18th Century Muffatees
This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
This page might well be called “Tracking the Mysterious Muffetee.”
There’s an accessory that we know was called a “muffatee” — in one of several possible spellings — but the definitions vary, and we don’t have a good illustration pointing out precisely what it is.
The strongest contender for understanding what is a muffatee is a tube (often made of knitted wool) that men and women wore over their forearms and/or wrists. The Dictionary of Fashion History defines it as “small wrist muffs made in pairs, worn for warmth or to protect the wrist ruffles when playing cards,” citing the Purefoy letters (“Pray buy my mother a pair of black silk French muftees for the hands … they must be with thumbs to them,” though I can’t find this in the 1931 edition).
Costume of Colonial Times provides the following definition: “Muffetees were what we would now call wristlets, and were worn by men, and possibly by women. The sleeves of men's coats were made very short in order to display fine lace or lawn wrist ruffles. Hence the wrists were thinly clad and much exposed to the cold. Long gloves with gauntlets were worn for protection, and muffetees. These were of fur or woolen. In the Boston Gazette and Weekly Journal of November 1749, ‘Men's fine Worsted Gloves and Muffetees’ were offered for sale; and in the same paper, in 1755, ‘white black and colour'd Muffetees’ were advertised. They were also knit of yarn."
This notebook page collects additional references to muffatees from the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Muffatees … maybe?
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
These images (I think?) show 18th century muffatees, and how they were worn. Some of the women in Hamilton’s Cries of Dublin (1760) wear them on their wrists and forearms, like the vegetable-seller in “A Green Stall at the Root Market.” Many of the 18th century examples seem to be tubes, without holes for the thumbs — like the early 19th century knitted wool wrist warmers worn by the banker Thomas Coutts (V&A 371Y to Z-1908).
Francis Bremar advertising a list of wares for sale including muffatees and “French muffatees” in The South-Carolina Gazette, November 12, 1750
“This is to give Notice, that Elizabeth Boyd, … will continue, as usual, to graft Pieces in Knit Jackets and Breeches, not to be discern’d, also to graft and foot Stockings, and Gentlemen’s Gloves, Mittens or Muffatees made out of old Stockings, or runs them in the Heels: She likewise makes Children’s Stockings out of Old Ones; at a very reasonable Rate.” (New York Gazette, Revived in the Weekly Post Boy, April 1, 1751)
Parker and Garrett advertising a list of wares for sale including “mens muffatees” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, April 4, 1751)
Samuel Howell advertising a list of wares for sale including “ſaxon green muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, September 20, 1753
William Grant advertising a list of wares for sale including “ſilk and cotton gloves and muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, October 18, 1753
John Head advertising a list of wares for sale including muffatees in The Pennsylvania Gazette, November 8, 1753
Isaac Jones advertising a list of wares for sale including muffatees in The Pennsylvania Gazette, May 30, 1754
“ANN SCOTTON … GRAFTS, mends, and runs ſtockings at the heels in the neateſt manner, likewiſe makes womens mittens, muffatees, childrens ſtockings, and mens Gentlemens knit jackets and breeches.” (The Pennsylvania Gazette, April 29, 1756)
Thomas Preston advertising a list of wares for sale including muffatees in The Pennsylvania Gazette, December 1, 1757
“MUFFETEE, S. (a diminutive of muff) a kind of ſhort muff made of worſted knit, and worn upon the wriſt to keep that part of the ſhirt clean” A New Universal English Dictionary, 1759)
Mary Grant advertising a list of wares for sale including “ſilk mits and muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser, March 1, 1759
“[John] Child. There was but one piece tried to be let down by that rope; all the other pieces where toss’d down; it was soft ground, and the fall made no great noise. [John] Guest had on a pair of mittens; that is, knit gloves, and a pair of green muffatees.
Q. Look at this mitten here produc’d.
Child. He takes it in his hand. This is one of Guest’s, I believe.
Q. Look at these green muffatees. He takes them in his hand.
Child. These are the same he had on.
Mr Darking. I found this odd mitten, and these muffatees, on the top of the church, the day after it was robb’d.”
(Trial of John Guest et al., 30th May 1759)
James Dundas advertising a list of wares for sale including “ſpotted ermine, white, green and ſcarlet muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 10, 1760
John Head advertising a list of wares for sale including “worſted and ſilk muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 17, 1760
Philip Benezet advertising a list of wares for sale including “green muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser, November 5, 1761
“On her head, in full of all accounts, she had an old black-laced hood, wrapped entirely round, so as to conceal all hair or want of hair. No handkerchief, but up to her chin a kind of horse-man's riding-coat, calling itself a pet-en-l'air, made of a dark green (green I think it had been) brocade, with coloured and silver flowers, and lined with furs; boddice laced, a foul dimity petticoat sprig'd, velvet muffeteens on her arms, grey stockings and slippers.” (Horace Walpole writing to Sir Horace Mann on January 29, 1762, about Lady Mary Wortley Montague)
William Roberts advertising a list of wares for sale including “worſted muffetees” in the Maryland Gazette, August 4, 1763
“FOUND, CONCEALED in a hollow tree, on the 25 Mile creek, being goods ſtolen by the Robbers, viz. … a pair of light blue muffatees, with a green and red ſtripe near the fringe” (The South-Carolina and American General Gazette, October 16, 1767)
George Walker at the Stocking Manufactory advertising a list of wares for sale including “Mens cotton and worſted muffatees, of all ſorts” in The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, November 19, 1765
“MUFFETEE, S. [a diminutive of muff] a kind of ſhort muff made of worſted knit, and worn upon the wriſt to keep that part of the ſhirt clean.” (The Royal English Dictionary, 1771)
Nicholas Brooks advertising a list of wares for sale including “a neat aſſortment of muffatees” in The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser, September 2, 1772
“WILLIAM COULTER, HOSIER At the Leg and Garter, fifth ſhop eaſt of the entry to the Exchange, Edinburgh, HAS juſt now got home from the beſt Manufacturers, a neat aſſortment of HOSIERY GOODS for the ſummer trade, which are quite freſh, and will be ſold upon very low terms. The GOODS conſiſt of … Thread, Cotton, and Worſted Night Caps and Muffatees” (The Edinburgh Advertiser, July 4, 1775)
Charles Wallace advertising a list of wares for sale including “thread, cotton, and worſted uffetees” in The Edinburgh Advertiser, December 15, 1775
“JAMES BUTLAND, LACE-MAKER … MAKES and ſells the following articles wholeſale and retail, viz. All kinds of uniforms for officers and ſoldiers, in gold, ſilver, ſilk, worſted, or thread, made to any pattern, for trimming hats, clothes, &c. ſilk ſword belts, velvet binding, very fine white muffatees, fit for officers or ſoldiers to exerciſe in, together with all kinds of laces and fringes, where ſtore-keepers, coachmakers, upholſterers, hatters, ſadlers, and others, may be ſupplied with any quantity, either in town or country, on the moſt reaſonable terms.” (Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, February 19, 1776)
“An acct of things, carryd up, wth me, To Claverick, in ye year 1779 & c. … a pr of mittens, a pr of muffittees” (Ezra Tilden’s belongings and knapsack contents, 1776 to 1780)
V&A 371Y to Z-1908, a pair of knitted cream wool wrist-warmers worn by the banker Thomas Coutts, c. 1800-1817
“This was very obliging to Mary, because she wished, as Frank knew, to have employed this morning in knitting for Colonel Birch a pair of scarlet worsted cuffs, or bracelets, by some called wristlets, by others comfortables, by others muffetees, by others kitty cuffs.” (Frank, a sequel to Frank in Early Lessons, 1822)