Tag / 18th century

by badsquiddogames

Designing Anne Bonny and Mary Read

I’ve done it again! “What’s that?” you call out in unison. I’ve only gone and overthought something relatively simple and made it a massive task to come back around to pretty much where I was at the start! But, to be honest, what else could you have come to expect from me? Certainly not slap-dash careless mini design! (read the research here if you missed it)

Digitised copy of the printed record of the 1720 trial of Rackham (alias Calico Jack) and of course Bonny and Read.

It’s been a while, but I can finally present you the designs for Anne Bonny and Mary Read. As with many of the figures we design, it starts off like “yeah, easy”, and then before you know it, you’re deep in the comments section of how to load and fire a flintlock pistol and reading trial documents from 1720’s Jamaica.

I think what overwhelmed me was the sheer amount of depictions of these ladies- the majority, of course, not historically accurate, and a fair amount of those somewhat… risque! Female pirates sure have captured people’s imagination and inspiration for quite some time.

The goal is to make these believable for the era, yet still compete with fantasy design for cool miniatures that you’d use in fantasy settings in addition to historical. This was similar to the brief for fellow pirate Jeanne de Clisson. Hopefully, we shall achieve these two as we did Jeanne.

Starting with Anne Bonny

As the two women were of the same era as well as crew-mates, it could have been easy to put them in the same gear. However, I have decided to use this as an opportunity to show off two styles of pirates – the working on the deck and the fancy “out on the town” look. I won’t even tell you off if you wish to swap their names around either (gasp).

USUAL DISCLAIMER: These sketches exist only to inform the sculptor what goes where, I’m not a professional artist and the further details are given via photo references which often can’t be put on the blog for copyright reasons (private collections and the such). The sculptor (Alan Marsh) also tweaks the design as he goes long to make sure it works for single piece casting and 28mm scale.

Figure Design by Annie Norman, 2024

It is said that when she went to land, Anne Bonny would dress up in all the finest styles, a common act of pirates. She could have been in a dress (future mini perhaps?) but I’ve gone for men’s clothing as it suits her story better. Also, she may well have been more comfortable in men’s clothing after all this time, and it could help protect her. And, well, this gear is cool. She has very similar clothing to our Julie d’Aubigny figure, being of a very close period and high society. The references for the coat and trousers are the same, as well as the buckle shoes. And I think it would be very daring of Anne to wear the red-heeled Louis fashion while being a criminal.

Operating in more of a lawless environment, she’s going to have her jacket OPEN (how many times can we gasp during this?), showing off her pirate shirt and… maybe a scarf? I pondered a scarf after scribbling, what do you think? Around her waist is a tied sash, with a belt over (it’s handy to tuck things between the two, guns and such) with the scabbard.

She can be painted historically with long white socks or all sorts of stripes, making her very versatile. I feel the shirt should be more fancy (or have the scarf), so it’s not the same as the standard sailor’s shirt. You can see the ruffled sleeves poking out of the coat.

The tricorne was very fashionable in the 18th century and, of course, another popular pirate icon, so she’s wearing one of those, probably with a nice gold trim! She’s off to shore to have a good, absolutely law-abiding* time, so she has to look her fanciest.

*ha!

“Two women, prisoners at the bar, were then on board the said sloop, and wore men’s jackets and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads, and that each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands… the reason of her knowing and believing them to be women then was by the largeness of their breasts.” – An account of Dorothy Spenlow’s testimony during the trial.

What is Mary wearing on deck?

Sailor gear of course! Accustomed to being at sea from her early days in The Royal Navy, I decided she should be in the same outfit as the chaps. It was said the pair dressed as men, but outside of that is pretty much speculation. I’ve come to the conclusion that they weren’t in disguise, especially on deck, but wearing comfortable sailor clothing because – sea is pretty treacherous!

Because she can’t rely on fancy fashion for a cool model, I got really stuck on Mary. I decided to show you my first attempt, bravely. It was a great pose but wouldn’t translate to sculpt very well, so I went with something a bit more classic. A miniature’s silhouette is important, and I feel this works much better. If you do think the first one looks better then shhh don’t tell me.

Figure Design by Annie Norman, 2024

I’m a sucker for big curly hair, and in this case, it can help set them apart from the male figures with shorter cuts. The sea air would give them fluffy locks- I can’t quite see them in the cabin with their ghds somehow. With Mary I’ve decided she is going to go for a “half up half down” as she’s tied it up out her face, with the help of the handkerchief, and kept the lower bit down to protect her neck from the sun.

The shoes are drawn the same as Anne’s, but that was from habit; they’re going to be the more simplified sailors buckle shoes, though at 28mm, they won’t look much different, just softer leather and less of a heel. She’s gonna have a machete with no scabbard and no holster for the pistol, as she just tucks them between her belt and sash – much less faffing for a busy pirate.

What’s next?

Next up, this very evening is…… Olga of Kiev! Whether the blog post goes up tonight is another thing, but it’s totally getting started. We’re also very overdue the relaunch and slight switcharoo, so again thanks for all the patience. It’s just been a heck of a year for me running from task to task!

I also need to send this to the sculptor Alan, with all the photo references and additional notes that I have gathered – after a nice cup of tea though.

Thanks all

Annie.

by badsquiddogames

Researching Anne Bonny and Mary Read

A vaguely contemporary drawing from A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Charles Johnson 1724
Mary Read. Many artists like to show them showing some boob as a “ha! you have been defeated by a woman!” which nobody probably did, but it gives them an excuse to draw boobs I guess!

I’ve decided to duel-research these ladies due to their crossed paths and similarities. It makes sense to! When it comes to designing, they’re going to end up similar gear…. BUT DIFFERENT! But most differences will be stylistic to make each one unique, don’t worry, they won’t be clones. When I get to the research of clothing of that era it will be applicable to both of them, but we can make them still very much their own peoples. It’s partly why I’m working on them in tandem – to make sure there are plenty of differences while maintaining a coherent deadly duo.

Meet Andy and… Mark! Both ladies were born illegitimate amid similar scandals and, therefore, disguised as young boys by their remaining parent in an attempt to cover up who they were. Mary was born in England, and Anne in Ireland; their paths didn’t cross until later, but we shall get to that soon.

Mary Read

Many of Mary’s skills that would later be very handy in piracy were developed when she joined the British Army as a man, starting on a man-o-war then moving to a foot regiment, and then mounted. It was here she met her husband to be, and they moved back to the Netherlands to marry and open an inn. This peacetime didn’t last long, as the fellow died and she rejoined the army.

It seems that Mary “fell in” to the pirate life, after a ship she was on got overtaken, and she was forced the join. She spoke with disdain about pirates, but had little choice. There were certainly not posters of pirates on her bedroom wall as a child.

Oh, who is this, THE Calico Jack and a particularly femme and alluring pirate called Andy?

Anne Bonny

Anne is very much written as the “bad girl” of the tale, in contrast to Mary’s “good girl” image of being dragged into the situation, which may have been exaggerated for a good story, but we all love a good story!

Anne Bonny by Anushka Holding via Wikimedia Commons.

Once it was discovered that she was indeed the daughter of the maid and not just an apprentice boy to her father, they fled to Carolina, where Anne met James Bonny. A sailor, James possibly fitted her vision of wild adventure and they eloped to New Providence, the Pirate Capital, to seek employment.

The marriage probably being a bit of a let down, Anne got a bit bored of ol’ Snitching Bonny (he’d taken up work aiding the capture of pirates), met this incredibly colourful and exciting pirate called…wait for it… Calico Jack, and ran off with him! “Oh who is this new crewmate, Mark Read? I feel we have some sort of connection, but what could it be?”

What is this, a crossover episode?

Anne and Mary from the TV Series “Our Flag Means Death” played by Minnie Driver and Rachel House.

Of the 2000-3000 pirates in the Caribbean at the time, only two are known to be women, and they ended up on the same ship! It didn’t take long for them to figure each other out, and according to some sources, a lot more than that. If you get my… drift. Again, it makes the story more interesting, and I, for one, stan our Bisexual British Buccaneers. I was actually reading about homosexuality at sea but that’s a whole other tangent. Pirates seemed a lot more chill about such things was the main takeaway though.

Together, and with the fancy Calico Jack and the rest of the crew (including Mary’s new husband) went and embarked on all things piratey. An article published in the Boston Gazette referred to them as “Enemies to the Crown of Great Britain”. They crammed much adventure into a time period that could have been as short as a year, but probably the most exciting year of their lives!

Pleading the what now?

Eventually, this piracy did catch up with them (just as those DVD adverts from the 2000s warned), and after a final fight, they were arrested, with most of the crew found guilty of various acts and sentenced to death.

Anne Bonny allegedly said to her husband as her final words, “If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” Nawww. This was in reference to him being drunk and a bit useless at the time they were captured.

Anne Bonny played by Clara Paget in the TV show “Black Sails”

Before they could get to the gallows, both Mary and Anne “pleaded the belly”, meaning they were pregnant and could not be executed until they had given birth. This bought them some time but Mary died of a fever in prison and Anne……? We don’t know what happened to Anne. Perhaps she also died in prison, or something else far more exciting, like rescued, escaped and carried on pirating til her old age!

There are some great contemporary accounts of how these women looked and behaved, but I will save those for the next article…. “Designing Mary Read and Anne Bonny”.

As always, I’ve condensed this to avoid making it a book—there’s so much I could write! Researching these two has been interesting as there are a lack of sources, but from digging around, I managed to find some credible sources and largely stuck to those rather than the more anecdotal tales, such as Anne Bonny stabbing a servant girl as a teen. With every one of these, sorting the legend from the history is a fun detective activity!