Roman Laundry Clothespins?

[jkaler48]

OK Civilian experts what did Roman clothespins for hanging up the laundry to dry look like?

[richsc]

Are you thinking of those hoop structures used by fullers?

[jkaler48]

Didn't know about those but was wondering how the ordinary people and slaves hung up wet clothing to dry when they weren't sent out for professional cleaning.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Centuries back,5th century bc greek vases show clothes getting dryed hunging from trees. On the other hand,this was meant to show a scene from the Odyssey where Odysseus found those girls playing and washing out of the city walls of Corfu
Khaire
Giannis

[Epictetus]

Could a fibula be used?

Alternatively, perhaps no pins were used. This fresco from a fuller in Pompeii appears to show clothes drying while simply draped over suspended poles.



Perhaps it was common to have others clean your clothes. Martial makes a jibe that if someone cleaned himself better he wouldn't have to take his clothes to the professional cleaner so often.

Pergamus sent these; scrape yourself with the curved iron [stirgil], and the scourer will not so often have to cleanse your linen.

Martial, 14.51

[D B Campbell]

Alternatively, perhaps no pins were used. This fresco from a fuller in Pompeii appears to show clothes drying while simply draped over suspended poles.

When I was a child, my grandmother had a thing like that in her kitchen!

[A_Volpe]

I was going to say, why not have the slaves just hold up the laundry for it to dry?
:mrgreen: :twisted:

[jkaler48]

A little research produces the fact that clothpins (the split wood type) were not invented until the mid 1800s. Patents for devices to hang clothes were issued in the mid to late 1700s
but weren't practical solutions. BUT many modern inventions are really reinventions of things the Romans had that were forgotten during the dark ages. (See Roman Pewter) So it is not implausible that there were Roman clothespins but few know about them or they have been found or found not recognized as such.

[Vindex]

This has no historical reference as far as I am aware and only a contemporary one (me!), but if you secure one end of a loop of rope or strong string to a fixed object and twist the rope VERY tightly, then secure the other end, clothes are then poked through the tight twists and hang without the aid of pegs ; and you can, if you are careful, avoid unsightly creasing.

That any good?

[Plauta]

I'm pretty sure Romans didn't have clothespins. I do a Roman fashion show and I have made several clothes, and have to wash them and dry them quite often. Roman clothes, because of their structure, dry best when hanged on poles. In fact I wish I had a pole stand rather than a line: for hanging tunics I use mop sticks propped up as best as I can and I hang togas from my loft railing.
I did think a lot about the theme and did a lot of observation. Somebody else aid that "clothpins (the split wood type) were not invented until the mid 1800s." And that makes sense. In medieval houses I have seen stone stands protruding from under the windows, and they were used to sustain clothes-hanging poles. So it's safe to assume that poles were used since antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. And probably they are still used in some places. I remember seeing a Japanese film from the Thirties with poles being used to hang clothes.
The fact is: the clothes pin does not represent an improvement, so there was no reason for Romans to have developed it. Just pulling the clothes through a pole is easy, and it makes it impossible for any wind to blow them away. The pole will not bend and give bad shapes to the piece of clothing, which saves work on the pressing.