Conservation close up bonnet

The Lydia Lawrence Bonnet

When the museum was first established in 1976, one of the first items to come in to the collection was a cotton sun bonnet, thought to have been made by Lydia Lawrence.  The bonnet was donated to the museum by the daughter of the original owner, Mrs Leivers, who was a neighbour of the Lawrence family and  bought it from Lydia's parlour window shop.

Over time the fabric has become very fragile, mainly due to light damage.  The bonnet was sent to the University of Lincoln's conservation department, where it was stabilised on a custom-made mount to prevent further deterioration.  It is still too delicate to be on display, and so two replica's were made: one is in the parlour window (where the original was sold from) and one is in the Reading Room where it can be tried on!

Lincoln University did a thorough analysis of how the bonnet was made and the materials used.  This analysis gives us a fascinating insight into the techniques and skill involved in its making, as well as shedding light on the fashions and practical uses for such an item.   It was found to be made of printed cotton lawn, originally having a natural off-white background with a machine-printed small repeat pattern in black & purplish-grey.  The main seams of the bonnet have been machine-stitched with a thin cotton thread, but hand-stitching with a thicker, doubled thread has been used to join the lining, to gather the back of the bonnet into the desired shape, to attach the back curtains and bow, and to attach the front ties. This hand-stitching is only visible from the inside of the bonnet.

'The style of this particular bonnet is reminiscent of the fashionable bonnet styles of the late 1850s/early 1860s, with the curtains rising up around the ear area from the back neck, and the front brim extending quite low at the sides – this may be an example of a historical style persisting in use as workwear long after it stopped being fashionable for more formal clothing, or an indication that Lydia Lawrence learned bonnet-making from someone older, whose own knowledge/tastes came from the 1850s/1860s. The bonnet is certainly more fashionably shaped than other examples of cloth sunbonnets from this period, with more complexity of construction as a result.'  University of Lincoln, Condition Assessment.

'A Toiler Still: An Old Woman, North Lincolnshire' by George Clausen, 1887. An  example of cloth sunbonnets still being worn by rural women in the same  period that Lydia Lawrence is thought to have made this bonnet. Source: http://www.artnet.com/artists/sir-george-clausen/a-toiler-still-an-old-woman-north-lincolnshire-TH0VmhkF-DJnpunlnt-UhA2