I was delighted to read Amanda's reference to book 2 of Le Pompe being
available in full on the Professor's site (at
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/pompe2.pdf) both to have the
resource and to be able to clear something from my "draft file". I've only
just been able to catch up on past postings in the lull before the storm (next
weekend's Lace Guild convention), and have particularly enjoyed the thread,
from February, on recreating 16th century lace, including thoughts on the Le
Pompe laces. The thread was started by Orla's enquiries and experiments, and
at first finished with Nelleke's superb work (on
http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003-date). I've also only just been
able to catch up with Jean's and Gil's articles in the latest Lace Guild
magazine, which were fortuitously very relevant, on freehand lace and
reconstructing historic (Lady Drake's) lace; however, I hope this latest
reference justifies me pursuing some loose ends from the
original thread, so to speak. Firstly, a useful resource in reconstructing
these laces is Gil's "Elizabethan Lace" ISBN 0 9522709 3 5, which provides
alternative methods to those in the Ruth bean reprint of Le Pompe vol. 1 - as
Orla said (and showed!) you need to work out your own ways, but it is useful to
have as many other versions to inspire - we stand on giants' shoulders.
There was some debate on what metal thread was used. There is a length of
plaited Le Pompe style lace made with gold and silver thread at Hardwick Hall,
dated by Santina Levy to the mid-16th century in her book "An Elizabethan
Inheritance The Hardwick Hall Textiles", ISBN 0 7078 0249 0 (pic. p.31).
Having seen it, it looks as though it's made with what I would call Jap, where
the metal foil is on very fine paper, originally rice paper, wound around a
silk core (which shows through where the foil has cracked on a sharp corner).
Bess of Hardwick was buying such lace, English made, by 1550, according
Santina's research. She also seems to have been buying this sort of metal
thread - (p.41) in 1548 Bess bought for the embroiderer (she employed various
men at different times for metal and other embroidery done by professionals,
some becoming temporary members of her household) "one pound in weight of gold
and another of silver, each costing £3 6s, more than the annual salary
of all but the highest paid of Cavendish's (her husband at the time)
servants". As the gold and silver thread cost the same, it would tie in with
Jap, where there is very little metal content, with the paper and silk, and
gold leaf is far thinner than silver. The book, published by the UK National
Trust, will delight anyone interested in the textiles of the period, or the
life of a somewhat formidable Elizabethan lady. Mary Queen of Scots was a
reluctant "guest" at Hardwick Hall, and both ladies embroidered themselves, as
well as getting men in for the heavy work!
Tamara commented that the wood cuts' accuracy is brought out by using them -
they make very accurate prickings. We then went on to consider whether
prickings were originally used for all, or whether the plaited ones could be
worked freehand - I think jury still out! However, looking at the new
selection, and indeed the old ones again, it's noticeable that some have white
holes in the black plaits at junctions only in a few places, suggesting to me
that the author expected pins to be used sometimes, and sometimes not. One
other thing the author has done which I found helpful with the few of those
I've played with is that the thickness of the lines indicates whether it's a
four-bobbin or thicker plait - though that hasn't helped me with Gil's
challenge, the pattern on page 7 of book 1. Has anyone cracked it? I had
asked Santina about it, and she said she hadn't, but if I was automatically
assuming bobbins always worked in pairs, I could be wrong, and she sent me a
photo
of a similar, though simpler, piece, in which the triangular tallies had at
least 10 threads, and were used as a reservoir to carry them from one section
to another, and some of the pliats look like 3-threaders. It didn't help, but
raised my respect for the original even higher.
[EMAIL PROTECTED], in London
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