![](\"https:\/\/projects.cah.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2016\/12\/FitzgeraldFig1.png\")
<\/a>There were many different uses for combs in the eighteenth century.\u00a0 Combs were used for grooming horses, for separating wool fibers, and for bug infestations as well as for decoration and fashion.[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 A letter by Mann Page to John Norton mentions currycombs, often used for brushing down horses, in a list of items purchased with tobacco.[2]<\/sup><\/a> Another use for combs was in the process of making thread from wool.[3]<\/sup><\/a> Different combs with different teeth configurations, which determined the thickness and texture of the threads, were employed for such tasks.[4]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 And finally, the dreaded infestation of lice apparently was at the top of the list for fine-toothed combs, which families today may appreciate the frustrations of the ever-elusive hair mite.\u00a0 What then, might you ask could entice a scholar to examine types of combs purchased from Glassford and Henderson?<\/p>\n The quality in which combs were made may very well have identified a need for higher quality items not available in what many may have been considered a dank and dirty back water.\u00a0 From October 1760 through December 1761, less than 45 combs were purchased with ready money.[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Now, it wasn\u2019t because there was a lack of population in need of combs, the inability to fashion a comb in colonial America, or the lack of biting mites.\u00a0 The combs purchased in the ledger, which were made of ivory, horn, or nondescript materials, very well could have represented an item of status sought by higher society.\u00a0 And the fact that these individuals possessed coined money could also have represented the ability to afford lavish items.<\/p>\n The combs purchased in the Glassford & Henderson ledger ranged anywhere from three pence to one shilling and eight pence with the most expensive combs being described as ivory.\u00a0 A further examination into other eighteenth century ledgers could potential lead to similar trends.<\/p>\n One thing for certain is that the want or need for extravagant items existed in eighteenth century Virginia. An individual living in the twenty-first century can easily identify with a Rolex or a Michael Kors handbag, conceivably an item equivalent to that of an eighteenth-century ivory comb.\u00a0 Perhaps a rural environment when compared to a richly expanding empire was not so rural after all.<\/p>\n Infographic on Combs<\/a><\/p>\n [1]<\/sup><\/a> Karen Clancy, \u201cAt the Spinning Wheel,\u201d interviewed by Harmony Hunter, accessed November 9, 2016, http:\/\/podcast.history.org\/2012\/11\/12\/at-the-spinning-wheel\/<\/a>; \u00a0David Robinson, \u201cThe Bugs that Bugged the Colonists,\u201d accessed November 9, 2016, http:\/\/www.history.org\/foundation\/journal\/autumn07\/bugs.<\/p>\n [2]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cA Page in the Life: Episode Six, Patsy Grenville\u2019s Day,\u201d Colonial Williamsburg, accessed November 9, 2016, http:\/\/www.history.org\/history\/teaching\/dayinthelife\/pdf\/ADITL_Episode6.pdf<\/a>; Hunter, \u201cAt the Spinning Wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n [3]<\/sup><\/a> Clancy, \u201cAt the Spinning Wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n [4]<\/sup><\/a> Clancy, \u201cAt the Spinning Wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n