movies, black and white and oh so over dramatized. Two men in armour are set to duel. One strides up on his horse to the beautiful lady in the gallery and she gives him her delicate handkerchief, then he gently places it on his helmet for good luck. Oh, how they swooned.

Along with spots in movies handkerchiefs became advertising pieces. Lithographed coloured pictures of movies, companies selling a product of whatever they could think. A lot of these colourful scraps became patches on clothing, worn upon your head to hide your curlers and even made into quilts.

Kleenex! We have all heard that word. Yes, this is the item that would change the life of a handkerchief. During the war, an invention was made to cover the soldiers face when the enemies released gas. The Kleenex would help keep the soldiers from toxic chemicals. Kleenex didn’t quite meet the job, but they did find it was great for taking off women’s makeup. With more testing Kleenex became the winner for blowing noses, cleaning sweat from your face and more. It was the sanitary way to go but, don’t shun the handkerchief people. There are many who prefer handkerchief to Kleenexes. I say go for It. As long as you are doing the laundry.