I keep jumping in offering opinions on "Continental Bobbins" for which I am clearly not an expert. I will "argue" with peoples opinions on English bobbins, but I am on shaky grounds in this area.
The bobbin could well be old and I think that the seller might have got their date from an illustration in Bodil Tornehave's book Danske Frihandskniplinger, pg 17. She has some illustrations there of bobbins excavated from middens that date from 1550 through to abut 1680. I find that this illustration a great source of inspiration and if I was not so lazy and preoccupied with other things there are a great number of speculations one could make about those bobbins and "lace dating" and English lace bobbin origins. All wildly speculative, but still very interesting (to me at least!) For those who have the book it looks like the one on the far right with the pointed knob missing. More to the point it has all the hallmarks of the Batavia bobbins I think I have a web page hosted by somebody about that somewhere ( I have not looked at my own web site for years!!) [ aren't you ladies glad that you are not married to a lazy tyke like me!] Try the lace Fairy site. What I do observe is that bobbin shape seems to have stayed available for a number of years.. but I am sure that out Danish members will put us right on this one. Brian and Jean from Cooranbong, Australia. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
