Hi spiders In his book 'The history of the Honiton lace industry' Dr Yallop has quite a bit to say about the threads used for Honiton lace.
It seems that in the early days linen thread was produced locally and used for Honiton. By the mid 17C imported linen thread was being used. "In the early nineteenth century Messrs. Houldsworth of Manchester became spinners of fine high quality cotton yarns and offered various thicknesses in the range from No. 200 to No. 300 in 1805 adding Nos. 320, 340 and 352 in 1812." He goes on to say that in view of the large range of threads offered and their relatively low prices, these cotton threads 'virtually entirely superceded the hand spun linen thread in the Honiton lace industry' He also mentions that not much silk Honiton was produced as working in silk is difficult "due to the low coefficient of friction between the fibers and Mrs Treadwin observed that 'It also requires greater care when working, to see that every bobbin is firmly tied off, otherwise the silk is apt to untie thus rendering the sprig almost useless' " In view of these dates, and the information in the Staniland/Levey booklet on Queen Victoria's wedding dress and lace (1840) that "the applied Honiton bobbin lace is worked with fine cotton thread and is of a high standard technically" Jean said . . . " I have been reading a book by Kay Staniland 'In Royal Fashion' looking for info. on Victoria's Coronation Dress. In the course of it I came across the note, " Much of the lace, like Queen Victoria's wedding lace was made using fine white linen thread . . ." " My guess would be that the reference to linen thread is a mistake. Annette in Melbourne [EMAIL PROTECTED] .com - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
