
Carved wooden knitting sheath, made by Richard Babbage for Mary Coote and dated 1804, with an accompanying note on the family history. The sheath is carved all over its surface, decorated on one side with motifs including a heart shape, the initials RB and MC, the legend 'Jx 9 1804', perhaps referring to the 9th of June or July of that year. On the reverse is carved a basket of flowers below a wheel and a diagonal cross. The top of the sheath is round in section, with a hole to take the knitting needle, above a multi-faceted section from which the double-sided pincer, used to secure the sheath at the waist, emerges.