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A Pearly King (feminine form Pearly Queen) is a person dressed in a traditional cockney costume covered in mother-of-pearl buttons. These costumes were treasured heirlooms, hand made and sometime representing much of a family's material worth. Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ...
The word tradition comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ...
St Mary-le-Bow The term cockney refers to working-class inhabitants of London, particularly east London, and the slang used by these people. ...
This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...
A piece of nacre Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic mixture of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of platy crystals of aragonite and conchiolin (a scleroprotein). ...
A small flat button Metal, plastic, and leather shank buttons. ...
According to one account, the pearlies derived from London costermongers who sewed pearl buttons onto their clothing. An orphan costermonger named Henry Croft collected any pearl buttons that had fallen off others' clothes and covered his clothing with them. [1] Another story claims that in the 1880s a cargo of Japanese pearl buttons was salvaged from the River Thames after the boat carrying it foundered. One of the salvagers, Henry Croft, decorated his suit, hat and stick with pearl buttons, making him the first pearly king. A costermonger was a street seller of fruit and vegetables. ...
// Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ...
The Thames (pronounced //) is a river flowing through southern England, and one of the major waterways in England. ...
The pearlies were originally elected by costermongers to safeguard their rights from rivals. Modern pearlies no longer have this role, but tend instead to devote their time to charitable activities. Each individual area of London once had a king and his 'donna' (from the Italian for woman), as their wives / queens are sometimes called -- one for each of the London boroughs, one for the City of Westminster, and one for the City of London.
The patterns used on pearly coats, which sometimes run in families, have special meanings, among them:
- Horseshoe = Luck
- Doves = Peace
- Heart = Charity
- Anchor = Hope
- Cross = Faith
- Wheel = Circle of Life
- Symbols of Playing Cards = Life is a gamble
- Flower Pots = Costermongers
- Donkey Carts = Costermongers
Henry Croft's great-granddaughter is a Pearly, holding title to Somers Town.
In Pop culture In the film, Mary Poppins, the song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" features a sequence of Pearlies. Mary Poppins is a series of childrens books written by P. L. Travers and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard. ...
The White Stripes are donning the traditional garb for their 2007 album Icky Thump album cover and press photos. The White Stripes is a Grammy Award-winning American rock music duo from Detroit, composed of songwriter Jack White on guitar, piano, lead vocals, and Meg White on drums, percussion and vocals. ...
Icky Thump (derived from Ecky-Thump, a Yorkshire colloquialism) is the announced title of the sixth studio album by The White Stripes. ...
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