Hi Fran
There is a bone bobbin and an ivory bobbin on my bobbin materials page
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/lace/bobbins/materials.html
2nd and 3rd pictures going down the page.
It's impossible to tell just from pictures; Carole has already posted a
few tests, but in practice the vast majority of lace bobbins were bone.
Even in the days when no-one thought it wrong to kill elephants for
their tusks ivory was a rare and expensive material but pig, cow and
horse bones were readily available. Lacemaking was a cottage industry,
undertaken mostly by women, whose husbands were Ag Labs and they just
didn't have the money for ivory. They used whatever was around - bone
or fruit woods.
Brenda
Does anyone know of a site where some ivory bobbins might be shown
alongside bone bobbins?
And does anyone know how to tell the difference between an ivory
bobbin and a bone bobbin?
I'm asking because this topic has come up in a genealogical mailing
list for an area in Britain where lace makers were common in the 19th
century.
I would like to post relevant responses back to that list but, of
course, would do so without any identifying information.
Brenda in Allhallows, Kent
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/index.html
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