A Silky Tale

Friday afternoon saw our usual bimble around the charity shops. Mum and I both live in market towns with their fair share of these and so we visit each on alternate weeks. Lunch always comes first with a good old catch up of the weeks news, and coffee and cake always follows. This part gives us time to rummage through any purchases in greater detail and 'ooh' and 'ahh' at our finds.

There was a lot of 'oohing' last Friday.

Possibly unlike most people I am always drawn to lumpy old plastic bags that have been tucked under a shelf. Sometimes they contain boxes of unused jockstraps (yes - that was a treat I managed to resist!) but more often than not they contain a collection of odds and ends that don't merit their own space on display. So when I saw some old embroidery hoops poking out of the bag I was immediately drawn in. A cursory glance at the rest of the contents saw another bag filled with thread - always useful - so I handed over my five pounds and went on my way.

The post bimble rummage was a treat. Not only were there various threads in beautiful colour ways but there were these beauties

Large wooden reels surrounded by luxurious silk thread

Closer investigation revealed this

 Which of course demanded further attention

By the power of the internet I was able to glean a little more information

An advert from 1917

Look at that! I wonder if these were ever used for dhooties, or indeed filoselle? The telephone number was also a treat - number 11 - not many around then I don't suppose. I wasn't able to find out much more about the company other than it was owned by the Brook family and the building is now listed. I'd love to know more if anyone out there could help.

This sort of find always fascinates me. I want to know who it belonged to, where they lived, what they used it for. 

Was this used for a wedding gown?

The richness of the colours are beautiful

I wonder if they ever went ahead and purchased the mustard?

The blue is almost luminous

I don't know how old these are - I'm guessing from the advert some could be from one hundred years ago - but they have survived the test of time and are still as vibrant and strong as they were when new. Will I ever use them? Who knows but for now I'm happy just staring at them and wondering what stories they could tell.

And if there is a moral to this story let it be this - for every bag of jock straps there is a bag of treasure.

Jane

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