"Ghosts of stockings" (and buttons)

"At a time when spirit photography was popular, George Cruikshank wrote and illustrated a humorous essay mocking what he saw as the absurdity of the mediums' claims to contact the dead. According to Cruikshank, if there are spirits of people, then for them to be able 'to present themselves before company', there must also be:

'... the spirits of trousers, spirits of gaiters, waistcoats, neckties, spirits of buckles and shoes and knees; spirit of buttons, ... spirits of caps, bonnets, gowns and petticoats; spirits of hoops and crinolines, of ghost's stockings.'"

A Discovery Concerning Ghosts, with a rap at the 'Spirit-Rappers', George Cruikshank, 1863

in: Ridout, Lizzie (2007), Homeward Bound or An Exercise in Collecting Beginnings, British Library, London