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

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The only link I could find to Kirkcudbright was 1750 when they were plaiting straw to make  horses' collars.  Though itt doesn't say they flattened the plaits :

'The implements of the time were of the rudest description. The roots of the all-prevailing whin formed the teeth of the harrows; these had to be taken home every evening to be sharpened and hardened in the fire. For the plough chains they took the skin of any of their horses that died, cut it into stripes, and tanned them; these were called "strekins." Their horses’ collars were manufactured by plaiting straw, usually done in the evenings by some of themselves. Thus they had a very cheap harnessing for their horses or bullocks—six of the latter and two of the former being common in one plough in 1750.[/b]'

http://www.kirkcudbright.co/historyarticle.asp?ID=53&p=29&g=5

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Scotland in Pagan Times - Joseph Anderson, LL.D. (Keeper of the National Museum of the Antiquaries of Scotland)
The Rhind lectures in archeology for 1881:

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Scotland_in_Pagan_Times/9lgJAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=norway+linen+smoother&pg=PR13&printsec=frontcover

Pages 36 and 37 give a long description of the lady from Caithness' linen smoother and the linen smoother found in a grave (both non handled)
He says
'Its purpose is demonstrated by the facts recorded by Nicholaysen and Lorange , who state that in Mandal Amt and in several remote districts on the west coast of Norway, the women still use them for giving a gloss to their white linen caps, and generally for getting up a gloss on linen by friction'.


I don't know who Nicholaysen and Lorange were so I'm not sure when their comments were made that he refers to but the implication is that it was fairly contemporary to his writing.  Obviously this was about the ones without handles.

It could be he is referring to Nicholaysen's 'Norske Fornlevninger' Christiania 1866
and
'Samlungen af Norske Oldsager i Bergen's museum', ved A. Lorang. Bergen 1876

which are both mentioned here -  also 1881 Joseph Anderson,'Scotland in Early Christian Times' second series.
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Scotland_in_Early_Christian_Times/kLVNAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Nicolaysen+and+Lorange+mandal+amt&printsec=frontcover




There is more information in the smaller text  about his comments on the one from Caithness being remembered and then found in the lady's house, and he more or less says that this brought information to light in living memory but commented on how it demonstrates how quickly use of old implements could be forgotten.

He seems to say hers is 'modern' although it looks just like the viking find one. Perhaps he says modern because it was found in her  house and used in living memory.

He goes on to say 'The placing of this specimen (of the modern type) in the museum has brought to light other three specimens of modern calendaring implements of glass.  They are of larger size and furnished with handles, which are also of glass'.

Therefore this link to the lecture gives a little more detail than before especially since three with handles have appeared.  Presumably the one from Gribdae Farm but perhaps the other two are the ones from the Museum of London?

The two extra linen smoothers with handles (in addition to the Gribdae farm handled smoother) were:
1 x given by J. Romilly Allen 1881,  5 1/2"diameter with handle 7 1/2" long
1 x from St Michael's Inn, Fifeshire - James Waddell 1881 , 5" diameter with handle 7 3/4" long

Source: page 326 items 133 and 134,  from Catalogue of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland 1892

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Catalogue_of_the_National_Museum_of_Anti/aZgodjaHjUwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=linen+smoother+handle&pg=PA326&printsec=frontcover

J. Romilly Allen was John Romilly Allen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Romilly_Allen#:~:text=Having%20begun%20with%20the%20antiquities,in%20the%20University%20of%20Edinburgh.

I think the letter from Hamilton from Stewartry Museum a year or two earlier re the handled one from Gribdae Farm, brought these two additional items into the open.

So I think not the ones in the Museum of London as I mused in my earlier post.

All three seem to have Scotland as source.
Mine also came from Scotland.

There is the smoother found at the Woodchester site with handle.

1 - dark green glass Bonhams dated c. 1650 - recovered from River Thames.
https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25846/lot/792/a-dark-green-glass-linen-smoother-british-circa-1650/

A number in the Museum of London in parts (heads and handles), and 2 x whole.


Jamestowne excavation x 10.


1 in the Science Museum London (they have it listed as 19th century?)

2 from museum in Wales seen on the Glassmakers site

1 seen on Worthpoint - linked on this thread


1 x other on this thread

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Dating it.

English glass tax was levied on weight in 1745 and abolished in 1845.
If you were paying tax by weight, you wouldn't produce something as heavy as this unless it was of vital use for some purpose would you?

In 1500s they used poking sticks (iron heated in fire) to pleat the ruffs.  So heating iron to smooth material was already known.

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1 found in Winchester here - broken handle with bottom part of handle showing, base mushroom head is quite thin compared to mine.
https://collections.hampshireculture.org.uk/object/glass-linen-smoother-br87-88-brooks-middle-brook-street-winchester-hampshire-excavated-m

2 found in Norfolk in the early 21st century - one in a garden, one in a potato grader (handle broken off)
https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF56180-Post-medieval-linen-smoother&Index=10&RecordCount=12&SessionID=ca1b980f-fcb2-4493-84b2-c2b1cf7943ab

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page 206 publication from 1823
A New System of Practical and Domestic Economy; 3rd edition, printed by S&R Bentley.

Chintz and muslin should 'not be submitted to the operation of the smoothing-iron, but rubbed smooth with a polishing stone'.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_New_System_of_Practical_Domestic_Econo/ifdAAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=smooth+the+linen&pg=PA206&printsec=frontcover

Doesn't talk about handled linen smoothers but does mention a 'polishing stone'. The  'smoothing-iron' refers to a heated iron implement as discussed further down the page.

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Could they have been used for grinding fuller's earth?  used in cleaning wool.

[cagney]

  I had a good read on fulling and fulling mills from Wikipedia, quite interesting. One sentence stood out to me about the fulling mills and process as given from Wikipedia ""However, the cloth was taken out about every 2 hours to undo plaits and wrinkles ".Wikipedia does not elaborate further.  Smoothers of a certain type might come in handy in that part of the process.

  The rounded or mushroom shape  would make an excellent grinder in conjunction with a bowl. As we are dealing with two different types [ flat and rounded ], Two different jobs to be done?

  The assumption is they were used in a fist like grasp for some serious pressure to be applied and rightly so I think. The one I sketched from the Knophs book with the thumb rest at top almost proves the point, it is of the flat type. Where as the one from my collection if complete a bit different, more easily grasped by forefinger and thumb around the extension and thus palmed. More for delicate work?

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Thanks
I suppose I was just thinking around what materials would have been most commonly used for wearing in cold wet dark UK hundreds of years ago. Wool seemed to me to be the most likely, so I was wondering whether they might have been used in the process of making wool rather than linen.

It's actually hard to find any references to 'smoothing' (with the exception of the use of the ones without handles - i.e the Scotland Antiquaries references and the mention of use in some parts of Norway for smoothing bonnets) using something like this with the handle when looking at older texts.  Most of the references I read to these handled items seems a bit vague on whether they were actually used for linen at all, possibly because of lack of proof?

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Potash kilns were used for making Lye used to clean wools:
https://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk/a-z-of-industries/potash-kilns/

Potash also used in glassmaking?

Perhaps there might be a connection?  Where there were glass kilns there was potash perhaps indicating a link to the woolen industry? So the local glass maker more likely to make implements helpful to processing wool in the local area - if the handled implement was for wool processing of some sort.
Tenuous I know 

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Potash also used on potato fields and I read it was made into, or was sold, in balls.
Could these implements have been used for grinding potash? to be used for various reasons such as Wool lye making, potato growing?

Did they take 10 to Jamestowne expecting to have sheep and make their own wool, or grow their own potatoes?
m