This is something I've seen a few people do. I figured it was mostly because it kept one handy, and who cared what other people think. (My grandmother does this, and who is going to tell her any different - besides, it's so cute when she does it.)
Then I watched the film 'Wilde' starring Steven Fry as the witty Victorian this weekend. There's a scene where Oscar Wilde has a cold and is laid up. He repeatedly produces a hankie from his sleeve, wipes his nose, and tucks it back in.
Is the hankie in your shirtsleeve a sign of high society, like holding your pinkie up when sipping tea? Maybe I should test this theory out.
7 comments:
Maybe there is something about Absinthe that makes someone want to put a hankie in their sleeve...
I'm dismayed that Wikipedia offers no entries on this ancient tradition...
Score a point for the librarian...
There's a book called Hanky Panky: An Intimate History of the Handkerchief (available for view on Google books), that explains that many societies often required of its citizens two handkerchiefs: one for "show and one for "blow." In Japan, ladies' kimonos had pockets sewn into the linings of the sleeves to store these hankies, the one on the left for the traditional white usable hankie and one on the right for a more ornate and colorful hankie for show.
There might be more to it, but I'd need to actually go to a libary.
Wow! An entire book written on the history of the handkerchief. Sounds like some useless info that is right up my alley...
Nice!!! To think some socities required two hankies, and most Americans just use the drapes.
Drapes???
Um... hello... shirt sleeves!
(Dan hides shirt sleeves, looks away and whistles)
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