In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Jane Viking Swanson
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
> And Mrs. Treadwin's book came out in
>1874. I've always considered that tape lace with commercially
>woven tapes started around 1850 but I haven't seen anything
>to prove that. I believe Jane Partridge read in one of Alan
>Brown's books that Branscombe Point Lace started being made
>around 1850.
Thanks for picking up on that, Jane - I'd already replied directly to
Mark that I thought I had read somewhere that it was being taught around
the 1849-early 50s, but couldn't remember where, and unfortunately don't
appear to have our correspondence on the matter saved. If it was in Alan
Brown's book, then perhaps Sheila could put us right? (Mine is under a
pile of books, so not easy to get at the moment).
I think I've read somewhere that the actual technique of tape lace with
fillings goes back even further, but I can't be sure. That doesn't
settle the question of when it arrived in America, but I would have
thought that being a quicker, and probably less expensive means of
working lace it might have appealed more in the days of frugality? I
wonder if the beginnings are actually based in ribbons (which could have
been recycled) joined together by the embroidery technique of faggoting
to get a lacy effect?
Having just looked at Judith Gwynne's illustrated lace dictionary, this
type of lace goes back, in northern Italy, to around 1640 (using bobbin
made tape). Under the various sections in the dictionary about tape
laces, Royal Battenberg is listed as dating from the very late 1800s,
but other tape laces are mentioned as dating earlier. Pat Earnshaw
("Lace in Fashion") mentions tape laces among those described as
"renaissance", ie copying these earlier 17th century ones. My thoughts
alongside the ribbon idea were along the lines of "could it also have
been made with strips of fabric?" and one of the books mentions that
strips of linen, and ribbon, were sometimes used. I can't really see
that there would have been no production of this type of lace *at all*
between the 17th and late 19th centuries, but it probably wasn't worth
the cost of documenting and the lace itself may possibly not have been
as long lasting as the more expensive bobbin and needle laces - the
implication in the dictionary is that they tended to be used for
furnishing rather than costume. I couldn't find anything that resembled
the tape laces in the Great Exhibition (1851) Catalogue that I have (a
facsimile version published several years ago), but Pat Earnshaw
mentions the publications which sprang up following the exhibition,
particularly one in 1852, giving instructions on how to make it.
The other mention in the books is the effect that the American Civil War
had on trade, a lot of lace from Europe was exported to America up until
then, and it would have taken time to renew the trade after the expense
of the war? So if any of the American ladies had the time on their hands
(!!!) to make lace (a somewhat frivolous item?) whilst in the midst of
the chaos, with their men away from home and everything to do (even if
some did have servants to help, they still needed supervision?)
presumably if the tape techniques had found their way across before the
start of the war, they may well have found their niche, especially being
far more portable than pillow and bobbins!
This of course, is purely speculation, but it does make you think!
--
Jane Partridge
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