A suitable occupation
The census of 1851 reveals that of about 6 million women aged 20 and over, half were married women and unmarried daughters living at home. While some had access to a basic education, many did not. Busy working-class people had very little free time to fill. The middle and upper classes were expected to pursue ‘elegant’ and suitable occupations, such as needlework.
In her unpublished autobiographical novel Cassandra (1852) Florence Nightingale describes a morning at home. The ladies occupied their time by, ‘sitting around a little table in the drawing-room, looking at prints, doing worsted work, and reading little books.’
Worsted work could apply to crewel work using worsted yarns, or other types of woolwork. There was a huge surge of interest in Berlin woolwork, a form of counted thread canvas work embroidery, from the 1830s onwards when Mr Wilks opened a warehouse to supply equipment, materials and patterns for the work. The first hand-coloured pattern charts were published in Berlin at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They were widely exported across Europe and North America after about 1810, and sold by print-sellers and stationers.
In The English Woman’s Journal’s article on ‘Female Education in the Middle Classes’ (June 1858), the writer warns that women might fall prey to the ‘curse of middle-class existence, that death in life, ennuie’. During the mid-nineteenth century a boom in the publication of women’s magazines supported the need for suitable occupations. They usually contain a variety of instructions for crafts, from knitting and appliqué to woolwork and silk embroidery. As well as providing patterns and inspiration, they sometimes advertise suppliers of threads and equipment to be sent for by post.
Many portraits and sketches exist showing women stitching by candlelight. At a time before electric lighting, much close work would have been done during the day, but a country house with many blazing candles could be lit adequately enough to allow a little needlework or reading to be done.