Minneapolis Institute of Art

Magasin des Modes Nouvelles, Troisième Année, Vingtième Cahier, 30 Mai 1788

Date

May 30, 1788

Medium

Hand-colored engraving, letterpress

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Often the smallest details carried the greatest symbolic weight. Even men’s shoe buckles, seen here in the hand-colored engraving from this issue, were costly accessories purchased from jewelers that conveyed partisan commentary in form and materials. A royalist pre-revolutionary solid silver buckle with the king’s initial “L” (for Louis) would become a political fl ashpoint the following year, not only for its imagery. Supporters of the Revolution donated thousands of jewelry items, including shoe buckles, to the National Assembly for conversion into money. In an era of economic crisis, buckles made from inexpensive copper, not silver—or better yet, ribbon ties—were deemed patriotic and egalitarian. By November 1789, devotees of the new nation could choose from buckles in the shape of the Bastille prison (top)—complete with ramparts and tiny cannons—or (bottom) ones symbolizing the Third Estate (commoners). According to the description, the latter took its form from a triangular square ruler utilized by masons and architects. France, Europe

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