The earliest handkerchiefs were called facials and used in religious ceremonies.

Later they were known as hand cloths, mokadors, handcoverchiefs and mukinders.

People had always used their sleeves or carried a cloth (which were kept well out of sight) to wipe their noses.

By the end of the fifteenth century the upper classes used them for decorative purposes. They were taken out of pockets and put on display and remained fashionably popular for centuries.

Knights tied a Lady’s handkerchief to his helmet for good luck in jousting or on the battlefield.

Marie Antionette did not like round, oval, or rectangular hankies so her husband King Louis XVI introduced a law in France stating that handkerchiefs must always be square and no bigger than 16” x 16”.

Made of fine linen or silk, handkerchiefs were used as accessories and decorated with tassels or edged with delicate lace and monogrammed. They were an extremely expensive luxury item and doused with perfume costing as much as five shillings a bottle.

Poorer people carried cambric or cotton squares.

Like watches, hankies were a favourite of pick pockets, quite easy to
snatch and conceal and if the thief was caught the punishments were
severe.

In 1765 Mary Marshall of Luppitt stole a cotton handkerchief from William Searle. It was worth threepence, and she was whipped.

In the same year Mary Stapleton of Yarcombe stole a handkerchief of the same value and sent to prison for six months.

In 1869 a reward of £5 was offered for the return of Honiton lace handkerchief that was stolen in Exeter.

Victorian ladies used fans and handkerchiefs to send secret messages to gentlemen. Drawing her handkerchief across her face meant ‘I love you.’ Held to the left cheek meant ‘no’, held to the right cheek meant ‘yes.,’ and if a Lady threw her hankie over her shoulder, then it meant ‘follow me.’

It became fashionable for brides to carry a Honiton lace handkerchief with the motifs matching the lace in a veil.

During the global flu pandemic in 1918 Kleenex cleverly used the slogan 'Don’t carry a cold in your pocket’ in their advertising campaigns for paper tissues and today they still dominate the market.