Can you imagine a country that puts a spinner on its currency?
This is a 250-ruble note from Armenia, issued in 1919. It shows an elderly woman plying yarn from a swift with a charkha.
I particularly like the halo-like sunburst behind her.
It occurred to me recently that I haven't posted many (any?) spinners from the US.
(click for BIG)
So I give you this intent spinner and her pouting child from West Virginia from the late 1800's. This is a photograph rather than a postcard and is, consequently, precious as it is very probably the only one in existence. I wish I knew more about her, but the photo bears no more identifying information.
One very interesting aspect of this photo is the
preparation of the wool she is spinning--rolags produced by a wool carding mill. I have seen very few images of spinners working with this form of fiber. Her rolags are quite
different from what we contemporary spinners call rolags; they are very thin and airy and are two or three feet long.
The bit of fiber hanging from her left hand is the unspun part of the rolag. The white bundle hanging off the tension handle of her saxony wheel is a large number of these rolags, waiting to be spun. Rolags such as these are a perfect preparation for woolen spinning; they practically spin themselves.
In the 19th century in the eastern US almost every stream--no matter how small--and every river was lined with mills. Mills for every purpose from wood turning to manufacturing brooms,to grinding grain and corn. Chief amongst such mills were have been woolen mills.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, one of the earliest uses to which
mill machines were put was to process wool. Everyone needed wool for clothing and bedding, and at this time many people raised sheep and spun and wove their own fabrics, especially in rural areas.
People would deliver their wool to the mill and receive back the processed fiber, either in rolag or batt form. People who did not raise their own sheep could also purchase the processed wool from the mill.
I have witnessed this process, myself, at Old Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts on these water-driven carding machines. The one in the foreground produces rolags, and the one behind produces batts. If you are ever in the area, a visit to the woolen mill would be well worth your while.
Happy Halloween!
You must click for big.
This lovely, "The Spinner," is a woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497?-1543), best known for his portraits with lush and exquisite textile detail, as with the older Hal here, and for his woodcuts of the Dance of Death.
That giant distaff of hers, stuck full of full spindles, has gotten me to thinking about witches and their broomsticks. While contemporary images of witches flying on their brooms shows the broom portion behind the witch, earlier images sometimes show the "broom" portion in front of the witch. Perhaps witches don't fly on broomsticks at all, but on distaves. What say you?
"C'mon, baby, just a little sip. Let's have us a little party, just you and me, huh?"
"Back off, fella. Can't you see I'm spinning here?"
"Woman with Spinning Wheel, Man with Jug," painted in 1570 in the Netherlands.
Pieter Pietersz (1540/41-1603)
(click for big)
These spindle whorls, together with many hundreds more, were collected in the Teotihuacán Valley in Mexico in the early 1900s and date to the period of 200 to 800 a.d.
(click for bigness and beauty)
Some are stone, some are ceramic, and the largest one is about 2 1/2 inches (65 cm mm) in diameter.
These spindles would have been used as support spindles to spin cotton as shown here.
Here's a happy spindler in Serbia showing off her fistful of Russian style support spindles. Doesn't she look like she's enjoying herself?
Hmm. Maybe it's not the spindles that are making her feel so happy.
I wonder what's in that pipe?
(click to biggify)
Her Majesty Queen Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, Spinner
A recent news article * about Prince Charles giving Camilla two sheep for her 60th birthday prompted a question from a reader of these pages about Camilla, "Don't tell me that next she will be spinning that wool herself. Does she look like a spinner to you?" To which question I respond with the above photo. Royalty are not above the humbler arts.
My understanding is that QV did, indeed, spin for pleasure. So who knows, perhaps Camilla will spin her new sheep's fleece--but those are some pretty little shoes to fill.
*
![clip_image001[1]](http://habetrot.typepad.com/habetrot/WindowsLiveWriter/clip_image001%5B1%5D.gif){kind=small}
20/07/07 - News section
Happy birthday to ewe! Charles gives Camilla two sheep
By REBECCA ENGLISH
She already has several wardrobes of designer clothes and enough diamonds to open her own jeweller's.
So when it comes to finding that special 60th birthday gift for the Duchess of Cornwall, what do you give the woman who has everything?
The answer, so far as her husband Prince Charles is concerned, was simple. A handful of plants for her garden -- and two large, long-haired sheep.
The Mail understands that Camilla is delighted with her gift of a rare-breed ram and ewe, which will be joining the flock at Home Farm, Charles's organic establishment just down the road from Highgrove in Gloucestershire.
The prince, who is patron of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, probably paid about £300 per animal.
He has already invested £10,000 on two rare fell ponies for the duchess to ride at Birkhall, their Scottish retreat.
"The prince and the duchess are passionate country people who are very concerned about the demise of rarebreeds in this country," said a friend of Camilla.
The sheep are likely to be used for breeding and wool rather than eating, although as the prince is the founder of the Mutton Renaissance Club, the duchess might one day see them served up as Sunday lunch.
The friend said: "The Royal Family have so much already that they don't actually give wildly extravagant presents.
"Their gifts tend to be more thoughtful -- although some may view them as a little bit crazy.
"Camilla is, in fact, absolutely chuffed to bits."
A spokesman for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust added:
"We are delighted to hear that the prince has chosen to support this country's rare breeds.
"It sounds like he may have gone for something like the Lesser Long Wool or possibly even the Cotswold sheep, both of which are under threat of extinction.
"He has already bred a large flock of Hebridean sheep on his farm which, although they have thrived in recent years, are still very much at risk.
"They are big black or grey animals whose fleece is very much in demand by traditional hand spinners and are worth up to £300 each.
"The prince is very passionate about the work we do -- the fell ponies he recently bought were of a very rare bloodline and extremely valuable -- so it is wonderful that he is actively helping to restore Britain's native livestock to their rightful place in our countryside."
According to friends, Charles has also chosen a selection of hardy perennials for his wife -- who is an extremely keen gardener -- to plant in a small plot she has been given at Highgrove.
"Camilla loves to unwind by pottering around in her patch," said one. "The gardens at Highgrove are quite formal and very much the prince's pet project but this is a little plot of land that she can call her own. By all accounts, she is equally green-fingered."
Find this story at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=469806&in_page_id=1770 ©2007 Associated New Media
This Delft tile showing a shepherd and his sheep dates from about 1675.
Delft tiles of this sort originated in Holland in the 1600's and often depicted people going about their everyday tasks.
This tile from about 1725 shows what our shepherd's farm house might have looked like.
The tiles also often showed landscapes and cityscapes. For some examples of various motifs, look here.
The tiles were used in large groupings rather than individually. You can get an idea of what the interior of our shepherd's home might have looked like from this postcard from the 1930's.
I had no idea that Cupid is a spinner.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
