Santina Levey shows 4 samples of tape lace (three with needle stitches between the tapes to hold it together) all dating from the period 1625-1650. See her plate #131. This is just about the time you begin to see bobbin made tape laces, such as early Milanese. Levey seems to think that tape laces made with a straight tape, folded and gathered, with needlelace stitches preceded bobbin made tape laces such as Milanese and Flemish tape laces.
So, Battenberg type laces existed very early, but they weren't called Battenberg, of course. It is my impression that the late nineteenth century popularity of Battenberg brought it back out of retirement, in the effort to find a form of lace that amateurs could make without spending the huge amount of time necessary for true needlelace. Also, not all Battenberg type lace needs to look "amateurish". I have seen a spectacular example at the Art Institute of Chicago, but I can't remember anything about its date or geographical origin. I suppose the way to determine when the Battenberg craze hit the U.S. would be to look at old ladies' magazines, going backward in time issue by issue for the period 1900-1850. You'd have to make sure you located all the popular magazines in libraries and archives. Doing history is always a matter of lots of very careful, painstaking, but boring, searching for stuff. Lorelei - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
