When it was my birthday last year, a very dear friend who enjoys photography as much as I do, and knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces, gave me a wonderful selection of antique ribbons, buttons, buckles, lace and other fine notions. She also gave me three follow up tins of similar delightful gifts for Christmas. Those wonderful gifts have inspired me to create a series of still life images showcasing them along with spools of brightly coloured cottons from my vintage bobbin collection.
The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" on the 10th of May is "yellow on a black background", and I immediately thought of my bobbins of yellow cotton in various shades. I have used a selection of Dewhurst's Sylko reels of cotton in shades of bright yellow and Mid Yellow which date from between 1938 and 1954, several Edwardian miniature reels of yellow cotton from Coats, an array of examples of Anchor brand yellow cotton bobbins from between the wars including two featuring multiple shades of yellow on the one bobbin, and a "crazy daisy" of Semco crochet threads. I have accessories them with an old yellow Dean’s tape measure, a dainty yellow button and a yellow painted German made half-doll, who is a recent addition to my panoply of interesting curios and is making her debut here today. I hope you like my choice for the theme, and that it makes you smile!
The "half-doll" is a dainty porcelain or bisque figurine, fashionable in the early Twentieth Century with an upper body, head, arms, but no legs. These dolls were produced in the thousands at the height of their popularity by German factories such as Dressel and Kister, Heubach, Goebel and Kestner. Later they were produced in France, America and later still, in Japan. They commonly served as handles and toppers for fabric covers made for powder boxes on ladies’ dressing tables and small brushes, however they were also made for jewellery boxes, pincushions, tea cosies and other covers. In this case, my German half-doll is decorated in Eighteenth Century style dress, so she would have been made for a lady’s boudoir and was most likely the topper for a powder bowl. She stands at two inches in height and has been hand painted.
Belle Vue Mill, commonly known as Dewhurst’s, was built by Thomas Dewhurst in 1828. It opened in 1829 as John Dewhurst & Sons and was one of Skipton’s largest spinning and weaving mills. The mill’s position next to the Leeds Liverpool Canal meant that raw cotton could be shipped in by boats from Liverpool. Finished goods would then be sent back the same way ready for distribution. Coal to power the machine’s steam engines was also delivered by barge. In 1897 Dewhurst’s was bought by the English Sewing Cotton Co. It continued to produce Sylko, one of the mill’s most famous products. It was produced in over 500 colours and sold throughout the world. Sylko cottons are still available at haberdashers today.
In 1802 James Coats set up a weaving business in Paisley. In 1826 he opened a cotton mill at Ferguslie to produce his own thread and, when he retired in 1830, his sons, James & Peter, took up the business under the name of J. & P. Coats. In 1952 J. & P. Coats and the Clark Thread Co. merged to become Coats & Clark's. Today, the business is known as the Coats Group.
The Anchor brand can trace its history back to 1866 when the Clark family adopted the Anchor brand for their embroidery threads manufactured in Paisley, Scotland. Embroidery threads came into being circa 1812 when supplies of silk became unobtainable in the UK due to a blockade by Napoleon. Two weavers, James and Patrick Clark, turned their attention to cotton and managed to produce yarn which was sufficiently fine, smooth and strong to be used instead of silk for weaving. Sewing thread was primarily silk or linen at the time and the Clark brothers developed their cotton yarn into the first cotton sewing thread.
Semco Pty Ltd, was a textile firm situated on purpose in the seaside suburb of Melbourne called Black Rock. Semco began in 1907 as a small venture in the Melbourne city centre, where the acumen of businessman, Stanley Mullen, led to the importing of many paper goods such as postcards, paper transfers, cardboard goods and other printed items. In 1911 the city building containing Semco’s works was destroyed by fire. Mullen died not long after this but the new governing director of the firm, C H Mylis, had innovative plans for the business. He wanted the firm to become an exemplary modern enterprise that treated staff with fairness, created healthy and spacious working sites, and located factories in areas with surrounding gardens, recreational facilities and fresh air. His factory would eventually be moved away from the ugly, soul-stifling, foul-smelling city area to an outer suburb with sea breezes and open areas of vegetation. He also added cotton fabric products to the output and they soon became the staple items the firm made. By the early 1920s Semco had moved to Black Rock, then considered to be an outer suburb. Semco had a staff that included many young women. Congenial conditions and interesting work made Semco a local asset for workers. Women were creating new designs for the fabrics and paper products which included tablecloths, babies’ bibs, bedspreads, aprons, soft toys, children’s garments and many more. Unlike many other manufacturing businesses of that time, Semco purposely had no Saturday shifts, allowing employees to shop and have hair-dos before enjoying a relaxing weekend. The firm fielded Saturday cricket teams and owned a bathing box at Half Moon Bay nearby. Indeed, one staff member became the vice-captain of the Australian women’s cricket team that toured England in the 1930s. For many years Semco had a female cricket side in the women’s Saturday association. After the Second World War the firm stayed in production until the early 1990s when it was taken over by cotton merchants, Coates-Paton and manufacturing was sent offshore to New Zealand.
