British society of Fretworkers

[scrimper]

This is a page from the programme of the British Society of Fretworkers exhibition held in London in 1911,

How different it was then!

Look at how many men and boys are in attendance, it just shows how popular the hobby was back then. My grandfather actually exhibited some of his fretwork at this exhibition and I still have the original programme guide.

Interesting thing in the photo is that most are wearing a hat of one type or another!

How nice it would be if there was this much interest today and an organisation such as the BFS existed that we could belong to today. Yes there is slightly more interest in the hobby today than a few years ago but it is on a tiny scale compared to those heady days between 1895 and the 1930's.

 

[bodgerbaz]

Wow. That was very interesting and thanks for sharing it.

 

[NazNomad]

That photo was taken 78 years before Tim Berners Lee invented internet porn... and the pubs were obviously shut, hence the huge numbers in attendance.

 

[scrimper]

You could also join the hobbies league, but before you could join you had to cut out a test piece and send it to them for appraisal!

 

[bugbear]

I think fretsawing was a cheap pastime, important in an era of horribly low incomes.

1 handframe, a clampon birdsmouth, a kitchen table and you were away.

I think it filled the same niche for males as cross stitching for females.

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

That's a nice bit of social history!

I had to Google 'antofret' though - I'd not heard of that one before.

 

[scrimper]

I had to Google 'antofret' though - I'd not heard of that one before.

It was quite popular for a time, now known as bevel cutting, Hobbies published quite a lot of pattern sheets for antofret. I have done a bit and it does take a bit of getting used too; cutting in one direction only but you can achieve some interesting effects. The patterns carried a small licence stamp which you were supposed to cut out and attach to the item when made.