Suited for Sewing

Object: Needle Case with Needles

Accession#: 1984.0067.A-K

The needle was so valuable in medieval times that even a wealthy woman owned only one.  The use of the needle was taught to girls at a young age.  Small air-tight containers became necessary to keep needles from getting lost while not in use and to keep them from rusting. An example of one these containers is this dual pineapple, screw top American or English 19th century vegetable ivory needle case, which contains nine tambour needles. From the last part of the 18th century to the mid-19th century, tambour needles were “one of the most fashionable needlepoint techniques in use.” This type of embroidery was taught to the women of higher status, such as the Randolphs, and was practiced at home.   

Tagua nut

The case is carved out of vegetable ivory, or the tagua nut of South America, which has been used as a raw material for over 160 years. The nuts grow in large clusters on the tagua palm which still grows at lower elevations in the tropical rain forests of Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Brazil. The owner of a factory that processes tagua into jewelry and decorations, notes that the tagua palm is the only “plant product that produces a material that is white, durable, and pure.” Nuts are extracted from the tagua palm and then dried for up to eight weeks. At that point the nut is able to be carved.

The tagua nut was brought from South America to England in small quantities in the 1820’s and 1830’s. This particular needle case, in Wilton’s collection, has two sides carved out of vegetable ivory resembling pineapples. The pineapple was first imported from the Caribbean and cultivated in European greenhouses in the 17th century. The European colonists carried the pineapple symbol to the Americas to represent “friendship” and an image of welcome. Due to its “seemingly exotic qualities and rareness” it became a symbol of hospitality in America and it was considered an achievement for a host to adorn their table with a pineapple.

The needles that are in this particular needle case are tambour needles. Tambouring, the precursor to crochet, is a type of embroidery where chain stitches are worked with a hook through a piece of fabric stretched taut on frame. Tambour is the French word for “drum,” the stretched background resembling a drum. The work originated with Indian leather workers who used it to embellish the belts they made. Tambour needles were generally made of steel and affixed by the means of a small screw into a handle made of ivory or bone. Patterns for tambour, or “white” work, became available in women’s magazines by the early-19th century.

In a 1830 volume of Godey’s Magazine, a popular women’s magazine, describes tambour, its proper material, and methods. The magazine explains that if tambour is “intended to work in crewels, a colored pattern will also be of service, as a guide to the selection of the worsteds, which are usually worked into beautiful groups or wreaths of flowers, in their natural colours, principally for the bottoms of dresses.” Patterns would be done in indigo so they would disappear after washing. According to one historian, “Tambouring was highly fashionable and an easy and elegant accomplishment for aristocratic ladies in their drawing room and allowed their delicate hands to be seen to advantage.” It was popularized by women such as Madame de Pompadour, a member of the French court and the official mistress of Louis XV, who is depicted in a portrait at her tambour frame.

Madame de Pompadour

In the 1770’s, teachers advertised their abilities to educate students on how to do this “new technique.” For example, a notice in the South Carolina Gazette (Charleston) for September 19, 1774, has Ann Sage advertising her ability to teach young ladies “Reading, Tambour, Embroidery, and all kinds of needlework.” Tambour work might have been taught to the Randolph girls around age 7 or 8, when they were starting to learn these skills from their mother or a private tutor. They also could afford a needle case that was made out of a valuable material, such as vegetable ivory, which would have kept their needles together and accessible in a pocket or on a table.

Bibliography

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Image Credit

http://www.pueblito.ca/materials.php

http://www.flickr.com/photos/funnybunny/5852489807/