Description:
English pearlware heart-shaped knitting sheath (or love token) which could be sewn or pinned in an upright position, using the six small rounds holes around the edges of the sheath, to a belt, waistband of a skirt or apron, or a cushion tucked into a belt. There is a small hole and slender tube at the center top between the two lobes of the heart, into which the end of a knitting needle could be inserted, which supported the weight of the knitting and stopped stitches slipping off the bottom of a double-ended needle knitting, while the knitter knitted with the other needle or had a hand free for other related purposes. These sheaths ranged from crudely whittled affairs to masterpieces, and were usually individually made and decorated by their makers to give as love tokens. At the beginning of the 19th century, this custom was confined to famers, etc., but gradually these became popular in the Victorian parlors where knitting was often a hobby rather than an occupation, made out of ivory, metal, glass, and ceramics as well as wood. This sheath is decorated in "Prattware" colors of blue, yellow, green and orange, after the potter, William Pratt, who developed the palette at his factory in Lane Delph, Staffordshire. These are the typical range of colors available for underglaze painted decoration, a palette limited to colors derived from metallic oxides that could withstand the heat of the glaze firing. The center of the token is decorated with a standing figure of Bacchus or Dionysus, who is wearing a flowing orange and blue dotted toga and holding up a bunch of grapes in his right hand, flanked by trailing ivy with flowers and leaves, all on a stippled background with a blue-edge rim. There is a small hole in the center top opening to a slender tube; and two round holes on the top of each heart lobe and four small holes on each side, which could be used to sew the token on to a heart-shaped pillow such as the token pictured in John and Griselda Lewis' "Pratt Ware." The December 1994 issue of "The Northern Ceramic Society Newsletter" showed a lustreware knitting sheath, found in America, with a similar figure of Bacchus and vine leaves.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.342.1 |
