Margaret Hamer's Lace. Part 1 - longish Brief Summary for those who missed my original posting. Last week I told you how Pauline and I were to choose a share of the lace left by the late Margeret Hamer, sister of Kathleen Waller. When we visited Kathleen she brought out box after box of lace, embroidered net, filet, crochet, Carrickmacross etc. which we went through quickly, but there was far too much to make any decisions there and then. I hid the file-boxes under the table in my workroom, and there they stayed unopened until after my holiday. When we opened them last week, Pauline and I had a wonderful day and did not disagree about anything and had only what was of interest to us personally.
I propose to take items one or two at a time, and tell you about them so that you can share in my pleasure, for Margaret was such a lovely lady and I owe her memory a deep debt of gratitude in many, many ways. She was an inspiration to so many lacemakers, she will never be forgotten. The black A4 size file-box is now in front of me. The first items lying on top are two bonnets. I did wash these very carefully as they looked rather sad and crushed when first taken out. The one is a baby-bonnet in a fine cotton lawn decorated with whitework embroidery in padded satin-stitch and minute eyelet holes. The date is mid 19th century. The tiny bonnet crown, a circle 2 inches (5 centimetres) in diameter, is surrounded with the traditional scalloped border, edged with fine buttonhole stitchery. Little dots of raised satin-stitch cover the ground fabric which is gathered into the crown at the back and has tucks at the front. Adjustment strings are threaded through these tucks and the front join. There are three layers of lace frills at the front, one continuing round the back. The lace is a fine example of East Midlands lace, Bucks point style, 1 inch (2.5cm) in width. Any baby would look pretty in this! At first I thought the second one was a baby bonnet, but it is far more likely to be a Boudoir cap of the 1920's. The net fabric of the crown and deep surround is embroidered by Schiffli machine with a little flower-sprig pattern. A single band of torchon lace is sewn round the outer edge, which is not gathered. It is a delicate lace with diamonds formed of groups of four spiders separated by a mirror-rpeat of double triangles. I am sure the lady looked very pretty too. More to come. Angela Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED]
