Just to stir the brain cells a bit, let me point out that half (more
or less) the population of Virginia did not come equipped with an
English, or even a European background -- they were slaves, many of
them no more than a generation from their African roots. And then
there's the Native American culture to take into account as well --
Montpelier is way out there on the fringes in Madison's time -- so
the culture in the slave quarter would have been an African/Native
American/European mixture.
And as I was writing that I remembered a pair of ivory "awls"
connected by a green cord that Jeanie Asplundh bought because they
looked like they might be sewing related. It turned out, after much
research, that they were used in lawn bowling, to determine which
ball was closest to the ... oh darn, the little target one that I
forget the name of. Anyway, these bobbin things would work great for
that, with string run through the hole in the tips.
Thinking along the same lines, they'd be suitable to mark out seed
lines in a veggie garden -- with a wire run through the hole to keep
them together between plantings ... in other words, to my mind
they're much more likely to be just about anything other than a lace
bobbin.
Now, what I want to hear is why Montpelier calls them lace bobbins.
Is there some bit of Dolly mythology to support it? Or is it Martha
envy? (You know, her 'tatting' shuttle!) Or could it be something in
the post Madison history of the place? I'm intrigued.
Su
Williamsburg, VA
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