Washboards, boxes and wash-houses in France, Italy and Spain

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en-GB"> <head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8" /><link rel="Alternate" title="Old and interesting" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/oldandinteresting" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/html1.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/layout1.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/extra.css" /><link rel="shortcut icon" href="/images/favicon.ico" /><meta name="msvalidate.01" content="0F6BF2EF6A2C10EC2C11FF3E234CAC22" /> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { background-color: #FFCC99; } </style> <title> Washboards, boxes and wash-houses in France, Italy and Spain </title></head> <body> <div id="content"> <div id="header"> <div id="title"> </div> <a href="/default.aspx"> <img src="/images/bg/lefttitle.jpg" alt="old and interesting" class="left" id="top" /></a> <img src="/images/bg/righttitle.jpg" alt="history of domestic objects, household antiques in use" class="right" /> </div> <div id="mainMenu"> <ul class="floatRight"> <li><a href="/default.aspx" title="Home"><strong>home</strong></a></li> <li><a href="/books.aspx" title="Books, writers, bibliography"><strong>books</strong></a></li> <li><a href="/contact.aspx" title="Contact by email"><strong>contact</strong></a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="page"> <div class="width22 floatLeft leftColumn"> <ul class="sideMenu"> <li class="here"> <br />     History of:<ul> <li><a href="/bread-peel.aspx">Bread peels</a></li> <li><a href="/history-butter-churns.aspx">Butter-making & churns </a></li> <li><a href="/vintage-electric-irons.aspx">Early electric irons</a></li> <li><a href="/history-feather-beds.aspx">Featherbeds, duvets, eiderdowns </a></li> <li><a href="/antique-irons-smoothers-mangles.aspx">Ironing & smoothing</a></li> <li><a href="/history-ironing-boards.aspx">Ironing boards</a></li> <li><a href="/history-of-laundry.aspx">Laundry - 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nips & tongs</a></li> <li><a href="/medieval-tablecloths.aspx">Tablecloths</a></li> <li><a href="/tinderbox.aspx">Tinderboxes</a></li> <li><a href="/washing-beetles-possing.aspx">Washing bats and beetles</a></li> <li><a href="/washing-dollies.aspx">Washing dollies</a></li> <li><a href="/sitemap.htm"><b>List of all articles</b></a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class="sideMenu"> <li class="here">   </li> </ul> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/oldandinteresting"> <img src="images/bg/rss.jpg" class="floatLeft" style="font-style: italic" /></a>Subscribe to <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/oldandinteresting">RSS feed</a> or get <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=918986&loc=en_US"> email</a> updates.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <center> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568983921?ie=UTF8&tag=oldint-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568983921"> <img border="0" src="zlavoirs.jpg"></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=oldint-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568983921" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" /><br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568983921?ie=UTF8&tag=oldint-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568983921"> <em>Lavoirs: Washhouses of Rural France</em> from Amazon.com</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=oldint-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568983921" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" /><br /> </center> </blockquote> <br /> <center> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </center> <br /> <blockquote class="palefullwidth"> <em>Another peculiarity is the washerwomen's ark [box], which you may see at every village: a little wooden raft, with a bench upon the side next the stream, on which the sturdy washerwomen work their clothes after dipping them in the river. <br /> </em>John Price Durbin, <em>Observations in Europe: Principally in France and Great Britain</em>, 1844 </blockquote> <br /> <br /> </div> <div class="width78 floatRight"> <div class="maintext"> <h1> Washboards at the riverside</h1> <h3> Board, box, and bench in France and southern Europe      >> also <a href="#wash-houses">Wash-houses</a></h3> <p> <img class="floatRight" alt="3 women kneeling by river with boards and washing bat" title="Pissarro, Washerwomen at Eragny, 1895 (detail)" src="images/washerwomeneragny.jpg " />Washerwomen at the riverside were a common subject for 19th century French artists. Some of their work shows not only the French version of a washboard, but the three-sided box or <em>caisse</em> that went with it. The woman knelt in the box and her skirt stayed dry. For more comfort, she could pad it <a href="http://lavoirsrhone.free.fr/images/lavandiere/lavandiere_23.jpg"> with straw</a> to cushion her knees.</p> <p> <img class="floatLeft" alt="sketch of washerwoman kneeling in box" title="Box and board, caisse and planche" src="images/frenchwasherwomanscaisse.jpg " />When Americans think of their great-grandmothers using a traditional washboard, or British people recall old <a href="washing-dollies.aspx"> washing dollies</a>, French memories are more likely to be of a box and board. (These were also known <a href="http://www.elrollodecepeda.org/img/cc_tajuela.gif">in Spain</a>.) In France living history events or re-creations of traditional ways of life may feature women in 19th century costume using the box and board, in the many regions where this was common. </p> <p> The riverside washerwomen had sometimes soaked their laundry in lye before taking it to the water's edge, as described in Zola's <em>Dream</em>, quoted on the page about the "<a href="washing-days.aspx">great wash</a>". The rather snooty-sounding English travel writers (see left-hand column) offer a picture of the women and their equipment but no real information on washing techniques. </p> <p> <img class="floatRight" alt="Woman using flat board with legs pointing upward" title="Detail from Gauguin, Washerwomen in Arles, c1888" src="images/washerwomeninarles.jpg " /> In some areas benches with legs were more popular than a plain board. They could be used upside down as in the Gauguin painting (right) - or looking more <a href="http://lavoirsrhone.free.fr/images/lavandiere/lavandiere_21.jpg"> like ironing boards</a>, low or high, at the edge of the water. Sometimes the women got into tubs or barrels rather than boxes.</p> <p> <img class="floatLeft" alt="sketch of standing women using sloping boards" title="Delacrois, washerwoman in the Pyrenees, 1845 (detail)" src="images/washerwomenpyrenees.jpg " /> This website has another article discussing the <a href="washboards-history.aspx">origins of washboards</a>, saying how hard it is to find evidence of ridged washboards in use before the 19th century, except in Scandinavia. Smooth boards can be seen in earlier pictures of <a href="/laundry-venice.aspx">Italian washerwomen</a>. The boards and benches on this page are all 19th century. The <a href="washing-beetles-possing.aspx"> washing bat</a> or <em>battoir</em> in the first two pictures was a very familiar traditional tool, used with or without other equipment. </p> <br /> <h3 id="wash-houses"> Wash-houses</h3> <p> <img class="floatRight" alt="two women, one using large communal basin, one using tub" title="Washhouse in Rome, anon, Acquedotto dell'acqua Vergine, date uncertain" src="images/italian washhouse.jpg " />Women could work together by the river, or in the other communal laundry places: the public wash-houses. These were usually open-air, though often roofed, in France (<em>lavoirs</em>) and southern Europe. Some were based on a simple village fountain spilling over into a basin, while others were large purpose-built facilities. In some regions there was a special version, a <a href="http://www.csafra.net/galerie/hmax500/Bateau-lavoir-2.jpg">laundry-boat moored on the riverbank</a>, a <em>bateau-lavoir</em>, giving easy access to river-water.</p> <p> The Italian wash-house illustrated (right) also has a barrel and tub for soaking in water and ashes (lye). Note the plug-holes to let the liquid run out for re-heating as described on this <a href="washing-with-lye.aspx">page about lye</a>.</p> <blockquote> <em>At one of the public fountains I counted fifteen washerwomen in a row, with benches upon which they rub the clothes, and pound them with wooden bats.</em> <br /> [Travelling through Le Havre, France, in 1829], Rembrandt Peale, <em>Notes on Italy</em>, 1831 </blockquote> <p> <a href="photocredit.aspx#laundry"> <img class="floatLeft" alt="silent un-used washhouse under arched roof" title="Washhouse in Crespi d'Adda, Italy" src="images/washhouse crespi.jpg " /></a> Some wash-houses were built with sloping sides to the water-basin. Even when <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lacaune_lavoir1.JPG"> they were flat</a>, the surrounds could be used exactly like any washboard, as a surface for rubbing or brushing soap into soiled cloth. There are still lots of open-air wash-houses to be seen in the warmer parts of Europe, but they are rarely used. </p> <p> The wash-house tradition is still alive in other countries including Guatemala, illustrated below.</p> <p> <a href="photocredit.aspx#laundry"> <img class="floatRight" alt="women washing at large compartmented laundry basin" title="Washhouse in Guatemala, 2007" src="images/washhouse guatemala.jpg " /></a>See more <a href="http://www.histoire-en-questions.fr/metiers/lavandiere.html">French washing</a> pictures, and more <a href="http://www.jph-lamotte.fr/files/plais-hist_cp_lavoir2.htm"> laundry boats</a>.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <em>...when we got into the country [near Bordeaux], I was amused by seeing the French mode of washing their clothes; eight or ten washerwomen were collected by the side of a stream of water, each furnished with a large tub and a small bench or stool; instead of putting her clothes into the tub, each woman, after fixing it in the stream, got into it herself, and with her stool attached to the side of it by two legs, she was first sousing her clothes into the stream, and then beating and rubbing them upon the stool with an instrument in her hand something like a small bat. <br /> </em>Jane E Roscoe, <em>Memoir of the Reverend Benjamin Goodier</em>, 1825 </blockquote> <p> <img src="images/2ndleaf.gif" style="border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-bottom: medium none" /> 23 January 2008 </p> <p> <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.oldandinteresting.com/french-washboards.aspx&title=french-washboards"> <img alt="StumbleUpOnlogo" src="images/stumbleuponlogo.jpg" style="border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-bottom: medium none" title="StumbleUpon button" /></a>   <a href="http://www.delicious.com/save"><img alt="Delicious" src="images/deliciousicon.jpg" style="border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-bottom: medium none" title="Delicious" /></a> <br /> <br /> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oldandinteresting.com%2Ffrench-washboards.aspx&layout=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=35" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 450px; height: 35px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </p> <p> <script type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </p> <p> <a href="#top">Back to top of page</a><br /> </p> <br /> <p> </p> </div> </div> <div class="width78 floatRight"> <div class="maintext"> <br /> <blockquote> You may like our new sister site <a href="http://www.homethingspast.com/">Home Things Past</a> where you'll find articles about antiques, vintage kitchen stuff, crafts, and other things to do with home life in the past. 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Washboards, boxes and wash-houses in France, Italy and Spain