Devon 1. Santina Levey points out that the towns of Valenciennes and Binche are very close together, almost contiguous. Her opinion is, therefore, that the towns were making the same kinds of laces at the same time. Antwerp was the source of Pottenkant, a straight lace with long symmetrical repeats which featured a pot of flowers as the design. Aside from the design style the grounds of Pottenkant were much the same (with a few differences) as for Valenciennes/Binche or Mechlin: Paris, Flanders, round Valenciennes, sometimes torchon. 2. "Flemish straight lace with no gimp" is a good definition. Leave out the "with snowball grounds" part, because what grounds were used varied over time. During the early 18th century many of those laces used : Flanders ground (5 hole), Paris, round Valenciennes, various snowballs, armure (snowball in half stitch). Towards the end of the 18th century and throughout nearly all the 19th century, all the grounds fell into disuse, except Valenciennes. Late 17th century precursors of this lace used random braids to hold the lace together. Mary Niven, in her historical introduction to Flanders, says that Binche developed from the random braid grounded laces and Flanders from the ones with grounds. This opinion is at variance with Santina Levey. I don't know enough to make an absolute determination about which is correct. I am inclined to follow Levey's opinion. 3. Therefore, what we think of as "Valenciennes" is actually a chronological stage in the development of "Binche/Valenciennes". 4. Towards the end of the 19th century, during the "revival era", attempts were made to recapture the style and methods of early 18th century "Binche", and this lace was called "Point de Fee". So "Point de Fee" is the term for revival Binche.
Santina Levey was the one who identified the laces at the Art Institute of Chicago, which occurred shortly before I started my personal study there. My historical description is based on her book, and on my viewing and intense study of the laces with her definitions. I've actually seen many examples of what I'm describing here. In regard to Mary Niven's view, she may be right that Binche/Val developed out of the braid grounded straight laces of the late 17th century. But I don't think that making a big distinction between those and the ones with gimp is apropos. As a laceMAKER I am too much aware that the differences in structure between Flanders with gimp and Binche without are very small. The difference is that Binche/Val must take two cloth pairs and use them to perform the function that gimp does in Flanders: to make an angular motif look rounded. This changes how the top start of a motif must work, but this seems small, to me. Lorelei - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
