Richard Brought Home Mouchoirs Cholets

Richard has been struggling with a cold ever since the floods broke out in winter, in sympathy one might say - so the other day he went out in search of new handkerchiefs. Usually it is me who comes home with desirable textiles no-one else seems to want, but when Richard came home, it was with a surprise. For £1 he had found 6 beautiful vintage handkerchiefs in an unopened box. What do you think? he asked, nonchalantly, in passing. I nearly fell off my chair! Richard had somehow acquired the Holy Grail of pocket handkerchiefs - they were clearly labelled Cholet. Now I could understand why they were unopened - probably a gift, the receiver would never have wanted to spoil them through use.

Cholet is a town about 40 kilometres south east of Nantes, France. Before the revolution it seems there were some 24,000 weavers there. In 1848, Cholet had 2 spinning mills, 3 embroidery workshops, 15 bleaching works, 15 dye houses and 25 weaving mills. In 1925 out of 20,000 inhabitants there were still 3,200 machine weavers, 1,100 bleachers, dyers and apprentices and 2,500 needle-workers. In fact, textile manufacturing accounted for a quarter of all employment in the region of Maine-et-Loire and Anjou combined. Now there is a single weaving mill which requires support. You can see more by clicking here. So, as you can see from the photo below Richard is now rubbing noses (did I really say that?) with the highest in France - none other than M Sarkozy!

Needleprint 10th Anniversary - Save $95.

To share our 10th anniversary celebrations with you, we shall be offering throughout the month of March 2014 a Free Goodhart Samplers Book or a Free Feller Needlework Collection Volume 1 with every copy of The Feller Needlework Collection Volume 2. You can preview and take advantage of this special offer today. It comes with all our kindest wishes in this our last year before retirement.