Saturday 18 May 2013

QUIRKS OF THE TRADE


"Here's something you'll love." said Mr N last weekend and he was right - a trio of tiny Victorian samplers, each commemorating the birth of a child. "Keepers!", was my first thought, quickly followed by, "I wonder if I can find out who they were?" I really hoped these weren't poignant little mementoes made by a grieving mother after her babies died. 
Buying an antique can be a simple business deal - "There's a profit in that, I'll have it." It is also usually a choice based on personal taste, or perhaps the piece is interesting and unusual, like these samplers. There's a new antiques programme on TV - Antiques Hero. The Hero told us about his start in the trade and the secret of his success. He described the slog of buying and selling - buy a pine box for £50, sell it for £70 - again and again and again. Who cares whether you like what you're selling or not? He calls this way of doing business "grocery". We call it a bit boring...


...but we understand what he means and have ourselves been known to say, "It could be a tin of baked beans he's selling for all the interest he has in it."

Buzzing with curiosity, I got on with some detective work later that day - with an unusual surname, initials, exact dates and a pair of twins it was not too difficult to find this family. The babies were Robert, Elizabeth and Harriett (this is the spelling used throughout her life), children of William, a carpenter, born in Wisbech. They did not die in infancy and at some time in the 1850s the family moved to Leicester. On the 1861 census, at the age of 15, Robert was already a manufacturer of hosiery, working at home, almost certainly on his own knitting frame.
     

By the time he was 21 he had found premises and set up his own factory, expanding to become one of the largest hosiery manufacturers in the country.


When he died, aged 90, in 1936 he left £853102. 2s in his will, which earned him a place in W R Rubinstein's book: 
Men of Property: The Very Wealthy in Britain Since the Industrial Revolution. 
Robert Rowley's hosiery business was large, supplying socks for soldiers in WW1, but it was not a fashion leader. It finally closed down in the 1960s after failing to make the move from "fully fashioned" to seamless stockings. I can remember Rowley's "Peter Pan" brand name on children's socks in the 1950s - they sometimes turn up on Ebay.                                                   

Photo from chrisdpyrah's flickr page

In Leicester there still remain 5 stylish Art Deco tram shelters, presented to the city by Robert in 1934 - an unusual monument to his success.

Elizabeth and Harriett proved more difficult to track down. Victorian girls had to keep a lower profile.
                                                     

Harriett married a successful boot and shoe manufacturer Joseph Frisby. Her eldest child was a daughter, Elizabeth Rowley Frisby, who was determined to be a modern woman. She became a militant suffragette, a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, the WSPU, founded by the Pankhursts. In 1911 she served 5 days in prison for assaulting a police officer. The WSPU slogan was: 


With several other women she burned down a local railway station in 1914 and was probably also involved in an attack on a Leicester golf course where the message "No Votes, No Golf" was cut into the turf! During WW1 she turned this zeal towards voluntary work and local politics, becoming Leicester's first Lady Mayoress in 1941.
   

Elizabeth is proving to be more elusive. I think I have found her with a widowed aunt on a blurry 1871 census page, assisting in the aunt's London shop. Then, she vanishes...


...except for this.

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20 comments:

  1. Fabulous post Nilly. Well done for the detective work. There is no way you are an antique dealer of the baked bean tin kind you describe...you are a real social historian. I love it ! Jx

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    1. I know you enjoy doing this sort of detective work too - people are so fascinating for all their quirks!

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  2. What a detective you are Nilly. The passion for what you do oozes from each and every post of yours. A good story told in your inimitable way.

    LLX

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    1. You are so right LL - like you, I've managed to avoid the boring & the bland.

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  3. I absolutely concur with Janice about you and all your finds. I tend to do the same - researching everything I can about an intriguing purchase.

    Some old things do make me sad. Like the old photos that end up at car boot sales. Often via house clearances and that their descendants didn't treasure and want to hold onto their family history. But maybe, and sadder still, they didn't have any close relatives when they died. So I'm always thrilled when my customers show interest, enquiring for what I can tell them, if anything. Mostly just deduction from the style of dress and hairstyle, or maybe a photographer's name and address to give a location.

    As for Auction Hero - I have mixed feelings about him and the way the programme is angled regarding the antiques and collectables market. But he does eventually raise the money for his good causes whilst being entertaining so that is probably a Good Thing and better than Lets Get Some Talent etc etc in my view anyway!

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    1. I love it when people want to know more too, and when things I sell have special significance to the customer. I once sold a Georgian sampler with a verse warning against vanity to a lady who'd nearly died having cosmetic surgery!

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  4. OOps - meant to add - further to researching about 'finds'. I recently purchased some old glove patterns and discovered that a 'quirk' is also a glove-making term. It's the name for the triangular insert at the base of the fingers and thumb.

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    1. Very interesting - I shall remember that!

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  5. Dear Nilly - the research that you carry out into your 'finds' takes them from being interesting little treasures to being something of great significance. To have discovered so much about 'our dear boy' and how successful he became must have been really exciting for you. I know from the little successes I have had myself when researching collectibles how satisfying it can be. Anyone buying from you comes home with both a treasure and a story too.

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    1. Like you I'm sure - I don't think I've ever been bored in my life. Life is so rich in interesting detail!

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  6. these are just DIVINE- instantly finding a place into my heart and all I've seen is photos!

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    1. Hope you've had some interesting buys recently - treasures are a bit thin on the ground up here at the moment!

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  7. If they weren't keepers before, you turned them into keepers with
    your brilliant research. Well done!! I'm curious if you found out anything about the mother to these three beloved children? Or was her profile even "lower"? Sounds like she raised hardworking independent children.

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    1. Not a great deal more than her name, place of birth and parents. She went on to have more children and thus less time to embroider little samplers, I presume.

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  8. Absolutely fascinating. I do hope you are not one of a kind, Nilly, as I'm planning on making samplers for my three children. I do hope they have someone to find out who they were and what they did at some time in the future - wouldn't that be lovely? At least I hope so - you are a reminder that we should always be conscious of the footprints we leave.
    Axxx

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    1. A lovely idea Annie - perhaps we should all do this. I hope they treasure them.

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  9. What delightful samplers and what detective work too. I did something similar with labels on an old trunk....it is amazing what you can find out on the Internet these days.
    Might see you @ Gateshead on the 27th?

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    1. I was fascinated by your discovery about the lintel repair and wish our cottage had a bit more history. It was just built for workers at the local saw mill, I'm afraid.
      I think we're staying closer to home on Monday but hope you have a wonderful fair!

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  10. WOW didn't they do well and you too, Nilly for the treasure hunting and sourcing of this wonderful information! YOU are a Sherlock homes in your own right! hehe....LOVE the samplers and all they stand for! Maria x

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    1. More Miss Marple than Sherlock, Maria.(Love her style!)

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