Photo: Terry Cavanagh
Sculptor: James Butler MBE RA (1931–2022)
Founder: The Bronze Foundry (a.k.a. The Mike Davis Foundry)
Materials: Statue: bronze; pedestal: concrete
Dimensions: Statue: h. 1.24m, w.1.06m, d. 60cm; pedestal: h.48cm, w. 1.26m, d. 81cm
Signed: The Leicester Seamstress/ James Butler RA. 1990. Monogram JWB (sculptor's initials)
Inscription: THE LEICESTER SEAMSTRESS/JAMES BUTLER R.A./1990/ LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL (on pedestal)
Unveiled: 29 June 1990
The Leicester Seamstress
This sculpture depicts an eighteenth-century hosiery worker seaming a stocking. Hosiery was Leicester’s first main industry and remained so until the second half of the nineteenth century. The majority of the workers in the industry were women, who stitched seams working from home or employed in small workshops. One reason for the choice of this subject was that it would reflect the frequently overlooked contribution women made to the industry. To ensure that the seamstress’s clothes were accurately represented, the sculptor, James Butler, consulted the history department of the University of Leicester.
The statue was commissioned to represent ‘a part of the heritage of the City’ by Leicester City Council’s Planning Committee in the first section of the Council’s £30,000 City Centre Action Programme, a ten year plan which began in 1989.
For a full description of this statue and its history, see Terry Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Leicestershire and Rutland, Liverpool, 2000, pp. 110, 130-2, 131 (illus.), 139.
Location: In front of the City Rooms, Hotel Street, Leicester