PL. 08
Hand-cranked sewing machine
1999.2.1
About 1900
Sold as "The Merrin Queen" by Ottley’s Drapery, Tarrow
Cast iron, steel, painted wooden base with gilt transfers
30 cm high, 42 cm wide, 20 cm deep
Gift of the Duggan family, 1999
Hackling Loft
Bridget Duggan bought this machine from Ottley’s on weekly payments in 1901. She had six children and a husband on the walk, and she took in mending from other ropewalk families to cover the instalments.
Most of that mending was canvas aprons. Walkers wore them to protect their clothes from tarred yarn, and the tar made the canvas so stiff that hand-sewing it hurt. Her daughter remembered the needle breaking “about once a fortnight” and a tin of spares kept on the mantelpiece. The gilt leaves on the base are worn away exactly where a right hand rests.
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