Hi Carolyn!
I like your theory! And, beyond that... when I first saw lace being
made, I was attracted - not just to the wonderful "product", but to the
beautiful bobbins on the pillows!! What wonderful toys!!! So... if it
appealed to me in the 20th century, why wouldn't those pretty bobbins
also appeal to lacemakers in earlier times?
I can well imagine that a young girl would be given a rather plain
pillow and bobbins when she was young, and as she advanced in age and
skills, her bobbins became prettier and more meaningful to her, and her
proficiency at the pillow (and dedication to her lace) probably made a
bobbin a good choice for occasions when a gift was appropriate. I'm
thinking, of course, of women who primarily worked lace as a "lady's
pasttime" - the 19th century lacemaker. I suspect that in England, as
on the continent, women who made lace to provide for their families
hardly gave a thought to pretty bobbins or spangles.
Interestngly enough, I started out making lace with those pretty
Midlands, and must have a fortune (*I'm* not counting!!) tied up in
gorgeous Midlands bobbins with beautiful spangles. But... I've found
that I prefer continental bobbins now... and so I hardly ever use my
Midlands. When I do, I have to learn to handle them all over again.
Clay
Clay Blackwell
Lynchburg, VA, USA
Carolyn Hastings wrote:
Since the "why" of Midlands bobbins is lodged firmly in the realm of
speculation, here are a few more thoughts that I don't see expressed on the list: I
don't think the spangles have anything at all to do with weight for tensioning. Across
the continent, you see many very fine laces made with relatively heavy bobbins (relative
to, say, Honiton or even a Midlands with no spangles). The lacemakers handled the
situation just fine. More to the point, is there any situation that you can think of
where it is possible for the bobbin itself to tension the threads? In my experience it
is always necessary to use my hands. Further, I can't think of a lace that I've made
where the weight of the bobbin has caused the threads to break, or where the lightness of
the bobbins has caused the threads to become untensioned.
The theory that I prefer is the evolutionary one: someone somewhere wanted to
present a special bobbin, and so carved it. And somehow the idea of adorning
these everyday working tools was born and spread, leading to more and more
elaborate carving, then the adding of a token or a bead at the bottom (and I've
seen a continental or two thus adorned, which indicates the universal appeal of
the idea).
So there's another speculative and unproveable theory for Midlands bobbins.
Chose the one you like, and let that be your explanation. As long as you don't
say that lace is made by winding thread around pins, I'll like it.
Carolyn
Carolyn Hastings
Stow, MA USA
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