Images(2)

Awl

Date1800-1860

MediumBone, ivory

DimensionsOL 3 in.

Credit LineAnonymous gift.

Object number1971-3465,11,E

DescriptionThis is an awl with a bone shaft and ivory finial. The finial is in the shape of a fist. There are two rings on the shaft, just below the finial.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 1971, Roy Everett Tomlinson and Eleanor Parsons (Montclair, NJ); 1971, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)