What is ...

I have emailed you, but it may have got spamfiltered. A friend checked the OED and the best he could come up with is some form of loom.

I suppose it could even be some sort of "spare pair of hands" gadget for winding knitting wool on, or anything that might substitute for a female assistant.

Owain

I always understood it was a rack for drying clothes, usually the type on pulleys that haul up towards the ceiling. Of course if no one in the family knows what it is (don't ask them) just claim it is the item you would most like, which may well of course not be the most expensive, there again it might be. ;-)

No, that's something different. Would you believe a niddy noddy?

:-)

Mary

Yes, I got all those by Gooling but I don't think any of them is what she meant.

Mum taught me to knit, sew, darn, crochet, embroider etc. sixty years ago and with appropriate tools but never anything she called a handmaiden.

I wish I knew! I should have dug out the list and asked her about unfamiliar terms - but for the last few years she wouldn't have known either. She's also left me a Long John table. I had no idea what it was but Google told me it's a coffee table.

You know, I don't think I want ANYthing on her list. It's not being ungrateful it's just that we have everything we need and don't want anything we don't need. Local charities will be the beneficiaries of what grandchildren can't use.

Mary

Mary,

Could this possibly be what it is?

Brian G

That's what we call them in Yorkshire too. I gave mine to a daughter. In South Wales :-)

Mary

My mother had a sort of lazy tongs device withy four arms on a pivot which held yarns of wool etc and allowed you to roll them into a ball. She called that a handmaiden. Of course she could have been mistaken - she called me a bonny lad...

Here in Manchester my mum had one it was a wooden frame apros 3ft high made of 2 identical 'H' shaped frames pivoted allong one edge with cloth hinges used for drying clothes around the fire. (Happy memories of using it as a ladder )not so happy getting clouted when caught.

HTH

CJ

:-)

During the war we used ours as a play ridge tent, with a blanket draped over it. As we grew we put the blanket over it when it was standing, not as exciting though.

Oh dear, how innocent we were :-)

Mary

Can't help with that. There doesn't seem to be any usage other than an archaic term for a servant, or more generally any sub-servient entity.

OTOH a "housemaid" is a name used since WW1 for the sewing kit issued to soldiers to repair their uniforms in the field containing a darning mushroom, darning needles, yarns, sewing needles, buttons, etc. The term was still being used up to the end of National Service.

It wouldn't take much for the term "housemaid" to be changed to "handmaiden".

Did your mother have a sewing box? It would seem natural for such an item to be willed to a daughter.

DG

Thought that was 'housewife' (or 'hussif' in the Navy).

I though that was a "housewife" but perhaps the officer class got housemaids instead.

Owain

To Owen & Bob,

I'm remembering it from a scene in "Carry on Sergeant" (1958) in the Quartermaster's stores.

There's one for sale here:

Alright, they're Yanks. But as ever, better than nothing I suppose :-)

OTOH, YCBR, ISTR whoever played the dumb Yorkshireman (I'm a Yorkshireman myself) protesting on being issued a House* "But I'm already married!"

Googling for "Hussif" is fascinating, Eg :

Concur; that's ;they' called mine when issued to me; even had a position marked out on the offical laying out of kit poster!

=================================== To demonstrate the point:

My dad was in the TA pre-war, was commissioned in 1939 or 40 and retired in the sixties. Always referred to the kit as a hussif. It's probably somewhere in my sister's loft now. Mum wouldn't have been too pleased if the WD had issued him with a housemaid.

That URlL shows a 'Soldiers' Hussif' ; _We_ were issued with qty: One; doq: Each; item: _Housewife_ 'Airmen; for the use of ... " Can't recall the Sect/Ref .... !

IIRC; the item contained a button-stick, a darning mushroom needle and threads. {my service was contemporaneous with the introduction of socks; nylon, black - Airmen, for the use of ... and I was never required to darn the single pair of socks, woollen, blue-grey .... that were issued.} 'They' hadn't quite sussed the dye to use in the socks, nylon, black ... which gradually turned a delicate shad of pink after several journeys to the Laundry

Yes, that's a housewife. The old name for housewife was 'huswife', as in 'husband'. That's why it's tautologous to call a man a 'house husband'.

I spend a harrowing day yesterday clearing things out of Mum's bungalow, including the 'handmaiden'. I'll take a picture and post it here (yes yes, in an appropriate form!). I doubt that I'll keep it, it's awful -and nothing like anything which has been suggested or I could imagine.

Mary