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Cup, saucer and teapot. From a tea set commissioned by the WSPU for the suffrage bazaar in Glasgow in April 1910. The design incorporates Sylvia Pankhurst’s ‘angel of freedom’ intertwined with Scottish thistles. (People's Palace) The WSPU had issued a plain tea service with the angel motif in 1908, and the angel was later used on a range of items, such as badges, brooches and banners. The People's Palace collection includes a cup and saucer from the 'English' service.
Tea plate, with painted border in green, purple and white, c1910. (National Museums of Scotland)
Coins Two pennies and a sixpence earned by Janet Borrowman of Glasgow WSPU during her two months in Holloway in 1912. With a WSPU receipt for the same, representing the notion that the Government, having paid the money to the prisoner for prison work, was financing the militants' cause. (People's Palace)
Jewellery Note: there is a trend to link and label 'old' jewellery in white, purple and green as ‘suffragette’ related. In fact, very little jewellery is known to have been made specifically for the women’s movement. (See Elizabeth Crawford's The Women's Suffrage Movement).
Brooch. Silver, set with amethysts, moonstones and green-dyed chalcedony, “commercially made with purple, green and white stones, the colour of the WSPU. About 1910.” (National Museums of Scotland, A.1994.98)
Brooch. Small oval brooch, in WSPU green enamel, purple and white, sterling silver rim and back. (People’s Story Museum, Edinburgh, HH4809/89)
Brooch. ‘Victorian style’ bar brooch with purple, green and white stones. (The Watt Collection, Aberdeen Art Gallery)
Necklace. Silver, amethyst and enamel, in purple, green and white, by Arthur and Georgie Gaskin, Birmingham, c1910. (National Museums of Scotland A.1992.34)
Illuminated address Note: The WSPU illuminated address, or scroll, was designed by Sylvia Pankhurst to be presented to hunger strike prisoners on release. It was first presented in late 1909. Thereafter it was given to others who followed their example, and usually signed and presented by Mrs Pankhurst. The top of the illuminated address bears a circular motif with a robed woman, flanked by winged angels, displaying a banner with the word ‘Freedom.’ The text is surrounded by richly-coloured garlands of roses.
Illuminated address presented by WSPU to Helen Crawfurd, signed by ‘E Pankhurst.’ (Argyll & Bute Archives, Lochgilphead. Copy in Marx Memorial Library, Glasgow Caledonian University) Illuminated address presented by WSPU to Agnes Macdonald, signed by ‘E. Pankhurst.’ (Edinburgh City Libraries) Illuminated address presented by WSPU to Arabella Scott. Signed ‘E. Pankhurst.’ (Private Collection, copy in WC.) Illuminated address presented by WSPU to Janet Borrowman of Glasgow WSPU. (People's Palace)
Indian club This device was appropriated by Glasgow Constabulary after the raucous arrest of Mrs Pankhurst in Glasgow in 1914. The club also featured in a Daily Record photograph under the heading 'The Lethal Weapon of the Suffragettes' on March 14, 1914. (People’s Palace)
Medals
Holloway badge in silver (for imprisonment) presented to Arabella Scott. (Private Collection, Photocopy in WC) Holloway badge in silver presented to Maggie Moffat, 1907. (People's Palace) Protest March medal. Silver badge awarded to Nannie Brown for completing the Edinburgh to London march in 1912. (National Museums of Scotland) |
