Comments on: Richard Dighton’s City Characters https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Tue, 23 Jan 2024 09:52:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Annie S https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/#comment-1540999 Tue, 23 Jan 2024 09:52:57 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198698#comment-1540999 Seeing illustration number 12 I can now understand what my grandmother, born 1890, meant when she referred to a man having a ‘corporation stomach’!

]]> By: Lynne Perrella https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/#comment-1540727 Mon, 22 Jan 2024 15:16:23 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198698#comment-1540727 Ah, readers, let’s lurk behind a column and see if we can overhear the dialog of these prosperous
men.

“……for upon my life I don’t know anybody to go to it…………..I don’t mind if a lunch is provided”
observed the gentleman with the excrescence on his nose. “But I must be fed.”

Thank you GA and Richard Dighton. (oh, and Charles Dickens)

]]> By: Jill Wilson https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/#comment-1540634 Mon, 22 Jan 2024 08:08:07 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198698#comment-1540634 These are great reference pictures for period costumes – thank you! For example I hadn’t realised that top hats had become fashionable that early.

]]> By: Mark https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/#comment-1540630 Mon, 22 Jan 2024 07:44:42 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198698#comment-1540630 Delightful and amusing, probably unlike the people being caricatured.
Similar to the Spy cartoons which came later, perhaps not as cutting.

]]> By: Christine Swan https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/#comment-1540628 Mon, 22 Jan 2024 07:26:45 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198698#comment-1540628 Dighton is my family name. I have looked for links to the “famous Dightons” but alas, yet again, I think my family aligns with the infamous.
The costumes are fascinating and depict very clearly the fashions of the day for gentleman. A large belly was obviously also very à la mode for city gents!

]]> By: achim https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/01/22/richard-dightons-city-characters-i/#comment-1540622 Mon, 22 Jan 2024 06:47:04 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198698#comment-1540622 Very interesting. And once again it shows me that 200 years ago there was a much more sophisticated and refined fashion than today. Today everything is STYLESS and UNIFORM — when I look at “the people” today I have to realise this: Young men and women with high-water trousers, bare ankles, ultra-ugly “sports shoes” (which, by the way, kill EVERY “STYLE”!!!) are the order of the day. And NOTHING has changed in what feels like 20 years. At least: flared trousers and wide trousers are finally coming back. What a blessing!

And when I look at the pictures, I also realise: even slightly more corpulent men look fantastically elegant in their outfits!

Love & Peace
ACHIM

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