Here is another eBay link
http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-paint-wooden-heddle-hangers-Rare-19
You see the beater in the center of the photo.
Directly beneath it you see the cloth beam
To the left side of the photo you see a chair and to the right of it, the breast beam with cloth in progress around the beam leading to the cloth beam.
Something interesting here, is the ratchet & pawl setup on the outside of the loom frame. I can’t say I’ve ever seen this before – all the looms I’ve seen have the ratchet & pawl ( lower right hand corner, just above the watermark) on the inside of the frame.
Behind the beater are four “harnesses” holding string “heddles”. Above that are the pulleys ( counterbalanced loom) hanging from a “roller bar” which allows for the rise & fall of the pulleys which also provide their own rise & fall.
The beater is overslung from the top which provides a nice weighted beat as it’s swung back and forth. It also shows the characteristic peak in the middle of the top portion.
While it’s tempting to grab the beater at the peak, the beat of the cloth is more even when grabbed by one hand on each side.
I seem to see three treadles, though I’m not really sure, but three treadles is typical of linen looms.
The warp is also on a slight incline, getting higher toward the back of the loom.
I am still trying to work this out. I was always told that you want the warp to run horizonatally from the warp beam, through the heddles to the breast beam and to ride in the center of the heddle eye to avoid undue abrasion, and I have seen that often on 100 year old looms.
But lately, the looms I’ve seen tend to have that incline. While at least one had a unique feature that explained the incline, the rest did not. I wonder if it’s particular to linen looms?
Kathryn
Tags: 18th century, Weaving
