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Box with netting tools
Unknown - Enlarge image
Box with netting tools
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
1800-1850 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Cut bone lined with cotton, and steel
- Credit Line:
Given by Mrs J. Taylor
- Museum number:
T.287 to B-1979
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 120, case 15, shelf DR2
Object Type
Making net by hand is one of the oldest textile techniques, its earliest uses the practical ones of hunting and fishing. When the basic tools of shuttle and size gauge were refined to make a smaller mesh, the use of net for decorative purposes became possible. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, netting was a popular pastime for amateurs, as well as a commercial craft. The tools needed for it - netting needles and gauges of different sizes, and sometimes bodkins and hooks - were often kept in decorated cases. This cut bone case is in the most usual, cylindrical form.
Ownership & Use
Netting was carried out at home in different materials and scale for a variety of uses, including protecting crops and trapping wildlife, as well as decorative accessories like purses. In 1783 the Duchess of Portland was found by a visitor to be making a net to protect a cherry tree, and this utilitarian aspect made netting one of the few drawing-room occupations permitted to men. The steel tools contained in this case belonging to the V&A would have been used to make net with a small mesh.
