The theory that you lose your eyesight from making lace is a persistent one. I once consulted my ophthalmologist about this, fearing for my own eyesight, and he said, "You cannot damage your eyes by using your eyes." One theory about blindness among lacemakers is that, living in port towns as most lacemaking towns tend to be, lacemakers may have been contracting syphilis.Of course, as Sally points out, there were a lot of health and hygiene issues that could play into this. Another theory that I have heard about is that the lacemakers didn't really go blind, they just lost their ability to focus closely on lace. According to my same ophthalmologist you start losing your ability to focus at close range when you are 39 1/2 years old. So, if you couldn't focus at close range that might render you blind for purposes of lacemaking. Regarding the story about the fictional account of the French village, where people go blind, if you remember the name of the book let me know. However, it sounds like Villedieu-les-Poeles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villedieu-les-Po%C3%AAles Somewhere in my extensive reading I ran across the remark that they made lace with human hair in Villedieu-les-Poeles. So, I made this a stop on one of my research trips to France in an effort to identify the lace fan made in human hair in Chantilly technique that is in the Met. There is a small museum there in a courtyard where I was graciously received by the museum director and some lace volunteers. The courtyard was formerly known as the courtyard of the deaf and the blind. The reason for this is that the men of Villedieu-les-Poeles worked making copper pots and pans in this courtyard and went deaf, while their wives made lace and went blind. In the courtyard museum there is a section about the copper work and, also, a not unimpressive lace display. The copper technology was brought to the area by Knights Templar, and if I understood this correctly, there is no local source for copper, no one knows where the copper came from, but they supplied pots and pans to the whole of Europe. I had brought a photo of the lace fan with me, but unfortunately, there was no hair lace at the museum. They knew about it from historical writings, and one of the ladies who volunteers at the museum had seen an example from a private collection that was in a display about 25 years before. But she really couldn't remember what it looked like. I am growing hazy on the details of this trip, which I meant to write up for the Bulletin, but somewhere along the way, I think that I found confirmation that the hair lace of Villedieu was made in Chantilly technique, so I am thinking that Villedieu was most likely the source for our piece, since hair lace is rare and hair lace in Chantilly technique even rarer. Here is a link to the fan https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/210096?searchField=All&sortBy=relevance&what=Bobbin+lace%7cHair&ft=lace+fan&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=1 Devon
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