I followed the link to the "Scottish" Lace Ham and then did a bit of a browse and came up with this Lace Doyley http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2586669105&category=39445
In the description it says that it is very likely from the Island of Malta. . . Its quite a pretty piece all the same, but Maltese? I think not. What do others think? Sue Fink ============================================= Hi Sue, Nah! Not Maltese. Like you say, a nice piece of lace, if a little unusual. Since there is some lumpiness, I thought at first that it might be a Battenburg piece of some complexity, but on closer inspection, I think it is handmade tape. The lumpiness almost convinces me that we are seeing the back of the lace, but it just may be age and washing and relatively coarse thread. The open curls are gathered on the inner curve, but the rest of the lace has sewing edges on both sides of the tape. There are place where you can see the tape make a loop and cross itself. There is a section on the inner border where the tape makes continuous 'humps' like mmmmm's and there you can see that the returning tape is sewn into the sewing edge of the preceding turn of the tape. The connections tape-to-tape are consistent with the Cantu method, but this might be Rococo, which uses a tape with sewing edges, unlike Cantu. The really surprising part of the piece is the needlelace filling. The thread selected for the filling seems kind of coarse, but the stitching is quite well done and flows with the forms of the lace. I think a finer thread would have given a better contrast to what seems like miles and miles of tape! Patty Dowden - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
