Object: Mauchline Ware Needle Case

Date: 19th C

Description: Mauchline Ware needle case with a transfer print of Rothesay Aquarium. The building depicted on the front of this piece is the Rothesay Aquarium, opened in 1875. The building had an interesting life as the aquarium, then it housed the Bute Museum for a number of years, it then become the much-loved swimming pool and it is now a residential property.

Origin: Mauchline Ware was made in the town of Mauchline in Ayrshire and in its heyday in the 1860s, as many as 400 people were employed in the industry of making souvenir ware for both the UK and abroad.