A
busk (also spelled
busque)
is the rigid element of a
corset
placed at the centre front.
In
stays, the corsets worn between the
fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, the
busk was intended to keep the front of the
corset straight and upright. It was made
of wood, ivory, or
bone slipped
into a pocket and tied in place with a lace
called the busk point. These busks
were often carved and decorated, or inscribed
with messages, and were popular gifts from
men to their sweethearts.
In the middle of the nineteenth century,
a new form of busk appeared. It was made
of two long pieces of steel, one with loops
and the other with posts, that functioned
in the same way as
hook and eye fastenings on a garment. This made corsets considerably
easier to put on and take off, as the laces
did not have to be loosened as much as when
the corset had to go over the wearer's head
and shoulders. The second half of the nineteenth
century also saw the invention of the
spoon busk.
- The spoon busk was a
specialized kind of busk—the rigid element
of a corset placed at the centre front. As
its name implies, it was shaped like a
spoon, with the bottom part of the busk
widening and taking a dished form. It was
invented in 1879 by Joseph Beckel of New
York City.
- The spoon busk allowed a greater
reduction in waist size without producing a
bulge of flesh at the bottom edge of the
corset. This was a problem experienced when
corsets with straight busks of even width
were tightly laced: as the flesh of the
abdomen was, essentially, squeezed out of
place and appeared where there was no
pressure. The wide, dished part of a spoon
busk accommodated the abdomen, and at the
same time compressed and controlled it.
Corsets with spoon busks usually descended
to a point lower than the level of the hips
at the front.
