Rogers Series 5: Handwork stitching tools
Series 5. A tambour hook with an ivory handle and cap.
Stitching can be done by hand in countless manners, and at a time when certain stitched items were prohibitively expensive and therefore not widely accessible, sewers manually stitched their clothes, household items, and decorations on their fabric pieces. They often owned beautiful and well-crafted tools that facilitated their needlework pursuits. Some of these tools are still popular today, like crochet hooks and tracing wheels, while others are far less common, like knotting shuttles and netting tools.聽
This series is one of the largest in the collection, containing 12 subseries: netting tools, tambour and crochet hooks, lucets, knotting and tatting shuttles, stilettos and lace prickers, spool knaves, knitting sheaths, knitting needle guards, hem measures, tracing wheels, darners, and needle gauges. Many of these tools were used for decorative needlework, while some were used to construct or mend fabrics. It is likely that a few of these tools were originally part of a fitted workbox, but most were designed to be sold and kept individually. They are painted, carved, studded, or otherwise intricately decorated, and made out of materials including but not limited to ivory, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, silver, gold, steel, and brass. Like with most tools in this collection, the majority of the tools in this series are from England, with a couple of Dutch, French, and British Indian items and quite a few American pieces.