Sewing Bird

Description:

Sewing bird or clamp; Metal, Perhaps silver-plated; velvet-covered cushions atop the bird and on the clamp. Bird measures 3.5433" from beak to tail. Catalog #T15758. Color Transparency #78-1548 shows 24 of the over 500 sewing clamps in the Textile Collection; this clamp is second from the left in the third row down. A sewing bird is a table clamp that supports a bird on its top. The lower body of the bird is stationary while the upper body is hinged, and there is a spring in the tail. When the upper and lower tail ends are pinched together, the beak opens, allowing the edge of a fabric to be placed in it. When the tail is released, the beak closes on the fabric, holding it securely while a sewer pulls it taut for stitching a hem or seam. This bird is marked "Patented Feb. 15, 1853," the date of the first American sewing-bird Letters Patent, which was granted to Charles Waterman of Meridan, Connecticut, for a "feathered bird upon the wing, bearing a burden upon its back." The burden is an emery ball. Before the patent, Waterman was already selling the clamps successfully when an advertisement appeared in the Hartford Times of June 5, 1852, showing two women on opposite sides of a table. The one without a sewing bird is bent over her work in an unhealthy posture, while the woman using a sewing bird is upright, showing the clamp's "health preserving property." According to Waterman's daughter, "he wanted to make sewing a little easier for the ladies." The Waterman bird was produced for well into the 20th century and variations in the design, as well as painted and plated versions, came and went. Catalog #2004.0116.1 is a mid-19th century daguerreotype of a mother and her daughter, the latter holding a sewing bird like this one, with an emery on top of the bird and a pincushion on the front of the clamp below the bird.

Date Made: 3rd quarter, 19th centuryPatent Date: 1853-02-15

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Connecticut

See more items in: Home and Community Life: Textiles, Advertising, Work, Industry & Manufacturing, Textiles

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Dr. Manton Copeland

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: TE.T15758.000Catalog Number: T15758.000Accession Number: 299577

Object Name: sewing clamp

Physical Description: silver-plate? (overall material)fabric, velvet (overall material)Measurements: bird, beak to tail: 9 cm; 3 9/16 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a4-b07d-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_639795

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