Mr English’s Wig-Powdering Chamber at the Old Four Courts, 1780

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A 1780 advert in the Dublin Evening Post from Mr English, wig-seller, referencing his dressing room at the rear door of the old Four Courts in Christchurch, where Irish barristers of the period could get their wigs powdered daily.


Although most 18th century gentlemen wore wigs, it was regarded as particularly important for members of the legal profession to keep theirs in good order, and, for them, wig-powdering was a daily and – as the top illustration of a French law clerk submitting himself to the process shows – dramatic task!

By the time the new Four Courts opened in 1796, the requirement that wigs be pristine was no longer as strict, with many barristers going close-cropped when not in court, and there is no reference to Mr English continuing his business there.

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