On Dec 10, 2004, at 11:58, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Check this nice piece of Duchesse-Sluisse on eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ViewItem&category=2219&item=2579801998&
rd=1
Susan G. MacLeod Dummerston, VT USA
This kind of an auction item always is questionable to me. It seems to
suggest (though it may not actually be in this case) the cutting up of nice laces
for inflated profit. Little samples.
According to Devon's fascinating lecture we heard in Ithaca this October, the practice of cutting up bigger lace pieces into "collector's snippets" is an old one. She managed to trace bits of a single flounce (?) one in 4-5 museums, each donated as a part of a different collection. The snippets were even mounted for sale on "lovely" (and, doubtless, staining) red or blue pieces of cardboard.
Assuredly, the sellers and the buyers both thought they were doing the best for posterity and for the preservation of the ancient craft... :)
As for the price... I agree with Barbara (Joyce) - it's overinflated, aimed at a collector who's not also a lacemaker.
I'm not a collector (much less an expert) myself, so was gonna keep my trap shut, but, *again* I question the wording of the ad and the selling by "association of ideas". The revised edition of the description has removed the idea that older Duchesse was a *coarser* version of Brussels. It insinuates a connection to Withof (much finer than the old Duchesse) and Sister Judith (via the Sluis school) on the one hand, and dates the piece to a pre-Sister Judith period on the other...
Ah, bah, Grinch! :) "Buyer beware" is never more prominent than on E-Bay (except in politics <g>)
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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