Details

Object type

bag; pocket

Artist/Maker

E H maker

Date

1700

Materials

linen, wool, hand-stitched

Dimensions

overall: 369 mm x 215 mm

Description

Woman's pocket in linen embroidered in green, red, pink and yellow wool in a pattern of flowers, stems, leaves, fruit and birds worked in cross-stitch. In the centre is the outline of a rectangular box with the initials 'E H' and '1700' within. The reverse is one piece of linen pleated and gathered.

During the 1700s, pockets were made and worn unattached to a woman’s dress. They were fairly large and could carry several items. One or two pockets were worn tied around the waist and could be reached by slits in the sides of the dress and petticoat. Sometimes pockets came loose, as in the nursery rhyme,

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,

Kitty Fisher found it;

There was not a penny in it,

But a ribbon round it.

Lucy Locket is a character in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, 1728, and has since been Cockney rhyming slang for pocket.

This pocket is of an unusual design with the front completed covered in cross-stitch embroidery. During the Pockets of History project at the University of Southampton the lead researcher, Barbara Burman found no other pocket like this one in the United Kingdom. Some of the motifs, such as the stylised birds, are found on Scottish samplers. Whilst it has the initials ‘E H’ and the date of ‘1700’, no information about its history is known at present.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by Miss Emma Horton, 1919

ID Number

1919.26.b

Location

In storage