A few more of my treasures.
When my parents were married, one of their wedding presents was a lovely green glass dressing table set. It always fascinated me from childhood and I can remember rearranging it on the dressing table in their room many years ago. It now sits on my dressing table and the colour scheme of my bedroom was chosen to complement it.
This lovely biscuit barrel belonged to my grandmother and it, too, brings back memories of my childhood......such as sneaking a biscuit from it while my mother was in another room. Well...the biscuit barrel wasn't airtight and I couldn't let the biscuits go all soft, could I ?
As someone who is interested in the age old craft of lacemaking it follows naturally that I would be interested in the antique needlework implements that can be found in many antique shops. In this photograph there is a small bone cotton barrel (bottom right centre)which is dated roughly as being made around 1790. Inside the barrel, with the handle sticking up through the lid, is a tiny shuttle onto which was wound the cotton or silk thread with the end threaded through a hole in the side of the barrel. This sat on the table alongside m'lady. When the thread ran out, m'lady's maid was despatched back to the shop to have more thread wound onto the shuttle because, heaven forbid, m'lady couldn't possibly do this job for herself ! Other items in the photo are needle cases, a pin cushion (next to the cotton barrel), star shaped silk winders, bone and mother of pearl stillettos and bone and metal crochet hooks. The bone implements are dated from the early part of the 1800s and could have been made in China for the beautiful work boxes of that era while the mother of pearl stilleto would have been made in the latter half of that Century. The scissors date from approximately 1820/30 and are still very sharp. The tiny scissors were made before WW1 and believe it or not they do work. At the top of the photo, the bone fansticks (early 1800s again) are waiting for me to make a new leaf of lace.
When my parents were married, one of their wedding presents was a lovely green glass dressing table set. It always fascinated me from childhood and I can remember rearranging it on the dressing table in their room many years ago. It now sits on my dressing table and the colour scheme of my bedroom was chosen to complement it.
This lovely biscuit barrel belonged to my grandmother and it, too, brings back memories of my childhood......such as sneaking a biscuit from it while my mother was in another room. Well...the biscuit barrel wasn't airtight and I couldn't let the biscuits go all soft, could I ?
As someone who is interested in the age old craft of lacemaking it follows naturally that I would be interested in the antique needlework implements that can be found in many antique shops. In this photograph there is a small bone cotton barrel (bottom right centre)which is dated roughly as being made around 1790. Inside the barrel, with the handle sticking up through the lid, is a tiny shuttle onto which was wound the cotton or silk thread with the end threaded through a hole in the side of the barrel. This sat on the table alongside m'lady. When the thread ran out, m'lady's maid was despatched back to the shop to have more thread wound onto the shuttle because, heaven forbid, m'lady couldn't possibly do this job for herself ! Other items in the photo are needle cases, a pin cushion (next to the cotton barrel), star shaped silk winders, bone and mother of pearl stillettos and bone and metal crochet hooks. The bone implements are dated from the early part of the 1800s and could have been made in China for the beautiful work boxes of that era while the mother of pearl stilleto would have been made in the latter half of that Century. The scissors date from approximately 1820/30 and are still very sharp. The tiny scissors were made before WW1 and believe it or not they do work. At the top of the photo, the bone fansticks (early 1800s again) are waiting for me to make a new leaf of lace.
posted by Needlelacer | 1:05 PM
1 Comments:
I looked at them and took a deep breath.
They are indeed treasures.
'doreen in Switzerland'.
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