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Layette pincushion
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Layette pincushion
- Place of origin:
UK (made)
- Date:
1862 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Silk, pins
- Credit Line:
Given by Miss Beryl Hinton
- Museum number:
MISC.142-1985
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Layette pincushions were given as presents to women who had newly or recently born babies. They were in theory useful as well as symbolic, because baby clothes in the UK were often fastened with ordinary pins until the successful marketing of the safety pin in the 1870s.
In some areas it was considered very unlucky to give the pincushion before the birth: not only was this over confidence that the outcome would be successful, but there was a superstition about pins and birth pain. 'For every pin a pain' and 'More pins, more pain' were traditional sayings, and some women would remove all the pins, no matter how elaborate the pattern.
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