The picture above shows a nineteenth century East End of London home-working brush drawer surrounded by her children. This was part of a series taken at the time to publicise the awful conditions and hardship the working class had to undergo to earn a meagre living.
I have received several enquiries along the lines of:
My wife has a brush drawer in her tree. I assume that this is part of the manufacturing process. What did she do?
Here is some information about brush drawing that I hope may be of use to another person with a brush drawer in their ancestry.
Brush Drawing (or Wire Drawing)
Before efficient glues were invented the only way of "sticking"
bristles
to a brush-stock was by using hot pitch. This method was used up till
this
century for brooms and household brushes. It was known as "pan-work" as
it entailed using a pan of warm pitch.
However, this was no good for making small personal brushes as the
pitch would get in your hair. Also pitch was very limited in its water
resistant qualities when used with hot soapy water etc.
The way around this was "drawing", and this was the first
aspect
of the craft a brushmaker's apprentice would be taught.
In drawing, a wooden brush back is made and holes drilled though
it
to take the knots of bristle. This part of the brush would usually be
the
part that included the wooden handle. The holes were each drilled with
two bits, one wider than the other so that half of the hole was of a
larger
bore.
A length of wire or thin twine was then passed in loops through the
holes from the back of the brush. A small bundle of bristles, about two
inches or so long was then pushed through each loop, so that as the
loop
was pulled from behind the brush back the bristles folded over into the
wider part of the hole and were held tight as the wire or twine was
pulled.
If the brush was for hair the bristles would be left slightly uneven.
If it was for clothes, etc. they would be fixed so they would all
be even.
(look at a modern clothes brush and a modern bristle hair brush and
you will see this is so. It is so the bristles will penetrate hair
easier.)
A brush back drilled ready for drawing.
Finishing
After a row of bristles had been inserted the wire was tied off so
that they were held tight, and this was continued until the whole brush
was "filled" with bristles
To hand-draw a good hairbrush would be a day's work!
After all the bristles were inserted and the wire or twine secured
a brush-back of thin veneer would be fixed over it to hide the work.
These were glued with fish glue, but as this was also unreliable four
small brass screws were also added to keep the back secure.
The brush was then "finished"- i.e.shaped, sanded, stained and
polished.
This could be a specialist job and some brushmakers described
themselves
as "brush finishers".
Brushes are still made this way today, but they are quite
expensive
and are usually bought by the "upper classes" or those with an eye for
quality! . The sign of a top quality brush is still the four small
brass
screws to be found in its back.
Ebony and Ivory Brushes
This method was also used for ebony and ivory backed brushes.
The holes for the bristles were drilled for a set depth and then
longitudinal holes were drilled from one end of the brush to connect
them
together. Connecting the holes was called trepanning, which was done
with
a very long, thin, flexible drill bit. The drawing wire was then
inserted
and the loops pulled through the holes with a minute crochet hook!
As the back was so expensive this work would be done by a specialist.
The brushmakers who did this work often added the material they worked
with to their occupation description, i.e Ivory brush maker etc..
Toothbrushes
A toothbrush being hand-drawn at Rooneys of
Walthamstow
In 1780 William Addis invented the modern toothbrush for his own
use.
Toothbrushes had existed before but were just like an artists
paintbrush.
Addis felt that the brush would be much more efficient if the handle
was
held sideways. He soon realised the commercial potential. By 1788 they
were in production, especially after Dr Maury of Washington D.C.
perfected
a way of smoothing and tapering the bone handles so they did not damage
the mouth and gums. The handles were made from cattle shin-bones. By
the
late 19th century sixty gross (8640) of toothbrushes were made weekly
by
G.B.Kents, for which 600 head of cattle would be required to produce
the
handles, providing about four toothbrush handles per leg bone!
Toothbrushes were also "drawn" in a similar way to other small
brushes,
and a very fiddly business it was! As a result the brush manufacturers
employed lots of women (smaller fingers!) as factory staff and
out-workers
to carry out this job. Late 19th century you will find lots of women
describing
themselves as brush-drawers.
Kents
By the 1890s G B Kent's employed hundreds of women, who were picked
for their appearance. The toothbrush backs were now machine drilled and
wooden brushes were also being made by machine, which Kents boasted
could
be operated by a child! The machine drilled five toothbrushes per
minute,
with 60 holes per toothbrush. Old illustrations show young women in
long
skirts and crisp blouses at work in their factories in east London, and
later in Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Kents were the largest producer of
toothbrushes
in the world at this time!
If you find a Brush Drawer in your line, it could be that she was
one
of these ladies, or an out-worker, or even a more traditional brush
maker.
Brush drawing was nearly made obsolete by the arrival of new nylon
and stapled brushes in the 20th century, but the practise still clings
on!
Copyright Kenneth A Doughty 2000 (updated 2002)