Pin balls are associated with Quaker schools and in particular Ackworth school in Yorkshire which took poor children to give them an education. School girls knitted these balls in their leisrure time as gifts or to sell for extra income. The owner would have attached it to her waist with the loop of braid. The ball was knitted in two sections and joined at the seams. On the Needleprint Blogspot it mentions that Pinballs with the words 'A Token of Love' were given to prisoners, often Quakers imprisoned for not paying their tithes, as a token of God's love, to show they were not forgotten.
of fine dark brown silk hand knitted in stocking stitch with ivory silk details, A Token of Love 1797 below a pair of birds with twigs in their beaks, all within a double octagon, the reverse with a small square and diamond pattern, a narrow velvet ribbon round the ball to the velvet loop which hold a brown and cream fine knitted cord, 1 1/ in; 4 cm dia.
Excellent.
Quaker School Girl Samplers from Ackworth Carol Humphrey of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge
Samplers Rebecca Scott p 71
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