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The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery
People In The Past
This glass linen smoother is from the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Glass smoothers have been found in female graves throughout the Viking world. Viking women made linen clothes, which could be pleated and pressed cold when they were damp.
There are signs of abrasion both on the dome-shaped upper surface and on the flat, lower surface. Glass linen smoothers were used to smooth textiles and press pleats in cloth until the 19th century.
Linen smoothers were usually 6.5 - 8.5cm in diameter, fitting comfortably into the hand of the user. They were normally used together with a small ‘ironing’ board; a fragment of one of these ‘ironing’ boards can be seen in this section.