Quebec tilt-tension wheel – Exquisite Machinery

Rosanna was a bonus wheel. I did not want her. I had more than enough large Quebec wheels. I was interested, instead, in the great wheel stored alongside her in a shed. Her owners desperately wanted to clear both out–along with a clock reel–and gave me such a discounted price that ended up taking all three.

I thought I would just clean her up, get her spinning, and find her a new home. I did not expect to become attached. But she was one of those wheels that just clicked with me spinning-wise. She is a powerhouse spinner that loves a fast long draw. So, I kept her quite a bit longer than I expected, just for the great pleasure of spinning on her.

When I first brought her home, she did not look very promising. She had clearly been in the shed for a long time and was dry, spidery, and dirty. I took off the worst of the deeply encrusted grime with turpentine and linseed oil, unstuck her whorl, oiled her up, and away she went.

As an aside, everyone who rescues and rehabilitates old wheels should have a rubber strap wrench in their tool box.

They are inexpensive and work miracles on stuck whorls. Just put a knitting needle, skewer, or something similar through the orifice holes to hold onto (rather than the too-readily-breakable flyer arms),

fit the rubber strap around the whorl, and gently twist with the wrench.

Almost all antique whorls are threaded opposite to what we are used to—so turning to the left generally tightens the whorl and turning to right loosens it. The wrench gives great leverage and the rubber strap will not mark or scratch the whorl. No muss, no fuss, no wait.

Being such a wonderful spinner—a true production wheel–it is not surprising that Rosanna shows signs of long use. She was heavily greased around all of her moving parts—now well shrouded in black residue. Her front upright was long ago shimmed with nail.

Her rear upright appears to have been nailed to secure a crack.

Her bobbin is slightly short, giving a bit of chatter. The flyer assembly does not look as worn as I would expect, given the rest of the wheel, so probably is a replacement.

She is one of the few Quebec wheels that I own that fits in the definition of a CPW. She has tilt-tension,

a classic fleur-de-lis metal treadle,

and a large 31-inch drive wheel.

She has no discernible maker’s mark but has features of wheels made by the Laurence family (father Simeon and sons Louis and Clement) near St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. Laurence wheels are characterized by their beautiful beveled and beaded edges,

“s” curve cranks,

secondary upright supports front and back,

pear-shaped feet,

and “flying saucer” maidens.

Some wheels with these same features, however, have been found with a stamp by maker Michel Cadorette. The Laurence and Cadorette families were intertwined with family and wheel-making ties. So, as with so many wheels without a maker’s mark, we cannot know with certainty who made this one—likely a Laurence, but possibly Cadorette. In any case, she is quite a presence.

After spinning on her all winter, I am finally ready to move her on. She is going to a good home, where I hope she will give her new owner many more years of spinning pleasure. Much better than all those years sitting idle in a shed.

For more information on Laurence and Cadorette wheels, see:

Foty, Caroline, Fabricants de Rouets— this book and a photo supplement are available for sale as a downloadable PDF by contacting “Fiddletwist” by message on Ravelry.

Fleur is an extraordinary Quebec wheel. She is a formidable presence—large and golden, with eye-catching curves.

She looks little used, with no wear marks and smooth hooks,

and is probably the best spinner in all of my flock of wheels. Her treadle is her most unusual feature. It is metal, with whimsical cut outs that include a flower, star, and “EL. St. Frs.”

A sister wheel, owned by Linda Martin, was featured in Issue #89 of The Spinning Wheel Sleuth newsletter (July 2015). The article was written by Martin and Caroline Foty, describing Martin’s wheel and Foty’s research into the wheel maker.

Working from the letters on the treadle—in effect a maker’s mark—Foty concluded that the wheel likely was made by Elie Laporte from St. Francois-du-Lac, Yamaska, Quebec.

Laporte’s village, St. Francois-du-Lac, is located on the St. Francois river, near where it meets Lac St. Pierre, a wide portion of the St. Lawrence River. It was founded as French Jesuit mission for the purpose of converting the local Abenaki and other First Nations people to Catholicism. According to Foty’s research, Elie Laporte had native ancestry through his great grandmother.

During the colonial period in New England, St. Francis, as it was known there, was feared as a launching point for raids against colonial settlements and the place to which captives from those raids were brought to be adopted or ransomed. In 1759, during the French and Indian War, Roger’s Rangers attacked St. Francis, killing most of the inhabitants and burning it to the ground. It was eventually rebuilt and resettled.

Elie Laporte was born there in 1845, to a carpenter (menuisier) and wheel maker father, Pierre, and mother, Angele Gill (whose great-grandparents were from Massachusetts).

Elie had three daughters, one of whom, Hermelina, migrated to Lowell, likely to work in the mills, and married there. Laporte died in 1919.

Laporte’s wheels have a different look than other Quebec wheels of the era, with a thick, low slung table, and distinctive maidens.

Interestingly, a wheel maker a generation earlier, Jean Baptiste Houle (1828-1884), from a neighboring town in Yamaska, made wheels with a similar profile, table and maidens. Houle marked his wheels with “JBH” on the end of the table.

Whether there was any working relationship between the two men is unknown at this point, but, at the very least, it seems likely that Houle’s wheels had some influence on Laporte’s style. If so, Laporte kicked things up a notch creating truly exquisite machines, with a personal touch of whimsy.

I became interested Laporte’s wheels because of their similarity to a group of very large Quebec wheels, affectionately referred to as Madame Maximes or Big Berthas (the subject of the next post). So, when a Laporte wheel came up for sale in Virginia on Facebook, I was over the moon.

The seller and a wonderful wheel railroad volunteer met at Red Stone Glen in Pennsylvania and the wheel headed north to Maine. My first reaction when I picked it up was that it was huge, with a 34 inch diameter drive wheel, and 28 ½ inch long table. She makes the very large wheel in my last post, Zotique, seem almost petite, with a 30 inch diameter wheel and 23 inch long table, and dwarfs Patience, the Shaker wheel below.

Fleur’s wood is very blonde, with some interesting reddish grain along the mother-of-all.

She lights up a room.

For all the careful workmanship on this wheel, there is evidence of practicality, as with so many Quebec wheels. The lumber used for the table has a rough edge, just stripped of bark and smoothed a little.