Stork scissors
The stork scissors were originally a clamp used by midwives to clamp the umbilical cord . This medical instrument lost its importance over time, but the stork shape was adopted for the production of handicraft scissors from the middle of the 18th century. Stork shears have been produced using die molds since industrialization .
Look
The stork claws are an example of how an organic shape can be transformed into a commodity. The stork's pointed, long and straight beak and its typical posture before it starts to rattle can be easily combined with the function of scissors. Other large birds with pointed beaks, such as pelicans , cranes or herons , are also suitable for such a design ; these motifs are rarely used for scissors nowadays.
Historical development
Umbilical cord clamps were already used as a medical instrument during childbirth in ancient times. They are used for clamping the umbilical cord to the bloodstream between mother and child before cutting the cord to break. The umbilical cord was then cut with standard surgical scissors.
Umbilical cord clamps in the shape of a stork were made around 1800, as this was associated with the blessing of children in popular belief. As a working tool for midwives, the stork claws lost their importance over time. As early as the 18th century, however, it had become the custom to give women who had recently given birth a silver clip in the shape of a stork. With these stork-shaped clamps, the animal stood on the ring handles, the stalks were shaped like long legs, and the stork's body was formed above them. Often a plastic baby or a fish was embedded in it as a good luck charm. The long neck is the continuation of the stalks, and the bird's head is the trade with the nail as the animal's eye. The beak, which forms the actual clamp, has two legs that are flat on the inside and arched on the outside. The instrument also had a locking device. This locking mechanism is missing on the clamps given away. Presumably the intention was not to create an exact copy of the medical instrument, but rather a memento; in any case, no intended use of these clamps has been handed down. It was probably used to remove small candied fruits or confectionery from a bowl, but by no means lump sugar , as this was not yet invented in the second half of the 18th century.
But the stork shape, which was perceived as aesthetic, lived on: When the rococo style questioned the symmetry that had hitherto been common in the middle of the 18th century , asymmetrical scissor shapes and those that were modeled on figures were also produced for the first time. The stork shape became the model for the design of scissors for embroidery and needlework. Since the middle of the 19th century, stork scissors have been produced in numerous variants worldwide. Gifts for women who have recently given birth, babies and sponsored children were and are preferably made of silver; therefore silver was the preferred material for the body of the scissors, the blades were made of steel. In the process, the object broke away from its original meaning and became a handcraft scissors. In the course of industrialization, stork scissors were no longer made manually, but industrially using die molds. Steel was now used as the material, but the design and shape continued to be based on the silver specimens. Baby wrap and lucky charm fish have now been omitted, leaving a recess that was easier to produce in terms of production technology.
At the present time they are still produced as embroidery scissors, but often only seen as a purely decorative object and, because of their symbolic meaning, also given for the birth of a child.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Dagmar Thiemler: Stork Scissors . Accessed June 15, 2021 (German).
- ↑ a b c drop forge Hendrichs: stork scissors . In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Hrsg.): NRW history in 66 objects . 2017, ISBN 978-3-7700-2023-2 , pp. 134-135 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Hanns-Ulrich Haedeke: The history of the scissors . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7927-1683-6 , p. 95-96 .
- ↑ a b c d stork cutters (around 1800). Retrieved June 17, 2021 .