Woman Spinning Wool - Fileuse - Size #3 / Grande

Woman Spinning Wool - Fileuse

The Woman Spinning Wool - La Fileuse (French) - La Fielarello (Provencaux) is number 17 on the list of the top 20 Essential Santons for a Provencal 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. 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 #3 / Grande (the 3-1/2 inch - 9 cm size)

Made in France