In a message dated 08/24/2003 3:35:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> This is the kind of question I would expect members of the Metropolitan > Museum would be asking the Ratti staff! There is probably someone at the > Ratti > with a card file of businesses who do this type of laundering. I used to > have a > New York City resources file of such specialty businesses, but it became too > > old to be of use. You can be sure the Park Avenue ladies send their fine > linens to specialists in the city. Yes, everyone, in the museum and outside of the museum asks this question of the Ratti staff and they refer it to me. There was a card file that belonged to Jean Maile with some washers and menders on it. She went on a bird watching trip in the 70's or 80's, suffered some health incident and never returned. The card file is in a file drawer, but the people in it are in my opinion no longer active. I imagine there are exactly the same names on it that are on yours, such as Helene Von Rosenteil and Maguerite Morgan. No one has kept a card file on this since then, and I am attempting to revive the practice by making a computer list. > > It is also probable that the major auction houses in New York have someone > they recommend. I have been querying various NY textile dealers who do the Pier Show and Brimfield, etc. but they seem to be as much in the dark as I am. I am told by one of them that Martha Stewart bought some linens from her that she sent to some place in the Midwest that does a lovely job and sends them back on rolls. Mind you Martha lives in Conn. so NY would be the obvious place for her to take them, if there was such a place. The same dealer said that there is some magazine distributed to people who live on the upper East Side that has fancy businesses advertised in it and I should try to get my hands on this, how exactly, I don't know. Her other suggestions, which I am going to try to follow up, is to look in some magazine called Verandah, or Architectual Digest. The issue also exists about lace and linen mending. My dealer informant told me she had used two places and couldn't recommend either one. One was a conservation oriented person who insisted on making the repair so that it was visible in keeping with sound conservation practice, but entirely counter to commercial considerations. The other, she claimed did a job no better than the one she would have done. Recently, I was speaking to a dealer in California who had used Kathi Kliot for years and I don't think he had found a replacement for her. I am truly wondering if market forces have resulted in no one coming along to take the places of people who were doing this kind of work 30 years ago. Incidentally, he claims that there are very few textile auctions these days, some at a place called Doyles, but that he primarily visits people in their homes to buy linens. I checked out the Honiton Lace Shop website and although they claim they will continue the lace business upstairs, it seems that they are turning the store front into a restaurant called Merletto. I consider this a bad sign. I had been directing some people to them. Devon > > - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
