James Laver

James Laver, CBE, FRSA (14 March 1899 – 3 June 1975) was an English author, critic, art historian, and museum curator who acted as Keeper of Prints, Drawings and Paintings for the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1938 and 1959. He was also an important and pioneering fashion historian described as "the man in England who made the study of costume respectable".

Early life James Laver in 1918 from his 1964 autobiography 'Museum Piece - The Education of an Iconographer'. James Laver was born in Liverpool, England, on 14 March 1899, the second child and only son of Arthur James Laver, a maritime printer and stationer, and his wife, Florence Mary (née Barker), strict Congregationalists who brought up their children in a puritanical manner. He attended the Liverpool Institute. His academic progress was put on hold by the First World War, in which he served as a second lieutenant.

In 1919 he resumed his residency at New College, Oxford, where he earned a BA degree second class in modern history 1921. The next year, he earned a B.Litt in theology for a thesis on John Wesley. His college fees and travel expenses were subsidised by a wealthy shipping magnate, Lawrence Holt.

Laver and fashion Laver had an interest in fashion history, which emerged through a desire to date images accurately through the clothing depicted within.

In the 1980s and 1990s, feminist fashion historians such as Elizabeth Wilson and Amanda Vickery found these problematic, arguing that Laver and C. Willett Cunnington's views trivialised women's behaviour, role within the family, and their contributions to society and culture.

Indecent 10 years before its time Shameless 5 years before its time Outré (Daring) 1 year before its time Smart Current fashion Dowdy 1 year after its time Hideous 10 years after its time Ridiculous 20 years after its time Amusing 30 years after its time Quaint 50 years after its time Charming 70 years after its time Romantic 100 years after its time Beautiful 150 years after its time

Non-curatorial career To supplement his pay whilst at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Laver dedicated his free time to writing magazine articles, book reviews, play translations, dramatic criticism and light verse. One of the plays he translated was Klabund's The Circle of Chalk from the original German.

In 1932 he published a novel, Nymph Errant, about a girl returning to her finishing school, who went astray along the way and ended up in a Turkish harem. He ran a course on English literature and also re-organised the art class, introducing living models.

Marriage and family James Laver's autobiography 'Museum Piece - The Education of an Iconographer' - published 1964. Laver married the Irish actress Veronica Turleigh (1903–1971), a Roman Catholic in 1928. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter. They first lived in a flat in Piccadilly, London, which proved convenient for their theatrical friends, and later moved to Chelsea.

Death Portrait of James Laver from his 1964 autobiography 'Museum Piece - The Education of an Iconographer'. Laver died on 3 June 1975 following a fire at his home in Blackheath, London.

Select bibliography

Poetry Cervantes (1921) The Young Man Dances and Other Poems (1925) A Stitch in Time (1927) Love's Progress (1929) Ladies' Mistakes (1933) "Macrocosmos" Published by William Heinemann, London (1929) Limited edition of 775 "Macrocosmos" Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1930) Limited edition of 500

Fiction

Nymph Errant (1933) Winter Wedding – A Decoration (1935) Background for Venus (1935) Panic Among Puritans (1936)

Art history Portraits in Oil and Vinegar (1925) A History of British and American Etching (1928) Whistler (1930) "Vulgar Society": The Romantic Career of James Tissot (1936) French Painting and the Nineteenth Century (1937) Adventures in Monochrome (1941) English Sporting Prints (Ward Lock Limited, London, 1970)

Fashion Taste and Fashion; from the French Revolution until today (1937) Fashions and Fashion Plates (1943) Style in Costume (1949) Clothes (Pleasures of Life Series) (1953) Dandies (Pageant of History) (1968) Modesty in Dress (1969) A Concise History of Costume ('The World of Art Library' series) (1968), revised and retitled Costume and Fashion: A Concise History (1995, 2003)

Autobiography

Museum Piece; or, The Education of an Iconographer (1964)

Other

Design in the Theatre (with George Sheringham) (1927) Harriette Wilson's Memoirs of Herself and Others, ed. with a preface (1929) (London: Peter Davis) Nostradamus, or the Future Foretold (1942) The First Decadent: Being the Strange Life of J. K. Huysmans (1954) Oscar Wilde (1968) Victorian Vista (1954) Edwardian Promenade (1958) (London: Edward Hulton) The Age of Illusion, Manners and Morals 1750-1848, (1972) (New York: D. McKay Company)