Tambourers.....

[davran]

One of my ancestors was a tambourer. What exactly did this entail? I visited a silk museum in France last year and saw the mechanised Jacquard looms which had a tambour, but on looking at a list of old occupations it gave 'tambourer' as an embroiderer. I just wondered if a tambourer was someone who worked the tambour part of the loom or was a hand-embroiderer. Any ideas, anyone?

[angel]

Hello davran

I also have a Tambourer in my family and the explanation I found was this:-

Tambourer - Lace

Embroderer using hoops to hold the cloth.

Hope this helps.

Heather

[clare]

There are a couple of good sites that I use to help me work out occupations...

http://www.scotroots.com/occupations.htm is useful and there is a list on Scotlands people under Help & Other Resources > Research Tools

Cheers,
Clare

[AnnieMack]

A tambourer was indeed an embroiderer. I looked into this some time ago as I read about it in a book set in the Paisley area. Tambourers did fine needlework on garments to give them individuality for the wearer and was highly specalised work. Given that these were women working at home and either by candle or gas light it was not uncommon for tambourers to have very poor eyesight relatively early in life and possible the first incidences of repetitive strain injury to the hands.

Hard work, well paid (by the standards of the time) but early burn out me thinks.

Annie