A Gift Within A Gift

Object: Pin cushion/pillow, c. 1755

Accession #: 1986.0008

One historian describes “maternity” pincushions as being “popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a gift to new mother [and] were stuck with pins arranged to form a design or verse, and as pins were expensive, the great number that went into the arrangement were a welcome gift.”  Most pins, which were made by hand in the 17th century, sold in America had been imported until the 1830s, when the manufacture of one-piece pins began in Connecticut.  The invention of a machine to make pins in one piece was made in the 1820s whereas previously pins came in two pieces, the head having to be clamped onto the shaft.  One historian stresses the importance of pins by stating, “Aside from the needle, there was no more important tool, especially for plain sewing, than the ordinary straight or common pin.”

This small square pin cushion is decorated with pins that form initials and dates.  The pin cushion was probably made by or for Mary Scott Randolph who was the wife of Brett Randolph I, cousin of William Randolph III, of Wilton.  The pins form the initials of Mary and Brett’s children, “R.R.” (Richard Randolph II) born August 17, 1754 (on back); “S.R.” (Susanna Randolph) born December 8, 1756; “H.R.” (Henry Randolph) born October 7, 1758; “B.R.” (Brett Randolph) born February 17, 1760.  The pin cushion is off white satin. This pin cushion could possibly be a “maternity pincushion” made for the mother either before or after the child was born.  The gift was not in the decorative pillow or pincushion, but was the collection of pins which were used for various things such as fastening diapers. Pins, particularly new ones, were also thought to bring good luck.

As pins were easily lost, pincushions were made out of a variety of materials including paper and fabric. Scraps left over from dressmaking could have also been used to make the maternity pincushion. Popular shapes for pincushions were hearts, stars, spheres, and squares. One historian points out how pincushions made as gifts for newborns “typically bore a design as well as a message, like one described by Anna Green Winslow in her diary: ‘My aunt stuck a white sattan pincushion for Mrs. Waters. On one side, is a planthorn with flowers, on the reverse, just under the border are, on one side stuck the words, JOSIAH WATERS, then follows on the end, Decr 1771, and on the next side and end are these words, Welcome Little Stranger.’”

The pin cushion in Wilton’s collection most likely was made for decoration as its pins are still intact. However, the person who lovingly formed the initials and dates of Mary Scott’s children might have meant for her to have used the pins as well. Either way, the pin cushion has been preserved and was kept through the succeeding generations of the family and continues to show what these humble metal fasteners meant to everyday life in 18th century.
                                                                                              

Bibbliography

Kirsch, Francine. "The Beaded Pincushion Meant for showing, not sewing", The New England

Antiques Journal, March 2010.  28-32.  21 June 2012.

<http://www.antiquesjournal.com/flipbooks/NEAJMarch10/28.html>

Wiessman, Judith Reiter and Wendy Lavitt. Labors of Love: America’s Textiles and

Needlework, 1650-1930. Random House. New York, 1987.

Walton, Paula. “Pincushions”. A Sweet Remembrance. 21 June 2012.

<http://asweetremembrance.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=Pincushions&isThumbs=No

&curpage=2&Thumbs=>