Historical information

A mob cap was worn over the hair when indoors working and a hat could be placed over it when going outdoors. It was quite reasonable to receive visitors while wearing a mob cap. This cap has been labelled as a ‘boudoir’ cap to be worn over curlers or to keep a lady’s hair in place overnight. It is made of cotton and has beautiful torchon lace inserts with the same lace trim around the edge. This torchon lace is a handmade bobbin lace using soft cotton thread.in a simple design of filled diamonds alternating with spiders. These caps were worn by women in Georgian times and called a ‘bonnet’. The term ‘mobcap’ may have come from the Dutch or French languages but the name was cemented during the French Revolution when most of the revolutionary women were wearing these caps. During the Victorian era they were mostly worn by servants or nurses.

Significance

Churchill Island has a large lace collection, which was added to by three successive generations of the Amess family - Jane, Janet, and Unity. The Amess family owned Churchill Island from 1872 to 1929. Jane was wife of Samuel Amess, who was the first Samuel Amess to own Churchill Island. The examples of lace are notable for their variety, and provide respresentative examples of techniques from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

Physical description

white cotton mob cap, with central lace section in the form of a cross

Inscriptions & markings

Packaged with note: "White cotton handmade lace mob cap"