Well, here is a quote from a little booklet put out by the City of
Exeter Museums and Art Gallery: "In the 17th and 18th centuries the
industry seems to
have been a prosperous one with lace worth L6 a yard in 1698. The
workers were craftswomen and able to maintain a decent standard of
living. They were a respectable, orderly lot, to judge by Dr. James
Young's description in 1702 of the Coronation (of Queen Anne)
celebrations in Honiton: 'Saw a very pretty procession of 300 girls
in good order, two and two march with 3 women drummers beating...'"
This delightful booklet also contains an essay written in 1897 by
"Primrose" (actually Ida Pike, later Mrs. Ida Allen) in which she
describes a day in her life. It makes absolutely riveting reading,
After she got married, she ran a lace shop in the town of Beer for
the next 45 years and was still running it in 1965 when she was
interviewed by a local newspaper.
Aurelia
Catonsville, MD
What a good question. There are so many variables that were not in
the equation back then... I've never seen a sociological study that
took a culture and projected it forward based on "modern" advances.
That doesn't mean there haven't been any of course... but just that
they haven't crossed my horizon.
On the flip side of that, I've often wondered where and who I would
be, had I been born 300 years ago. I'm certain I would not be
swathed in lace and living in luxury. I wonder if I had a wooden
floor to walk on, or was it sod? I wonder if my home had more than
one room? I wonder if there were glazed windows? I wonder if I
shared my living quarters with the livestock? I don't like to even
consider the issues of children... how many were born and then died
before they reached their toddler years...
To even consider working lace, given the challenges that our ancient
forebears had, is humbling.
Clay
Clay Blackwell
Lynchburg, VA, USA
bev walker wrote:
What would those makers of lace for the cottage industry do if they
lived 'now' instead of 'then'? Would they be technical workers at a
factory, would they be secretaries, bank clerks (erm, customer sales
representatives..), medical assistants? Would they be interested in a
hobby of lacemaking necessarily? I don't know the answer, but I do
wonder.
On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Clay Blackwell
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
women who made
lace to provide for their families hardly gave a thought to pretty bobbins
or spangles.
Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west
coast of Canada
-
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
