Photograph of coopers from Neil Dryburgh & Sons, Leith

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52374

Title

Photograph of a group of coopers from Neil Dryburgh and Sons, Leith

Description

One sepia photograph of a group of Coopers who worked at Neil Dryburgh & Sons on Easter Road in Leith. The Coopers pose with their tools of the trade such as hammers, barrel, hoop, draw knife and side axe. One Cooper on the second row holds a barrel top which reads 'Thornbush Brewery Inverness'. On the top row another barrel reads 'Coopers & ... Edinburgh'. The photo is bordered by a thin red line and framed in a mahogany cross frame with carved detailing at each corner.

Accession number

TIN1433

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

Neil Dryburgh & Sons was a company based on Easter Road in Leith. Until the advent of plastic and refrigeration, a great many foodstuffs and liquids were transported and stored in wooden casks such as the one shown here. Creating water tight barrels was a skilled job. Coopers were specialists are creating the bended slats of wood, or staves used to create barrells, butts and casks. The staves were steamed until they were supple, and bend into shape. They worked with hoopers, whose job it was to knock metal hoops into place around an assembled barrel. Hoopers were often considered assistants to the cooper.

In this photograph, the hoopers are the men standing on the back two rows. Most are holding their hooper's mallet, a heavy metal hammer used to move the hoops in position. The men at the front had more varied jobs. Some worked with saws to cut the staves out of the timber, and the man on the left was the blacksmith who made the hoops. He is shown here knocking a hoop on his anvil with a hammer.

Much of the timber used by coopers in Scotland was oak, often imported from the Baltic. Dryburgh's were also stave merchants, meaning they imported and distributed the wooden staves for other coopers.

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