Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Shifting Into First

Dearest Friends,

Time for a new shift! Following my theme of items with New England provenance, I need to find a NE shift. Extant 18th century shifts are like hen's teeth.  No surprise since they were subject to being boiled on a regular basis, subject to constant wear, bodily fluids and oils, and if there was anything left of them after years of service, they ended up with the rag man. However, a few examples do exist. One well known one is at the Smithsonian and I'm lucky enough to have the diagram that I will use for the construction of mine and luckier still that this example is from the Copps of Connecticut! To read more about this wonderful textile collection, you can download a pdf written by Grace Rogers Cooper in 1971 from the Smithsonian website.


Shiftless in MA,
Mrs. S

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