{"id":4489,"date":"2022-02-05T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=26277"},"modified":"2022-02-05T12:21:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T11:21:13","slug":"collecting-pincushions","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/collecting-pincushions\/","title":{"rendered":"Collecting pincushions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Emma Longstaff\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 05 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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No sewing box is complete without a pincushion. This simple tool spans folk art and high fashion, from humble pincushions made from fabric scraps to luxury models by top silversmiths. Robert Bush, a dealer in antique silver, explains what makes them so collectable: \u2018Sometimes people are collectors of sewing tools, or they collect the work of the innovative silversmith Sampson Mordan, who invented the first self-propelling pencil and patented other clever new items, including pincushions. But lots of collectors are just passionate about pincushions. They\u2019re small, tactile and have loads of personality. And unlike guitars or vintage cars, you can fit quite a big collection nicely on the single shelf of a cabinet.\u2019<\/p>\n

The history of pincushions is tied closely to the history of pins. In Charlotte Bront\u00eb\u2019s Jane Eyre<\/i>, young Jane laments that the powers that be at Lowood School have falsely economised in purchasing bad needles, which spoil the fabric. Until the advent of mass production in the mid 19th century, quality needles and pins were expensive. Pins were even more laborious to produce than needles, as the pinheads needed to be fixed tightly to the shanks, adding to their costliness.<\/p>\n

Mechanisation made pins cheap and plentiful and in turn led to larger-scale commercial production of pincushions. In her book, Needlework and Embroidery Tools<\/i>, Eleanor Johnson describes how pedlars took pincushions made of wood, bone and base metals to even the remotest rural communities, while smart shopkeepers offered pricier pincushions wrought in materials like rosewood, ivory or silver.<\/p>\n

\""Collecting\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Silver-gilt coronation chair pincushion by Adie & Lovekin Ltd, 1910, sold for \u00a380 at Tennants<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Many women used their skill and ingenuity to make their own pincushions. Peggy McClard, an American antiques dealer specialising in folk art, particularly loves these homemade pieces: \u2018Women were using all their creativity and making things from what they had \u2013 and they often didn\u2019t have much, maybe just scraps of fabric cut down from worn-out clothes. They took something ordinary and decorated it in any way they wanted, turning it into something personal and beautiful.\u2019<\/p>\n

Peggy is also fond of the \u2018make-do\u2019 pincushions of the 19th century, which repurposed broken household objects: \u2018From the 1850s, American ladies\u2019 magazines included ideas and patterns for make-dos,\u2019 she explains. \u2018We see the bases of broken glasses and oil and spirit lamps being turned into pincushions, for example. During the American Civil War, all production was focused on the war, and the ports were closed. Even after the war, fabrics and other household goods were still scarce. So these were precious objects that weren\u2019t just going to be thrown away when they were broken. The women did something really creative out of necessity.\u2019<\/p>\n

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As shown in this collection of \u2018make-dos\u2019 from Peggy McClard, in centuries past resourceful women would recycle their broken household objects to create pincushions, with some weird and wonderful results.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In both the UK and the US, even before the mechanisation of pin-making, layette pincushions were sometimes given to celebrate the birth of a baby. They might pick out the newborn\u2019s initials or year of birth in pinheads or, much like a modern greetings card, add a message like \u2018Welcome Sweet Babe\u2019.<\/p>\n

Peggy explains that layette cushions also had a practical purpose: \u2018We don\u2019t come across layette cushions very frequently, possibly because women actually used the pins. There was an old wives\u2019 tale that pins caused pain in childbirth, so traditionally all pins were removed from a woman\u2019s home until after her baby was born, making these layette pillows an important and timely gift for the newborn.\u2019 Horrifying though it sounds to modern parents, until the invention of the safety pin in the mid 19th century, ordinary pins were used to fasten babies\u2019 cloth nappies and so a supply of pins was essential to new mothers.<\/p>\n

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