Topic: Linen Smoother 1840 or 16th / 17th century - Gribdae Farm Kirkudbright

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Still looking into this every now and again

In this book published 1897, there is mention page 440 (starting mid page) 441 and 442 of glass linen smoothers or slickstones.  The author says (bottom page 441) he owns three glass mushroom shaped items.  It was published in 1897 and doesn't appear to talk as though these are recent types of household items?  That said, he talks about one without a handle, found in a Viking grave and in a museum in Scotland and does say 'The same form was recently in use in Scotland'.  Obviously the word 'recently' doing a lot of heavy lifting.  No idea what that means:
Quote: 'A small slickstone of black glass, without a handle, was found in a Viking grave of a woman in Islay. The same form was recently in use in Scotland. 
A large one is in the Kirkcudbright Museum(he gives the source for this sentence  as "Vest.Ant.Derb pg29"). 
Another, provided with a long smooth handle has likewise been figured.'.

Source: The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain, Sir John Evans K.C.B., published Longmans, Green & Co 1897(second edition I think)
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Ancient_Stone_Implements_Weapons_and/HOUNAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=slickstone+buckram&pg=PA441&printsec=frontcover



Interestingly in this previous edition of the book which was published 1872- Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, the discussion of glass slickstone is on pages 394-396 and there is no mention of the Viking grave find or the one in the museum in Scotland. 
And no mention of the handless glass form being used 'recently' in Scotland.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_ancient_stone_implements/eFdG0ecbCggC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=slickstone+buckram&pg=PA395&printsec=frontcover

Is it possible the word 'recently' means more recently than Viking?

[flying free]

Still looking into this every now and again

In this book published 1897, there is mention page 440 (starting mid page) 441 and 442 of glass linen smoothers or slickstones.  The author says (bottom page 441) he owns three glass mushroom shaped items.  It was published in 1897 and doesn't appear to talk as though these are recent types of household items?  That said, he talks about one without a handle, found in a Viking grave and in a museum in Scotland and does say 'The same form was recently in use in Scotland'.  Obviously the word 'recently' doing a lot of heavy lifting.  No idea what that means:
Quote: 'A small slickstone of black glass, without a handle, was found in a Viking grave of a woman in Islay. The same form was recently in use in Scotland. 
A large one is in the Kirkcudbright Museum(he gives the source for this sentence  as "Vest.Ant.Derb pg29"). 
Another, provided with a long smooth handle has likewise been figured.'.

...


Interestingly in this previous edition of the book which was published 1872- Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, the discussion of glass slickstone is on pages 394-396 and there is no mention of the Viking grave find or the one in the museum in Scotland. 
And no mention of the handless glass form being used 'recently' in Scotland.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_ancient_stone_implements/eFdG0ecbCggC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=slickstone+buckram&pg=PA395&printsec=frontcover

Is it possible the word 'recently' means more recently than Viking?

So, this document below appears to counteract the previous quote about them being recently in use in Scotland but does mention them being in use in Norway. It is the report written 1879 of the two viking graves in Islay, By Joseph Anderson, Assistant Secretary and Keeper of the Museum:

https://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/view/5902/5872
See pages 63 (from half way down where he starts about the contents of the woman's grave) and 64.  In that he says 'No other specimen of this implement has ever occurred on this side of the North Sea,  but it is far from uncommon in Norway'.

I think although this is talking about a slickstone without a handle, if the author had known about slickstones with handles then he might not have written the above comment? He wrote that report in 1879.  Therefore how 'recently' were these handled slickstones in use?

The graves were discovered in 1878 so 6 years after Sir John Evans wrote the first book published in 1872 which explains why there was no mention in the 1872 version.

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1684 account of a slickstone being used as a murder weapon 
https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=45hNotyskjUC&pg=PA1&img=1&pgis=1&dq=slick+-+stone&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U2L-U3tdiuFivgdpmIC7ZQPHOEVag&edge=0

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_True_Account_of_the_Proceedings_on_the/45hNotyskjUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=slickstone+wales&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover

but no description of whether it was glass or had a handle. It was however described as a 'Slick - Stone or Smoothing-Iron'. 

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I have found this - a report of the actual words used in the letter of the original description of the Kirkcudbright linen smoother with the handle, very like my linen smoother.
I've attached the evidence having photographed it off screen as it's too long to type up.

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, One Hundred and First Session, 1880-1881 - on page 192 a report and picture of the linen smoother from Gribdae, By George Hamilton, Kirkcudbright, F. S. A. Scotland.  It's dated Proceedings of the Society, April 11, 1881:

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Proceedings_of_the_Society_of_Antiquarie/ll52di4ljB0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=gribdae+linen+smoother&pg=PA372&printsec=frontcover




I also need to correct my comment in Reply #11 where I said the author in the article said they weren't used in Scotland.  Further in the article he comments that someone present said the smoother  had been in use 'long ago' in their household and went and searched for the smoother and found it,  so it was engraved for that article in Fig. 21, 22, 23 (see page 64 of link):
https://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/view/5902/5872

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If I'm right, then William Bell (who, George Hamilton said in 1881, presented the linen smoother to the museum) died in 1861 and his father  was John Bell who died in 1835.
So using these dates, it seems William Bell presented this to the museum before 1861 before he died.  Hamilton said it was found buried on the farm where William Bell's father resided and lay 'tossing about Balgreddon, a neighbouring farm where Mr Bell's father resided, used for crushing sugar or saltpetre and the like'.  The way that is worded could imply Mr Bell's father used it.  If so that would have meant it was used before he died in 1835.
 
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136491675/william_bell

So - Linen smoother or sugar crusher?  That is the question.

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I've just noticed some things in my book of The Woodchester Glass House.

Not relevant to this thread but anyway ...
It has no dustjacket.
On the inside front cover is a label 'Reference Department Public Library of Dundee', Class H, Number 397(?4)31.
On the right hand page facing ifc is a pencil written note '1st Ed, Scarce, £40'. 
Hope it hasn't been stolen from the library!

And pertaining to the 'linen smoother':
On pages 9 and 10 referring to plates III and IV in the book where pictures are shown, there is a detailed discussion from the author about what other people have called these and then whether these are pestles, a block for mending lacework or linen smoothers. 
He says 'This last appears the most probable'. Hmmm, so the author wasn't entirely sure what it was. 

He doesn't provide any primary evidence that these mushroom shaped glass articles with handles are linen smoothers. 

Given that in 1881, referring to the Viking linen smoother with no handle, the Society for Antiquaries said ' Miss  Henderson  of  Stemstor,  in Caithness,  who  was also  present,  remarked  that  an  implement  similar  to this  had  been  used  long  ago in  their  house  for a  similar  purpose,  viz., the smoothing  or glazing  of  linen,  and  that  she  believed  the  implement  was still  in  existence.' and that she had then gone and found the bun shaped glass smoother with no handle (pictured in the Antiquaries report), I am beginning to wonder where the fact has come from that these upside down mushroom shapes with handles were actually linen smoothers.
Also that the author of the Antiquaries report said they, the dented bun shaped items with no handle, were still in use in Norway. 

Are these upside down mushroom shaped items actually linen smoothers? or is it just that they have a mushroom bottom that looks very like a viking era linen smoother?


George Hamilton from the museum makes a very interesting point as an addendum at the bottom of his letter to the Society of Antiquaries. He says
'[It may be added that the early specimen from the viking grave (to the description of which we owe our knowledge of the three specimens of the modern implement) has never had a handle, at least of glass]

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If I'm right, then William Bell (who, George Hamilton said in 1881, presented the linen smoother to the museum) died in 1861 and his father  was John Bell who died in 1835.
So using these dates, it seems William Bell presented this to the museum before 1861 before he died.  Hamilton said it was found buried on the farm where William Bell's father resided and lay 'tossing about Balgreddon, a neighbouring farm where Mr Bell's father resided, used for crushing sugar or saltpetre and the like'.  The way that is worded could imply Mr Bell's father used it.  If so that would have meant it was used before he died in 1835.
 
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136491675/william_bell

So - Linen smoother or sugar crusher?  That is the question.

Another question - if these handled items like upside down mushrooms were known to be linen smoothers and used that way in the early 1800s (I have read a few reports that date them into the 19th century), then WHY was it being used on William Bell's fathers farm in Scotland as a sugar or saltpetre crusher?  William Bell had three sisters still alive in the early 1800s.  If it was known as a linen smoother then wouldn't it have been used as such? not presented to the museum before 1861 as something dug up from a field, a curiosity?
I can see why in 1881 the Scottish lady looked at the viking non handled squashed bun version and remembered they had something the same at home used in a bygone era.  It's an odd shaped thing with no handle.  But for William Bell to present the handled version at a museum as a 'found in the field' item before 1861, and no one to know what it was, then I cannot believe these handled mushroom shaped items were being used as linen-smoothers in the early 19th century.

https://canmore.org.uk/site/64543/gribdae

So I think the item (mine included) dates earlier than 19th century.  Is it a linen smoother? used much earlier than 1861 and everyone had forgotten what it was or never knew because it was so much earlier than 1861. Or was it used for something else?

Obviously I'm curious about this Scottish museum item because my item was bought from Solway Firth area.  Mine differs from the one in the museum because I think the one in the museum has a straight handle with no finger grips.  Mine has slight undulations in the handle that look as though they might be finger grips.  The one in the Woodchester book doesn't appear to have finger grips and is straight up like the museum item.


Interestingly the Corning says:
'An object believed to have served as a pressing iron. The earliest linen smoothers date from the Middle Ages, and the latest were made in the 18th century.'
https://allaboutglass.cmog.org/definition/linen-smoother

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https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25846/lot/792/a-dark-green-glass-linen-smoother-british-circa-1650/

There appears to have been a collection of 8 or more of these items sold here - all as linen smoothers (latest being c.1820 but the one nearest to mine dated c.1650):
https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25846/the-brookwell-collection-of-smoothing-implements/?page=9

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In 1896 there was a report of a green glass linen smoother being bought by a museum in Wiltshire.  I seem to remember a report of something being found in Wilts by someone called Fry on my searches so it could be this.
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Catalogue_of_Antiquities_in_the_Museum_o/7z4GAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=museum+glass+linen+smoother&pg=RA2-PA137&printsec=frontcover

Page 137 listed under Miscellaneous Objects:
Quote:
'M164 Green Glass Linen Smoother. 5 1/4 x 5 1/2in. From North Wilts. Purchased.
Formerly used for calendering, or smoothing linen in the course of manufacture.' (the last sentence typed in smaller font underneath description)

So in 1896 this museum was saying that the item was used in the course of manufacture.  Doesn't imply an everyday laundering use to me.

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In 1896 there was a report of a green glass linen smoother being bought by a museum in Wiltshire.  I seem to remember a report of something being found in Wilts by someone called Fry on my searches so it could be this.
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Catalogue_of_Antiquities_in_the_Museum_o/7z4GAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=museum+glass+linen+smoother&pg=RA2-PA137&printsec=frontcover

Page 137 listed under Miscellaneous Objects:
Quote:
'M164 Green Glass Linen Smoother. 5 1/4 x 5 1/2in. From North Wilts. Purchased.
Formerly used for calendering, or smoothing linen in the course of manufacture.' (this last sentence typed in smaller font underneath description)

So in 1896 this museum was saying that the item was used in the course of manufacture.  Doesn't imply an everyday laundering use to me.

I can't quite see how this could have been used in manufacture.  Unless for very small articles. And I think 'calendering' required heat.

I cannot see how these stones whether stone or glass could have been heated to be used without burning the users hand.  Perhaps the handled glass versions were stood on a hot metal plate or something rather than held in an open fire to heat up? Any thoughts/ideas welcome.
 
In China it seems 1000 years earlier they were using hot flat pans with long handles to press material (or that's what I've read and seen a picture of but who knows?).  Burning hands on a small hot stone or piece of glass seems a bit odd to me by comparison.

So I think that sentence perhaps not a correct description.