Images(2)

Needle case

Date1800-1820

OriginEurope

MediumBone, glass, paint, gilt brass

DimensionsOL 3 1/4 in.

Credit LineAnonymous gift.

Object number1971-3457,10

DescriptionThis is a rectangular, bone needle case consisting of a lid and case. The case has an oval shaped glass panel with a miniature painting of a woman in a black dress sitting on a bench. This panel is bordered with a gilt band. The lid has two gilt bands and a square shaped glass panel on the front with illegible text.Label TextStitched in Time:
What sort of tools might a woman need in her needlework pursuits? Retail advertisements throughout the 18th and 19th centuries often group the fiber arts accoutrement, including sewing and knitting needles, scissors (both with their respective cases), buttons, awls or punches, thimbles, thread, pins, knitting sheaths, and more. Like needlework, these practical tools were often decorative.

In 1819, new mother Lucy Clark Allen bemoaned the disorganization of her own needlework tools as she started a new project. She wrote, "where is my work all this time? When I go to sit down to it, my thimble is under one chair, my scissors under another, my needle is lost or stuck into a far distant part...and by the time I have collected all my materials, down it must go again."ProvenancePrior to 1945, Mrs. DeWitt Clinton Cohen (New York, NY); 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Everett Tomlinson (Montclair, NJ); 1971, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)