Embroider my World Violet and Orchid
When it was my birthday a few months ago, a very dear friend who enjoys photography as much as I do, and knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces, gave me a wonderful selection of antique ribbons, buttons, buckles, lace and other fine notions. She also gave me three follow up tins of similar delightful gifts for Christmas.
Amongst the gifts was this pretty ribbon of lilac and white embroidered daisies, some lilac and lavender crocheted daisies from Poland, some Estonian hand dyed lace and some tiny segments of crochet, all of which I have set up on the back terrace against one of my antique embroidered Art Deco doilies from the 1930s, and accessorised with a spool of Heminway and Bartlett violet cotton which dates from the Edwardian era and a spool of Anchor orchid purple cotton which is also Edwardian.
Buell Heminway (1838-1915) learned the silk thread business under his father, General Merritt Heminway (1800-1886), who had established the company that would become M. Heminway and Sons Silk Company (later the Belding-Heminway Co.) in Watertown, Litchfield in 1822. Buell organized the Heminway-Bartlett Silk Company with his own son and H. H. Bartlett in 1888 after his father’s death, building just down the road from the M. Heminway facility. While the company never grew as large as M. Heminway and Sons, it experienced relative prosperity. The firm, which produced spool, embroidery, knitting and crochet silks, established trade relationships with emerging chain department stores in America, and extended large retailers goods on credit. It was a risk that paid off, as the company’s business came to rely heavily upon those retailers. By 1912, the product line was expanded to include silk hosiery. The company was quick to adopt the use of rayon and other synthetic fibers in their products as early as the 1920s, keeping them relevant in the market. In 1930, over 300 workers worked at the Watertown facility. Buell’s enterprise outlived his father’s by decades, and in 1963 the firm purchased the Starr Net Company, a manufacturer of fishing nets in East Hampton. It closed only in the early 2000s.
The Anchor brand can trace its history back to 1866 when the Clark family adopted the Anchor brand for their embroidery threads manufactured in Paisley, Scotland. Embroidery threads came into being circa 1812 when supplies of silk became unobtainable in the UK due to a blockade by Napoleon. Two weavers, James and Patrick Clark, turned their attention to cotton and managed to produce yarn which was sufficiently fine, smooth and strong to be used instead of silk for weaving. Sewing thread was primarily silk or linen at the time and the Clark brothers developed their cotton yarn into the first cotton sewing thread.
Embroider my World Violet and Orchid
When it was my birthday a few months ago, a very dear friend who enjoys photography as much as I do, and knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces, gave me a wonderful selection of antique ribbons, buttons, buckles, lace and other fine notions. She also gave me three follow up tins of similar delightful gifts for Christmas.
Amongst the gifts was this pretty ribbon of lilac and white embroidered daisies, some lilac and lavender crocheted daisies from Poland, some Estonian hand dyed lace and some tiny segments of crochet, all of which I have set up on the back terrace against one of my antique embroidered Art Deco doilies from the 1930s, and accessorised with a spool of Heminway and Bartlett violet cotton which dates from the Edwardian era and a spool of Anchor orchid purple cotton which is also Edwardian.
Buell Heminway (1838-1915) learned the silk thread business under his father, General Merritt Heminway (1800-1886), who had established the company that would become M. Heminway and Sons Silk Company (later the Belding-Heminway Co.) in Watertown, Litchfield in 1822. Buell organized the Heminway-Bartlett Silk Company with his own son and H. H. Bartlett in 1888 after his father’s death, building just down the road from the M. Heminway facility. While the company never grew as large as M. Heminway and Sons, it experienced relative prosperity. The firm, which produced spool, embroidery, knitting and crochet silks, established trade relationships with emerging chain department stores in America, and extended large retailers goods on credit. It was a risk that paid off, as the company’s business came to rely heavily upon those retailers. By 1912, the product line was expanded to include silk hosiery. The company was quick to adopt the use of rayon and other synthetic fibers in their products as early as the 1920s, keeping them relevant in the market. In 1930, over 300 workers worked at the Watertown facility. Buell’s enterprise outlived his father’s by decades, and in 1963 the firm purchased the Starr Net Company, a manufacturer of fishing nets in East Hampton. It closed only in the early 2000s.
The Anchor brand can trace its history back to 1866 when the Clark family adopted the Anchor brand for their embroidery threads manufactured in Paisley, Scotland. Embroidery threads came into being circa 1812 when supplies of silk became unobtainable in the UK due to a blockade by Napoleon. Two weavers, James and Patrick Clark, turned their attention to cotton and managed to produce yarn which was sufficiently fine, smooth and strong to be used instead of silk for weaving. Sewing thread was primarily silk or linen at the time and the Clark brothers developed their cotton yarn into the first cotton sewing thread.