1991.178.91 - Spinning Wheel, Canadian Production

1991.178.91 - Spinning Wheel, Canadian Production

Spinning equipment

1991.178.91

Spinning wheel; horizontal, bobbin/flyer, treadle, painted yellow. A tapered, rectangular table rests on three splayed legs. The treadle is set into a pivoting bar between two legs. A flat, narrow footman connects the treadle to the drive wheel axle. Two slanted wheel posts set into the table hold the large drive wheel, which has 12 spokes; the rim with two grooves is constructed in four sections. The mother-of-all is attached to the table by a U-bolt, which is tensioned by a screw nut under the table. The angle of the mother-of all is adjusted by a handle on its bottom. The bobbin/flyer is complete and designed for a doubled drive-band. Turnings on legs and spokes.

overall: horizontal 22.5 in. x vertical 42 in. x
depth 28 in.

Wood, metal

late 19th or early 20th centuries

Canada: QE

possibly Ouellet - see note

Very good

Museum records and Cummer's book list this wheel as a signed Paradis, but I have not been able to locate the maker's mark. It does not look like a Paradis to me; instead, it seems to be one of the wheels made by the Ouellet family. - MFL

References: Joan Whittaker Cummer, A Book of Spinning Wheels (Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall
Publisher, 1994), p. 198-199. Photo and brief essay on spinning wheel. Bill Ralph, "Canadian Tilt-Tension Production Wheels", The Spinning Wheel Sleuth, Issue #5 May 1994 Judith Buxton Keenlyside, Selected Canadian Spinning Wheels In Perspective: An Analytical Approach, National Museum of Man Mercury Series, History Division, Paper No. 30 (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada), p. 159ff, 273ff. Spinning Wheel Maker List, The Spinning Wheel Sleuth, March 1998.