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Gathering the Jewels features over 30,000 images of objects, books, letters, aerial photographs and other items from museums, archives and libraries throughout Wales.

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Displaying results 1 to 6 out of 62

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  • An undated photograph of a woman in Welsh dress taken by John Edwards, 25 Pier Street, Aberystwyth.
Postcard of a woman in Welsh dress, 19th century [image 1 of 2]
  • An undated photograph of an elderly woman identified as Mrs Anne Jones of  Llangybi, knitting in Welsh dress, taken by E.R. Gyde of 22 and 24 Pier Street, Aberystwyth [image 1 of 2]
Mrs Anne Jones of Llangybi, knitting in Welsh dress [image 1 of 2]
  • This postcard was produced by the 'Excelsior Photo Co. Ltd.', Carmarthen and is postmarked 1906.  It features a photograph of three women making candles at Abergorlech in 1895 (the photographer being David Thomas, turner, of Tan'r allt, Brechfa).  The elderly woman is Hannah Jones, Banc, Abergorlech, pictured here with two of the maid servants on her farm.  She is wearing the flannel clothing and tall beaver hat associated with 'traditional Welsh costume'.  By this date, however,  it would have been an increasingly rare occurrence to see a woman in this garb, even in the rural districts of Wales. It may well be that, on this occasion, the elderly lady donned the clothes which were fashionable during her youth purely for the benefit of the camera. 

The women are making a supply of tallow candles, probably for their own domestic use (although women often manufactured candles for retail purposes).  Tallow candles were used during the Middle Ages and continued to be made until the early twentieth century.  The simplest way of making these candles was to take narrow bands of linen, tie about six or eight of them to a wooden rod and then dip them in a vat of boiling tallow.  The process was repeated many times until the tallowed strip had attained the proportions of a candle. 

Sources: Iorwerth C. Peate, 'Tradition and Folk Life. A Welsh View' (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), p. 59  and F. G. Payne, 'Welsh Peasant Costume' in ' Folk Life', Vol. II (1964), p. 53.
Candle making at Abergorlech, 1895
  • One of a number of fine surviving images of local people taken in the 1900s by the self-taught but proficient local photographer, Tommy Allen of Crickhowell. This old lady in her wickerwork wheelchair was pictured with her slightly aggressive looking little dog.
Old lady and her dog, Crickhowell, c. 1900
  • This photograph shows two elderly men, one of whom is holding a bell, and a younger man.  Photographed by John Thomas.
Old chararcters (Tifa and Bellman), Y Borth, c. 1885
  • Photographed by John Thomas.
Residents of the almshouses, Cerrigydrudion