Flax Breaker, British

Artist unkown

1850-1900

Beechwood

Height: 56.5 cm

Flax, also known as linseed, is the plant used for centuries to make linen cloth. A flax break was a wooden machine blades that both chopped up the flax while also separating the usable, pith-like core from the outer fibres.

This object was constructed using keyed mortise and tenon joints, sometimes called wedged mortise and tenon joints, which are a very old type of joint, historically used mainly in construction techniques for timber-framed buildings. Compton Verney chose to use this joint as a detail in the partition walls of the Folk Art Attic Gallery, as a deliberate direct reference to the collection.