This is an antique spindle that is used in my part of Italy (northern Italy, Emilia Romagna) and it is a drop spindle. I collect antique ones and I use them as a base for my replicas, the fun in collecting them is that not one is like the other, they all are a bit different in size and weight.

I decided to let a few of my antiques go and fly in the hands of other fellow spinners. This isn’t something that happens often, so grab your chance now :)

Please notice that I didn’t do any restorative work except cleaning and waxing the wood. The pics will show you in details the “faults” in the wood, little signs on the belly and often the bottom that is damaged due to the spinners dropping the spindle while spinning (sounds familiar? ahah!).

IMPORTANT: these are DROP spindles, not supported!!!!!! They work quite similar to Dealgans.

I made a video to show you how to spin and wind yarn on this spindle: LINK TO THE SPINNING VIDEO

Estimate age around a century. Good conditions. Probably at least partially whittled instead of turned on a lathe.

Size: 9.5 inches (24cm)
Weight: 32 grams

The spindle was a treasure for every girl and woman, especially in a farmers economy, where it was essential in transforming wool into garments, in a society that was quite poor and where a wheel was a luxury.

In Italian, to spin wool is said "filare" (to make thread, more or less). During the courtship, it was tradition for the young man to gift the fiancee with a spindle. In fact, when a young girl had a suitor, it was used to say that "she had a filarino" (which you could loosely translate as having a little spinning?😅).

It is a saying that is heard just from old people nowadays, because young generations have lost the tradition of spinning and spindle gifting.

But I find it so romantic ❤️