The Knitter's Friend Revisited

[This was written, apart from minor tweaks, before I broke my wrists. As John said in the last post, I shan't be doing any  knitting for a while.  I might be able to write posts about one or two of the pieces in the Guild collection, but I'll see how it goes.  Broken bones are quite tiring, apparently.  Now read on....]

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Hope family of Ramsgate:  Isaac Hope, his wife Margaret and their son George Curling: they kept a fancy goods store in Ramsgate in the 1840s, that also sold Berlin wool and other needlework supplies.

Mrs Hope and George Curling Hope between them wrote or edited several books on knitting and crochet in the 1840s, one of them being The Knitter's Friend, which was first published in 1844, but ran to several editions.  It was promoted in The Knitter's Casket, a later book by Mrs Hope:  "This book has an unprecedented popularity;  it is the clearest book on its subject, and is welcomed as a 'friend' by every knitter." (But she would say that, wouldn't she?)

My copy (illustrated) is one of the later editions - it dates from 1847.  

The title page says that it was edited by Mrs. Hope.  I don't know what editing involved precisely, but  a notice at the end of The Knitter's Casket says:

"In return for an original receipt in knitting or netting forwarded to the editress for publication, she will be happy to send free to any part of the kingdom a copy of the volume in which it appears.
None can be accepted which are not original, and a small specimen would be an advantage."

So I guess that the books edited by Mrs Hope were compilations of patterns that she had collected.  A free copy of one of her books (price 1 shilling, or 5p) doesn't seem a great reward in exchange for a pattern, but presumably the scheme of asking for patterns from readers worked.  It couldn't have been used for The Knitter's Friend, being Mrs Hope's first book, but perhaps in that case the 'receipts' were solicited from her customers in Ramsgate.

Mr Hope's role in  The Knitter's Friend is clear: he was the publisher.   He also used the book, in my edition, as a platform to promote another enterprise of his, Hope's Protective Labels.

(Click on the image for a larger view).  Some of the text is below:

LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND FAMILIES TRAVELLING, 

ARE INVITED TO MAKE TRIAL OF 

HOPE'S PROTECTIVE LABELS, 

FOR DIRECTING PASSENGER LUGGAGE. 

They are cheap—readily affixed—instantaneously recognised—save time—prevent confusion--protect from robbery—may be had of all Stationers throughout the kingdom. 

PRICE THREE PENCE THE PACKET OF TWELVE. 

Annexed are a few extracts from some of the Notices of the Press, "A very neat and simple invention has been made by Mr. Hope, of Ramsgate, in the matter of Passengers' Luggage Labels. The label is adhesive, and it is distinguished from any other label of the kind yet introduced, by the diversity of patterns, strikingly dissimilar, obtained from the combination of colours, designs, and numbers. It is a very useful and ingenious contrivance, and is calculated to add considerably to the comfort and convenience of those who are travelling."—Sunday Times, May 9, 1847.
"The Protective Label, invented by Mr. Hope, of Ramsgate, renders luggage readily recognisable, for the labels are of multitudinous designs and colours, so that no two persons can have their packages similarly distinguished."—Douglas Jerrold's Newspaper, May 15, 1847.
"The object of the publisher is to prevent a certain class of gentlemen from appropriating parcels by mistake."—Penzance Gazette, July 1, 1847.

and so on.

Passenger rail travel had become increasingly popular in the 1840s, as the network of railways spread across the country, and these luggage labels were evidently addressing a problem that had arisen, though I'm not sure whether the main problem was that passengers couldn't recognise their own luggage, or that it was getting stolen.  And was the luggage unaccompanied, or travelling with the passengers but in the luggage van?  I can't imagine what the labels looked like - I'd love to know.  But I think that they can't have been very successful - I have seen no later mention of them.

So that's Margaret (editress) and Isaac (publisher and advertiser).  What of George Curling Hope?  He used The Knitter's Friend to advertise his Cornucopia knitting needle gauge.  I think that he also did at least two of the illustrations that accompanied the receipts in the book, because they are signed with his initials, G C H, though in both cases his initials are followed by something illegible.

Kamschatka Body

Opera Cap

If he did draw these, I think he might have drawn other illustrations too, because the captions look to be in the same hand-writing.

Round Scotch Cap for Pence

George Curling Hope probably designed the covers of both The Knitter's Friend and The Knitter's Casket as well, because his monogram appears in the bottom corners of the back and front covers - the same monogram as on the Cornucopia gauge, though with added plant tendrils to fit in with the rest of the design.

Helpful words are embossed around the edges of the cover, in similar rustic lettering:  PERSEVERANCE, PATIENCE, APPLICATION, INDUSTRY - four very useful virtues, but sounding very dull.

So The Knitter's Friend (and later The Knitter's Casket) was not just Mrs Hope's work, but a Hope family enterprise.  Both can be downloaded from the Richard Rutt collection in the Winchester School of Art library here and here.  I'll talk about the other works produced by Mrs Hope and George Curling Hope in the 1840s in a later post.
 

The Cornucopia Gauge

From The Knitter's Friend, 1847

My copy of The Knitter's Friend, edited by Mrs Hope, has an ad for a knitting needle gauge, The Cornucopia Gauge. The gauge was evidently a production of the Hope family - anyone who couldn't find a shop that sold them could buy one direct from Mr Hope.  But I think we can be more precise - it has a monogram stamped into it, which I think is GCH for George Curling Hope, the son of the family.  I guess that he designed it, and was using his mother's little book to advertise it.

I have never seen an actual example of a Cornucopia Gauge, but Sheila Williams illustrates one in her book The History of Knitting Pin Gauges, so some at least were made.

The ad in The Knitter's Friend says that the gauge is "a correct measure, according to the numbers used in the works of Mrs Gaugain, Mrs. Mee, Mrs. Jackson, Mrs Burrell and Mrs Hope" - they were authors who had all published books on knitting in the 1840s (see the list here).

Steel knitting needles were made of wire, and indeed called 'knitting wires' by some writers, so the numbers used as knitting needles sizes were wire sizes too. (It was the standard sizing for knitting needles in the U.K. until metric sizes replaced them.)  That explains why all the writers listed, and George Curling Hope, used the same sizing and numbering system - they had adopted the sizing and numbering already used for wire.   One knitting author did use different sizes: another ad for the Cornucopia Gauge says "This gauge is a  a correct measure..., according to the numbers used in every publication on knitting, except those of Mrs. Lambert."    Frances Lambert had introduced her own knitting needle gauge, the 'Standard Filière' in 1842.  An ad for it claimed: "The want of an Instrument for determining with accuracy the size of Knitting Needles has long been a cause of complaint" - a want that was soon filled by several competing suppliers, including George Curling Hope.

Many of these gauges, including the Standard Filière, were circular discs, but in 1847, a bell-shaped gauge was patented by G. Chambers & Co. and that became the most common shape for knitting needle gauges.  Bell gauges can be found with the names of many different manufacturers and suppliers until well into the 20th century - we have an Emu bell gauge in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection which dates from the late 1940s.  So although The Knitter's Friend and The Knitter's Casket sold well, the fancy shape of the Cornucopia Gauge did not assure its success - and George Curling Hope turned to other ideas.    

The Hopes of Ramsgate

I wrote in December 2014 about a little Victorian knitting book that John had given me, The Knitter’s Friend.  The title page says that it was edited by Mrs. Hope, and published by I. Hope of 58, Queen Street, Ramsgate.  I was curious about the identity of Mrs Hope and I. Hope, and so set about doing some research.

At the same time, unknown to me, Lesley O’Connell Edwards, who edits the Knitting & Crochet Guild magazine, Slipknot, was also researching the Hopes.  I eventually found out that we had been working in parallel, and for the past few months we have been exchanging emails.  Lesley has now published her findings in an article in a recent issue of Piecework magazine:   George Curling Hope: A Man in a Woman's World.  

Lesley and I both looked at the 19th century censuses, but otherwise were using different sources, and so I have some details about the Hopes that Lesley did not have, and would not in any case have had space for in her article.  To make the story of the Hopes more complete, I’ll record my findings here.

According to the British Library catalogue, the Mrs. Hope who edited The Knitter’s Friend and other books was Mrs George Curling Hope.  But Lesley has shown that Mrs Hope was not the wife of George Curling Hope, but his mother – her husband was Isaac Hope, who published her books.  George was apparently their only child, born in Ramsgate in 1820.  I don’t know where the name ‘Curling’ came from – it wasn’t Margaret’s maiden name, which would be the obvious assumption.  George used it as if it were part of his surname, and in later life was often referred to as Mr Curling Hope.

In the 1841 census, the Hope family were recorded as living at Queen Street.  Isaac and George are both described as ‘Toyman’ – which appears to have meant a dealer in fancy goods.  Margaret is not recorded as having any occupation, but was undoubtedly involved in the business.  Also living in the house were a ‘Shop Woman’ and ‘F.S.’ (presumably a Female Servant).  This gives an impression of some prosperity.

Knitting and crochet had become very popular from the late 1830s, leading to a flurry of instruction books.  These were listed in 1955 by Esther Potter, in English Knitting and Crochet books of the Nineteenth Century, published in the journal The Library.  She described ‘a craze for fancy needlework’ spreading to this country from Germany in the early 1800s, so that knitting, as ‘a form of recreation for ladies of the leisured classes’ had become popular by the late 1830s, along with crochet.  The result was that:

 “The proprietors of the establishments which sold needlework materials were not slow to add knitting-wools to their stock, and to promote the new fashion by giving lessons and by issuing manuals of instruction.  A host of charming little books was turned out between about 1840 and 1860.”  

The mistaken idea that books edited by Mrs Hope were produced by “Mr and Mrs George Curling Hope” is perhaps due to Esther Potter (unless the misinformation was already in the British Library catalogue, and she copied it.)  She listed eleven books on knitting and crochet under that heading that first appeared in the 1840s - in fact, they were all the work of either Mrs Hope or George Curling Hope, but never both.

In 1842, George Curling Hope published My Working Friend. This seems to have been the first book published by either of the Hopes.  The title page describes it as ‘being plain directions for the various stitches in Fancy Needlework with hints on their employment, by G. Curling Hope.’  (I have not seen a copy of My Working Friend, but have seen an image of the title page.)

Mrs Hope followed her son’s example.  The Knitter’s Friend was first published in February 1844. [1]  It was advertised as:

“Now ready at all Berlin Shops, an entirely new illustrated Knitting Book….. THE KNITTER’S FRIEND; with 50 Original Receipts in Knitting and Netting for Opera Caps, Hoods, Cuffs, Boots, Shoes, Cardinal Capes, &c &c.”   

(Berlin shops initially sold Berlin wool for the embroidery on canvas called Berlin work, but later they also sold knitting wools and crochet cottons.)

A 2nd edition of The Knitter’s Friend was advertised later in 1844 as “corrected, improved and enlarged".  The '50 original receipts' had now been increased to 60.  I don’t know of any online copy of either of these early editions.  The copy available from the Winchester School of Art library is the 5th edition.   My own copy seems to be slightly later still, though it simply says ‘Corrected edition’, and was probably printed in 1847.

In another post, I will revisit my copy The Knitter’s Friend and show how all three of the Hopes were involved in it.  (To be continued.) 

[1] Although the first edition of The Knitter’s Friend is dated to 1842 in the British Library catalogue and by Esther Potter, I’m sure it’s later.  It is listed in the Publishers’ Circular for February 15th 1844  as a new work, published since 30th January that year.