Shaker Sewing Carrier
Probably Elder Delmer Wilson (1873-1961) Sabbathday Lake, ME | c. 1910
Maple and pine with silk, wax, felt, and emery
Original stain and varnish surface
8 h. x 11 w. x 8 ⅜ “ d.
The evolution from oval storage box to carrier didn’t take long to manifest. In the 19th century, the Shakers of New/Mount Lebanon, New York, and Canterbury, New Hampshire, began making handled carriers, but these handy objects never accrued enough demand to develop into a full-fledged industry.
In the 1890s, Shaker Sisters from Sabbathday Lake, Maine, lined two Mount Lebanon carriers in silk and added sewing accessories. They brought them to the tourist market at the Poland Springs Resort and, to the surprise of the Shakers, started a craze. In 1896, Elder Delmer Wilson (1873-1961) began making handled Carriers out of his workshop in the Great Mill. His production was prolific—it is estimated that Elder Delmer made more than 50,000 during his lifetime, earning him the nickname, “Dean of the Carrier Makers.” The Sabbathday Lake Sisters would line Delmer’s carriers in shades of pink, blue, green, and brown silk, and furnish each with a strawberry-shaped emery, pincushion, needle case, and cylinder of beeswax.
On the bottom of this Sewing Carrier is the Sabbathday Lake Shaker stamp—“SC” for Shaker Community. Elder Delmer designed this trademark in 1903, and he stamped it in ink on the bottom of all his carriers from that point. In 1910, Sabbathday Lake’s Catalog of Fancy Goods advertises Sewing Carriers in four sizes—No 1. was the largest, No. 4 was the smallest. Measuring eleven inches exactly, this Sewing Carrier was the largest version offered—a No. 1. By 1920, the Shakers no longer offered the No. 1 (eleven-inch size), indicating that this Sewing Carrier lined in blue silk was made between 1903-1920.
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