Thread Collection

Bookbinding Tools 1875
Various tools used in bookbinding, including a pair of compasses, a mallet, presses, a knife, a set square, needle and thread, and a gouge

Various shoemaking tools
Various tools used by a shoemaker or cobbler, including scissors, pliers, hammers, a skewer, a ruler and strong thread

Tailoring tools
Tools used in tailoring, including scissors, needle and thread, chalk, measuring tape, a ruler and a smoothing iron

Welsh woman with spinning wheel, Wales
Welsh woman outside a cottage with a spinning wheel, Wales. Date: late 19th century

How Navajo Indian Rugs are made - USA Date: circa 1930s

Factory at Paisley
Bird s-eye view of Messrs J and J Clarks Anchor Thread works at Paisley, 11 km west of Glasgow, Scotland. They are still Britains leading threadmakers

Woman spinning - India
Woman spinning on a traditional hand-made wheel, India

Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church, Paisley, Scotland. A gift to the town by Coats, a Thread Manufacturers. Date: 1908

Busts of seven principal heroes of the Trojan War. From left to right: Menelaus, Paris, Diomedes, Ulysses, Nestor, Achilles and Agamemnon. Sette principali Eroi della Guerra Trojana

Nettlefolds patent pointed screws, from Verity Electrical Supplies, Aston, Birmingham. 1903

The Improved Ladys Own Sewing Machine by Leigh & Crawford, Brooke Street, Holborn, London EC. 19th century

Faroe Islands, Denmark - Women Spinning
A woman working at a spinning wheel with two companions - The Faroe Islands, Denmark

The Dacca Twist Companys Sewing Cotton, Manchester
Advertising showcard, The Dacca Twist Companys Sewing Cotton, Manchester. Date: circa 1900

Mending Day, by Ethel Parkinson. A little Dutch girl sits mending a little boys breeches, while he stands uncomfortably with a towel round his waist

Advertisement for Kerrs thread, Newark, New Jersey, USA
An advertisement for Kerr & Co thread of Newark, New Jersey, USA. Keep your eye on Kerrs Thread. Sure to Please. Showing a young lady sitting on a giant reel of thread

Advert, Atwater Kent Model 30 Radio. 1926

Quest Embroidery Thread
Full page advertisement for Quest Embroidery Thread Date: 1928

Lace Making - first three processes
Lace Making - Winding and Threading, Bobbin Winding, Warping (1 of 2) Date: 19th century

Inventory
Sheet of paper, possibly the endpaper from a book, with a handwritten list or inventory in French dated 16 February 1605. With pieces of the binding thread attached in the gutter

Mr Snob the Shoemaker

Sewing Susan Needles and Threader
Sewing Susan, 49 silver eye needles with threader Date: circa 1950

The Life Guards - The Drummer and Band in State Dress. The silver kettledrums presented by William IV are richly ornamented with the Royal Arms

Tied up with wool, knitting. Text: I wish thread make their own socks by S. Hurley

c. 1890 China - Chinese street vendor - cobbler
c.1890 China - Chinese types and trades - street vendor - cobbler

Japan - machinery, for spinning thread, yarn
Vintage 19th century photograph: Japan - machinery, for spinning thread, yarn

Women spinning net thread in the Claddagh, Galway, Ireland. Date: 1870

Tree aloe, Aloe arborescens. Chromolithograph from an illustration by Desire Bois from Edward Steps Favourite Flowers of Garden and Greenhouse, Frederick Warne, London, 1896

German female haberdasher in a shop selling thread, 1492
German female haberdasher in a shop selling colorful ropes of thread and buttons, 1492. She wears a tall hennin with veil, popular in France and Holland at the time

Stained glass window portrait of a lady with armorial
Stained glass window portrait of a lady in hennin hat with tiara, next to unknown states armorial shield, helm and crest, 1495. Shield shows a wicker fence

Penelope and her attendants spinning thread
A depiction of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, with her attendants. Penelope sits on a chair at work on a thread. A servant takes away a mirror, and another brings todays cloth

Woman tacking a hem before stitching it
Woman tacking a hem with tacking cotton before stitching it. Date: circa 1940

Woman threading a needle. Date: circa 1940

Using a sewing machine to attach a lacy edging. Date: circa 1940

Sewing items, including needles, pins, scissors and thread
Sewing items: needles, pins, scissors, thread, chalk, thimble and tape measure. Date: circa 1940

Meltham Mills 1851
Meltham Mills, near Huddersfield. Brooks family, Royal improved, patent cotton spinning mill. 1851

An organ grinder and a poodle with spinning machine before an audience of fashionable women in bonnets with plumes, shawls and lace dresses

Alsatian peasant woman of Kochersberg, 19th century
Alsatian peasant woman in festival costume, Kochersberg, 19th century. Her bonnet and bodice are embroidered with silver thread. The black cravat is traditional to the town

Chinese woman reeling silk thread from wild silkworms, Bombyx mori, Qing Dynasty. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Andrea Freschi after Antoine Cardon from Henri-Leonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin

Cotton spinner and mantua maker, Qing Dynasty China. Woman spinning thread on a spinning wheel, and itinerant clothes maker with her tools in a basket

Chinese silk-cord or silk-twist makers, Qing Dynasty. Women twisting silk thread on an uprtight cone. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Andrea Freschi after Antoine Cardon

Woman spinner in bonnet and apron spinning wool yarn on a spinning machine. Handcoloured woodcut engraving from The Book of English Trades and Library of the Useful Arts, Phillips, London, 1818

Singer sewing machine. 1897

Arranging railway timetables, 1908
An ingenious system of threads used by railway timetable planners to secure the perfect working of a great railway system in 1909. This was achieved by stretching threads across a board

An early sewing machine. 1856

Curtis British Entomology Plate 23
Coleoptera: Siagonium quadricorne (Four-horned Staphylinus) [Plant: Mnium hornum (Thread Moss)] Date: 1824-39

Mrs Richard Yates by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) - oil on canvas. Portrait of the wife of a New York Merchant. Date: 1793

Spinning machine or engine 1843
A steam-powered silk spinning machine or engine at the Old Silk Mill, Derby. Date: 1843

A stitch in time saves nine 1866
A middle class mother sews her daugthers clothing with the little watching her. Date: 1866

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