Patsy wrote: <Yes, there are ivory bobbins out there and there are bone bobbins out there. >
If there are ivory bobbins they wouldn't be common. David Springett, in "Success to the Lace Pillow" says: "There can be few lacemakers or bobbin collectors today who have not, at sometime, been invited to buy highly priced lace bobbins "which are made out of ivory". However, on closer inspection, such bobbins inevitably turn out to be made of bone. In the same way that there were a few silver bobbins and one or two extremely ornate bobbins with a japanned lacquer finish, perhaps a few were made in ivory for the Ladies of Quality, who made lace as a pastime rather than a means of earning a living. Some bobbins made more recently in India are definitely made in ivory, and contemporary bobbin makers may certainly have used this material until quite recently, but the average bobbin maker in the last century, working in a tiny cottage workshop in the depths of Northamptonshire or Bedfordshire, would commonly have had no access to such a rare and costly material and would most certainly have used bone not ivory. Ivory is formed in a different way from bone, which gives it a distinctive grain pattern. This is most easily seen when a cut is made across its length, when it appears as a crisscross pattern, reminiscent of the "end grain" of wood. Marine ivory (walrus tusk, narwhal horn, whale teeth etc.) does not have this distinctive patterning, so its absence cannot always be taken as proof that the item is made of bone. It is a complex field unlikely to trouble the collector of antique bobbins. Colour cannot be considered a very good guide for identifying either material because the ivory from an African elephant can be quite different from that of a walrus or whale. Bone may vary in just the same way according to its treatment and origin. Decorated English bobbins, genuinely made in ivory during the last century are rare, so unless a pattern of grain can be clearly distinguished, it is much wiser and probably more accurate to assume that they are made of bone." Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
