Hi again,
Sorry, but I cannot cut the answer from Linda below without losing meaning of my note here. This dickey pot sounds a like the STOOF (pronounced stoaf as in boat) A stoof was a wooden box of about 10â wide, 10â deep and 8â high which had five holes in the top and an opening -10 x4 inches) in the front. Inside was a pottery bowl were one could place some embers and the stoof was then put under the skirts to keep feet and legs warm, not only when sitting at the lace pillow, but also in church. I suppose there could have been accidents, but I have never heard or read about any. Another meaning of the word STOOF (or to take the root of the verb STOVEN in Dutch is to cook gently :-) . I also think it could have been used by anyone who was working while sitting for longer periods. It was certainly still in use early in the twentieth century. I remember my grandmother (born 1900 or thereabouts) had one of these which belonged to her mother. I hope this sideways discussion into auxiliary equipment is of interest to other lacemakers. Happy lace making, Joepie. From: Linda Walton Sent: âTuesdayâ, â21â âAprilâ â2015 â12â:â17 To: Lace Arachne On 21/04/2015 07:01, J-D Hammett wrote: > Hi Linda and other Arachnids, > > Is âdickey potâ a local name? What is it? (showing my ignorance?). Joepie. Well, I think it's local to England; I don't have any information about it's being local to the High Wycombe area, or even the county of Buckinghamshire. I've never seen one, but I understand that it is a small fireproof container, which lacemakers used to keep warm; they would put something like live coals in it and pop it under their skirts to keep their feet warm during the long hours spent sitting at their lace pillows. > My Collins dictionary gives . . . [snip] There are indeed a lot of uses for this word, but I selected the one that seemed relevant to lace makers' warming devices. For me, the "aha!" moment came when I saw that, in the days of the old professional lace makers, it could mean a petticoat and then I made the connection with the foot warmer. Actually, it seems rather dangerous to me. Could they have placed it under a footstool? Do we have any real information about the dickey pot? Was it used by other workers? Has anyone seen a real, (authenticated), one? Linda. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
