A Reason to Collect Spools

Charles Eames  |  House of Cards

My favorite end table started its life in 1881 as a spool cabinet.

Originally, it would have lived without legs on a counter top. At a later date, someone added legs of turned wood, and I think the match is quite appropriate.

Each drawer had rows of prongs for spools, but these were removed to make flat files. I use the cabinet drawers for magazine clippings and miscellaneous paperwork.

The spool prongs of the top drawer were wisely retained, and throughout the years ...

,,, I've collected Coats & Clark's O.N.T. wooden spools with threads of every color to make this display. My spectrum of spools would not have been possible without generous contributions from many women — now of a past generation — who did their own sewing and mending.

Say, what does "O.N.T." mean, anyway?

Find out here.

.

The Meaning of O. N. T.

As my readers know by now, I have a great love for 19th century advertising items. And as I mentioned in my blog about Huyler's, it's especially satisfying to be able to match items that were once a set. That's one of the prime motivations in all collecting, isn't it? Above is a trade card for Clark's O.N.T. Spool Cotton. It advertised a bonus for buying Clark's thread, a charming little box that might have been used for any number of things.

And here's a later find, the actual box, and in nearly mint condition. Even the delicate ribbon has survived.

The top of the box

The label inside the box

You might be wondering, what does O.N.T. stands for?

In 1806, Napoleon blockaded Great Britain, which meant that silk thread was not available to British weavers. The Clark family had a loom supply company and they were also big suppliers of silk thread.

At the time of the blockade, Peter Clark developed a method of combining cotton threads so that they were strong and smooth enough to be used in place of silk, and he advertised this important advancement as "Our New Thread."

Throughout the 1800s, Clark's was one of the biggest distributors of trade cards, always with their trademark initials, O. N. T.
.