#HTE

Early P.O.P. Designs: Thread Spool Store Displays

Here’s an object you’ve likely never seen before. But by looking at the photos, you should be able to deduce what it’s for and how it’s operated.

The first one of you to tell us in the comments wins…nothing! This ain’t a game show, folks.

The images here are examples of early P.O.P. work, concerning a then-new object that had no established form factor, leading to a kind of Wild West of design experimentation. In the 19th century sewing machines became a viable domestic product in America, and as families back then often made and repaired their own clothes, this was a very big deal. General stores around the country were happy to stock the hot item known as spools of thread.

Manufacturers, wanting their products to stand out, created their own P.O.P. displays for the spools. What’s interesting to see is how there was no agreed-upon form factor, even among a single manufacturer. Take a look at a company called Corticelli’s smaller countertop models, which came in different sizes and styles.

This design has a hinged lid at the bottom that allows you to access the gravity-fed spools.

These two have slot-machine-like dispensers…

…while this design reminds me of an old cigarette machine (remember those?).

Some caught customers’ eyes by adding mirrors and/or clocks, two things we take for granted today, but which were considered fancy back then.

Others competed with sheer scale.

Seeing these for sale today reveals the perversity that is the world of antiques; once highly functional commercial objects, these are now essentially worthless, from a pragmatic point of view, yet can fetch five figures at auction. 

It’s a shame we’ll likely never learn the names of the craftsmen who made them.