In a message dated 7/1/2005 1:40:14 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Devon might know, and I hope she'll pitch in with her insights. I hate this sort of thing, because I always make an idiot of myself and almost immediately upon writing something down, discover it is all wrong. However, since I have been putting together my class in lace history for the convention, I have numerous pictures to consult. Here is my cracked opinion. This very much resembles a piece of point de France that I recently bought on ebay. My piece consists of small motifs, which I think might be quite old, possibly late 17th or early 18th century. My piece is in the form of some costume piece that might be 19th century in shape, some kind of a dress front. Although my piece looks symmetrical from a distance, close examination reveals that this is an illusion and that tiny motifs have been somewhat illogically put together to form this impression. I think the small motifs were put together very skillfully in the 19th century by connecting them with a roughly hexagonal picoted mesh. It was not unusual in the 19th century to do this sort of massive reconnecting of motifs and as they say, it is quite unusual to find Venetian gros point to which this has not occurred. On my piece which Susan has very kindly posted on the Campaign for Modern Lace site so that I can show it to you, you can see what looks to me like a thread that is running between the joining bars. (I scanned the back) _http://community.webshots.com/album/244348757BRJzVK_ (http://community.webshots.com/album/244348757BRJzVK) Do view it full size to see all the random threads running around. Of course, I don't know if I would know what a piece of point de France that had not been "reconstituted" would look like. There is so much mending on lace, done by different menders during different eras that you begin to wonder if you would know what a genuinely untampered with old piece would look like. The Venetian laces were undoubtedly made in individual flower heads by different people and then joined. What did the joining look like? I don't know that I have ever seen a piece that I know hasn't been "messed with". In any case, the last three shots of the ebay lace are shots from the back which show a lot of "work" around the motifs. But, of course, I haven't had the opportunity to examine the piece being offered on ebay closely, and even if I did, as we often say, "the more lace you see, the less you know." I looked at my piece of point de France, some images I have from the museum and some pieces I have on loan and I did not see the characteristic that some of these motifs on the piece offered on ebay have of a line of buttonhole stitch covered loops. I have seen this on Italian laces, such as point de neige. Of course all these Italian laces were being very skillfully copied in the 19th century (although they were copied earlier by the French when they started up their Point de France industry, talk about confusing), so whether the individual motifs are genuinely old, or even made during the lace revival when spectacular copies were being made is open to question. It may even be a hodge podge of new and old motifs. I notice that a lot of evils in reconstituted laces seem to be covered by showy three-dimensional concoctions. On my lace, I believe that the little buttonhole covered circles, or perlees may be 19th century devices. In fact under extreme magnification, it appears that the thread is a little larger, a little whiter and a little fluffier than the thread in the little motifs. (The biggest problem with comparing the ebay lace with mine, is that the ebay lace actually does look more planned than mine.) The tendency of the ladies of the late 19th and early twentieth century to want to wear "real lace" but as 19th century fashion items is something I cover in my slide show "The Laces of the Robber Barons" which is being given on July 30th at the IOLI convention as part of the "Early Bird" festivities. Devon working feverishly to put together my class in lace history for the convention, although as you might guess, the theme is "you never know". - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
