VINTAGE WOODEN BOBBINS

No two bobbins are exactly alike, and range from fully wooden reels to some with painted ends. These bobbins are vintage and beautifully show the patina of their age, making them really interesting objects with a fantastic texture.

They can repurposed for home decor, crafts, and artistic projects. They can be used as candle holders, thread holders, or elements in DIY projects.

Each bobbin measures 17.5cm (from outer edge to outer edge) with a central hole all the way through. Thread varies on each, and can be easily cut and removed for a fully wooden bobbin.

A little history… Flanges (the ends) were painted different colours, when workers ere illiterate.  Mills colour coded bobbins and machines so workers knew which bobbins went together with a certain machine in the mill factory.

With the introduction of open ended spinning and plastic bobbins, traditional spinning and wooden bobbins from the mid 1800’s to 1950’s, became a thing of the past.  Entire textile mill stocks were destroyed, usually by digging giant pits in the ground and filling them with these timber bobbins, or burned in landfills.  Bobbins were not even valued as firewood, as their high oil content created hazardous fires that burned out of control.  While no one is entirely sure, it has been estimated that three quarters of the wooden bobbins made, many of which were still in use in the 1950’s have been destroyed.

The bobbins you see at Morpeth Antique Centre have come from abandoned textile mills in England, Canada and the USA.  As industrial sites were purchased to develop into commercial and residential housing, many pits of landfill bobbins were unearthed.  Some were salvaged for vintage sale.