The History of Needlework Tools and Accessories

Dust jacket notes: "This delightful book, based on a mass of original research, has won the reputation of a classic in its field; first published in 1966, its reappearance will be warmly welcomed. Much of its information on needlework techniques comes from older people who had been taught by word of mouth, from parents or grandparents, a link now broken by social changes. The needlework tools and accessories here fully described and illustrated - there are over 200 pictures - are beautiful and intriguing objects to study or to collect. they are also of the greatest interest to anyone concerned with the history and development of needlework itself. Over the centuries the gradually improving skill of the craftsman, changing customs and fashions, and the invention of new and more elaborate needlework techniques led to the production of ever more delicate tools. From Anglo-Saxon sewing boxes to the mass of Victorian paraphernalia, from scissors to stilettos for broderie anglaise or 'parfilage', their evolution is traced in detail and their purposes explained. Needles and needlecases, workboxes and tables, embroiderers' tools, cord-making, knitting, netting and knotting appliances, pillow-lace bobbins and less familiar articles are here - hemming-birds, yarningles, lucettes and drizzling-pins. There are many challenges here for the collector, who will find this an invaluable reference book, giving much assistance in identifying and understanding the less familiar articles. The book is also of great interest to the social historian, and to anyone who enjoys reading about the domestic ways of days gone by."