1 10 2 https://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/files/original/e97dbd1b24c6f4ac1d133f15f58d18e7.jpg 33621ee8edbc043e6de9d708203537b7 Exhibition Item Category Textiles Image copyright University of Edinburgh Item Location Private Collection Description This detail of a 19th century christening gown is a typical example of Ayrshire work consisting of firm satin stitches on fine cotton cloth with areas of cut-out cloth which are filled with fine, needlepoint lace stitches. It has a simple design of flowers and a trailing vine worked in a combination of solid satin stitches, curved lines of ‘laddering’, and overcast eyelets that anchor two types of needlepoint fillings. Traditional whitework items included sleeves, chemisettes, baby’s robes, bonnets and trimmings, though changing trends in nineteenth-century fashion also dictated different styles and products. For example, over 200 designs for fashionable embroidered collars were copyright-registered by the firm of Sharps & Co. of Paisley between 1843 and 1844. Irish lace was expensive and worn by only the wealthiest women whereas whitework offered a pleasing, affordable alternative. The whitework industrywas introduced to Ayrshire in the 1820s, with five principal producers listed in the Ayr Post Office Directory by 1830. Its production increased steadily over the next two decades. The New Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1834-45) show that there were nineteen parishes in Ayrshire alone where women were working as muslin embroiderers or ‘flowerers’. The intricacy and delicacy of the work shows the skill of its makers, though the notion of whitework as a congenial cottage industry fails to recognise the scale and speed of its manufacture in the mid-nineteenth century. Outline designs were printed on cloth by Glasgow-based, ‘sewed muslin’ manufacturers who distributed them to Ayrshire embroiderers in a putting-out system of production. Each design was sent with information on how long the embroiderer had to complete it and what rate they would be paid. Skills were passed from mother to daughter with single households often containing more than one sewer. A single hand could complete small items like collars, whereas more complex items such as christening robes could include the work of several women. Unfinished examples suggest that outlines and edgings could be completed by less experienced sewers whereas needlepoint sections demanded the skills of highly experienced embroiderers. Despite the beauty and versatility of Ayrshire whitework changes in fashion and mechanisation led to its decline as a large-scale, home-based craft industry in the 1880s. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Whitework Christening Gown, mid-19th century Ayrshire copyright and patenting design embroiderers Glasgow home industries https://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/files/original/e4e6665368524276f9e1e496a15395b7.jpg e85b5aea4c80b5eb559af55b8c1ac5fa Exhibition Item Category Textiles Image copyright © Shetland Museum and Archives Item Location Shetland Museum and Archives Description This photograph shows the eye-catching Shetland Stand from the Women’s Industries section at the Edinburgh International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art in 1886. It represents a group of women knitters as a community of craft workers, though three of the girls were from Mainland Shetland and three from nearby Fair Isle. The standing figure is Barbara Muir, sister of Margaret Currie who ran Currie & Co a truck-free shop buying and selling Shetland knitting from premises at Freefield Docks in Lerwick. The women attended the exhibition to raise awareness of the skills of Shetland’s knitters and to sell hand-knitted goods made on the islands. The unusual shape of the stand reflects its construction from whale jawbones, prize remnants from another important Shetland industry. Shetland flags are displayed on either side of the Shetland coat of arms with its distinctive longboat motif and a horizontal banner reads ‘Zetland and Fair Isle Knitters’. The display includes a spinning wheel, a woven kishie (basket) perhaps to hold skeins of wool, and tables on each side of the stand that are draped with fine lace knitted squares. A large lace shawl is one of the many items pinned and draped above the knitter’s heads in this photograph. Fishing and crofting were key industries on Fair Isle and Mainland Shetland but knitting was also economically important to the islands’ communities of women who supplemented their family income and sometimes fed their families on the proceeds of their handiwork. Girls were taught to knit as soon as they were old enough to hold needles, creating items of clothing - shawls, vests and socks – that could be sold to visitors or brokered through merchants. Cash payments for knitting were known but knitted items were more frequently exchanged for essential goods and provisions through Shetland’s cashless truck system. This came under scrutiny in 1872 when a Parliamentary Report revealed the economic realities of Shetland knitting. At a time when four-fifths of all the island’s women were thought to be involved in the hosiery industry - whether as spinners, hand-knitters or in subsidiary tasks such as carding wool of garment finishing - claims were made that when paid in goods rather than money the true value of knitting valued at nine shillings was often as low as four shillings (Report to the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, 1914). The Shetland Stand at the Edinburgh Exhibition was organised by G.H. M. Thoms, Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, Currie & Co and Mr Laurence of Fair Isle as an educational spectacle where visitors could see the processes of the industry – carding, spinning, dyeing and knitting - ‘practically shown’ by the deft fingers of six young women dressed in national costume. (Official Exhibition Catalogue p. 280). The Scotsman newspaper highlighted the display as one especially ‘worthy of notice and proving of great interest to visitors’. It offered an opportunity to bring makers and purchasers together, though prices had to be clearly tagged and items could not be removed by purchasers until the end of exhibition. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The 'Jaw Bone' Stand at the Edinburgh International Exhibition, 1886 aristocratic patronage Edinburgh exhibitions Glasgow home industries knitters shawls Shetland women’s industries