Woman Spinning Wool - Fileuse - Size #1 / Cricket

Woman spinning wool - Fileuse

The Woman Spinning Wool - La Fileuse (French) – La Fielarello (Provençaux) on her distaff is number 17 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provençal Creche.  It is common for her to be represented in the Santons world as either a young or an old woman.  

She is associated historically in Provence with the process of filature, and reeling threads of silk from a cocoon, i.e., as the "Reeling Girl, or Woman."

"In the 18th and 19th centuries Provence experienced a boom in sericulture that would last until the First World War, with much of the silk produced being shipped north to Lyon. Viens and La Bastide-des-Jourdans are two of the communes of Luberon that profited the most from mulberry plantations that have since disappeared.^[34] Working at home under the domestic system, silk spinning and silk treatment employed many people and increased the income of the working class." - Wikipedia

Provençal Figurines  by C. Galtier and E. Cattin, translated by John Lee (Editions Ouest-France, 13 rue du Breil, Rennes, 1996) provides a list of the top 20 Santons "essential" to the Provençal creche.

Size #1 / Cricket (the 1-5/8 inch - 4 cm size)

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