TOPIC:

Being sold by East Bristol Auctions and described as:

Boer War Interest - an unusual early 20th Century Victorian Boer War related hand woven belt / banner. Bright coloured woven construction, with ' Boer War 1899 - 1900 - 1901 ' to centre. Well made. Measures approx; 74cm long.

These woollen binders or "Cholera belts" are wonderful. They represent an old superstition that intestinal infections could be warded off by wearing one at all times and I think they transmogrified into the Stable Belt.
There's a great review here: www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-camb...ew/S0025727300021281
From 'The Tale of a Field Hospital':
'When the men were bathing together in hundreds at Springfield, there was an opportunity of seeing such variety in the matter of abdominal belts as could never have been dreamed of. Some of these favoured garments were mere shreds and rags, and were worn probably in order to keep faith with some good soul at home who had made her boy promise he would never leave off his belt. Other binders were undoubtedly home-made, and the work of anxious mothers and wives who believed in red flannel and plenty of it. Some of the belts were knitted and were made to be pulled on, but they had shrunk so much from repeated wettings and had become so infantile in their proportions that the owner of the garment had to get at least one comrade to help him pull it over his hips. When it was at last in place it quite constricted the body, and justified the comment of one bather who exclaimed to his belted but otherwise naked friend : " Well, ye've got a waist on ya, if nothink else ! "'

Another example available on eBay (£175; Buy it Now; listing ends 24/05/2022)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384852422239




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