Dance Cards

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:13 pm Post subject: Dance Cards

What did a dance card look like? I always picture it as a list of dances, with lines next to each dance on which the men would sign their names.

If that's the case, did the ball's host provide the women with the dance cards since s/he would know the dance line-up? Did the dance cards come with the invitation or were they provided on the night of the ball?

How did the men remember who their partners were for each dance?

Sorry for all the questions. I guess I just got a sudden urge to learn more about dance cards.
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:27 pm Post subject:

Oh, Manuelita, you have just stepped into a hotbed of Regency controversy. There are many who do not believe dances cards existed in the Regency, that they came later in the Victorian era, possibly as early as 1830, but no earlier. It is often cited that no one has ever seen an earlier dance card, therefore they did not exist. Also, there are no references to dance cards in Jane Austen's books, or other books of the period, eg those of Fanny Burney.

I am of an open mind on this subject. I have searched and searched for Regency examples, but have only ever seen Victorian dance cards, which were either the sort of card you described, or a little booklet, or a little fan with each dance indicated on a separate stick. However, one of my favorite dealers in London, who has a HUGE stash of 18th and 19th century ephemera and really knows her stuff, claims to have seen several Regency period examples, and earlier, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. I want to believe her and hope she is right. One day I'll have to make a trip to the Bodleian and seek them out. I'd like to think dance cards did not spring into existence in the 1830s, but have been around for a long time.
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 6:45 am Post subject:

Oh wow, I didn't know dance cards were controversial! How interesting. Now whenever a Regency miss waves her dance card I'll wonder, did they really exist? Candice, thanks so much for the info! Dancing

<-- emoticon closest to dancing *g*
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 5:53 pm Post subject:

Great question Manuelita! I've often wondered about them too.

So would each deb carried her own? Would matrons carry them also?
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Upstart Joined: 03 Oct 2006 Posts: 34

I wonder too, who carried the dance card? What if there was a man who wanted to dance with a deb but her chaperone did not approve of, would he be able to sign her dance card?