Gentle Spiders,
I've been chipping away at my catalogue of lace books. It's a slow and
tedious job, so I only put in a few books every couple of weeks or so.
At this rate, I'll probably finish it on my 100th birthday, 42.5 yrs
hence :)
In describbing the contents of one of the books, I came accross a
puzzle recently. It's in Nina Andries' "Onder de loep", and concerns
the dating of the laces.
The book is in 3 languages: Dutch (Flemish), German and English. And
the same pieces are dated as follows:
Dutch: 16de-17de eeuw
German: 16.-17. Jahrhundert
English: 16th-17th century
OK. I don't know Dutch, or the custom regarding dating, so don't know
what hides under the "16de eeuw".
But I do know the English custom (which is the same as Polish) and in
English, 16th century means years starting with 1501 and ending with
1600. Or, possibly, starting with 1500 and ending with 1599; I always
get confused about that. At any rate, most of the years within the 16th
century will have 15 at the beginning ("the better to confuse you,
m'dear", said the big, bad wolf).
German, on the other hand... As far as I know, German follows the
logical path so, "16 Jahrhundert" are the years *starting with 16*, not
15.
Hopefully, Ilske will correct me if I'm wrong. But, if I'm not wrong,
then the labelling is "off" here. "2/4 (which I take to mean second
quarter) 17. Jahrhundert" would cover 1725-1750 (our 18th century).
"2/4 17th century" would cover 1625-1650 (German 16. Jahrhundert). A
hundred years' difference, yet those labels are describing the same
piece of lace...
So, which is it?
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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