Elisabeth asked a good question in a recent comment on my Quaker kitty…what does it mean when we use the terms, “Quaker” and Shaker” in relation to our handcrafts?
A little bit of research, both in my personal library and via our good friend “Google”, has kept me busy today trying to come up with a reasonably simple answer.
Shaker relates to a religious group that had particular ‘laws’ governing the creation of architecture, furniture and handcrafts. You can see some examples and learn a little bit more of the history here and here.
Simply, the term shaker can be applied to items manufactured by members of the “Shaker movement” which exhibit clean lines and are items which are devoid of any unnecessary ornament. “Shakers” manufactured all their own furniture. Beds for example were made with short posts as long posts would be an unnecessary waste of timber.
Decorating in the shaker style is clean and unfussy and very orderly – so NOT my style at all, but still, very beautiful. Take a look at the Hancock Shaker Village Website.
“Quakers”, are officially known as “The Religious Society of Friends”. I recall the “Friends” school which was quite near my high school, it’s uniforms were drab grey and the girls and boys both wore hats and gloves and the girls very long dresses (compared to our much shorter uniforms). Again it is a religious based organisation with particular beliefs that I wont go into here, but their embroidery is characterised with the motifs that you see on the various samplers and especially the samplers of the Ackworth School.
I was recently lucky to acquire Carol Humphrey’s book “Quaker Schoolgirl Samplers from Ackworth” and it is a wonderful source of information about the students of Ackworth and the items of needlework produced. Samplers were stitched by many of the girls to refine their technique and items of sewing were sold by the school as fundraising.
The earliest sampler in this style (so far) is dated 1790 and was stitched by Mary Wigham (according to the above reference) who was a student at Ackworth from 1788 – 1791. The sampler was radically different to the earlier samplers in the previous period, which were “sober, educative and mainly monochrome”.
My Quaker Cat has a central motif indicative of the style of the medallions found on many of the Ackworth samplers.
I hope you delve a little bit more into what those terms mean. I’m a sampler lover and particularly the samplers of England/Scotland, etc and European samplers of the 17th and 18th Centuries. I am collecting quite a library of books on samplers and embroidery and I love to read about them and the women who stitched them.
Thank you for that excellent explanation!
I learned A LOT! I know much about Shakers as there was a community not far from where I live that preserved and now a history “museum” I’ve been there quite a lot. There are no Shakers because the religious sect died out…they did not believe in matrimony/reproduction, and kept the men/boys away from the women/children. Most Shakers were people that had no place to go. Bankrupt, widowed, etc…these families/individuals would cling to the society for help. All the people in the society held a certain “job” or craft and specialized in that area (broom-making, box making, furniture, gardening, etc) They became famous artisans although the Shaker movement didn’t last that long.
Love it, love it! Thanks again for I knew little about the Quakers
Very interesting! Thank you so much for looking up the info and sharing with your blogging readers! I am a sampler fan also and have recently started to develop more of an appreciation for the quaker style of needlework.