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Scottish Handkerchief
1780/90s

Rare. Engraved and roller printed possibly in Glasgow, Scotland. Some of the verses are diffciult to read.

Cataloguing

Copper plate printed in red ink on a natural cotton ground, Scottish Songs printed in a central oval, with four scenes and verses:

Get Up and Bar the Door with a fat man in tricorn hat and friend eating a meal. A medieval  ballad about a battle of wills between a husband and wife, although the depiction on the handkerchief does not look like that*

Maggie Lawder with a young woman dancing to bagpipes. This song is about a piper and written by Frances Semphill of Beltrees (approx 1616-1685)

The Tither Morn depicting a Scottish soldier approaching a young woman.

The tither morn,

When I forlorn,

Aneath an aik sat moaning,

I did na trow,

I'd see my Jo,

Beside me in the gloaming.

 Widow Are Ye Waking with the widow by a fireside welcoming an older man.

10 x 12 in; 26 x 30 cm.

Condition

The right hand edge is the selvedge. The other three are cut edges and slightly frayed. In very good condition. Ther is one pinhead mark to the upper left hand border, near the man's tailcoat.

Comments

The Linen Handkerchief Trade in Glagow in the Eighteenth Century: Bleached, Dyed and Printed.  Vanessa Habib.

Weaving the Nation. Scottish Clothing and Textile Cultures in the long Eighteenth century. Sally Tuckett. Fig 1.12 depicts a cotton handkerchief printed with scenes from Allan Ramsay’s ‘The Gentle Shepherd’, eighteenth/nineteenth century. © National Museums Scotland.

https://emuseum.history.org/objects/37618/handkerchief?ctx=e15fe943014daca7056913861600c21ad400b31a&idx=23

https://www.incollect.com/articles/winterthur-primer-nothing-to-sneeze-at-commemorative-handkerchiefs-for-the-american-market

*wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Up_and_Bar_the_Door

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O363650/handkerchief-unknown/