During 1996 four of us had a lace tour with Liz Bartlett and visited all the Midlands museums. One museum had a display of a lacemaker sitting in a cottage making lace and Liz was most upset by the display as she did not consider it a true reflection of the conditions lacemakers worked under. I think this was the Luton Museum and it was the most charming museum of them all. She said the room was too grand, the lacemaker was dressed too smartly and she also was wearing a lace collar which was unlikely. She was also working on a Beds piece with a Bucks piece lying around - both difficult patterns and she said any lacemaker ever worked only one or two patterns in her life and did not go from one kind of lace to another as we do. We , ignorami from South Africa, thought it was a lovely display!!! We thought that most people would just enjoy the display but Liz said that being a museum it should be factually correct. One museum had a lovely display of pincushions. I have all this on video but the video player has decided to stop working so I cannot check to see which museum it was. But I do think that I saw the bobbins because Liz then gave a talk on the hanging bobbins.
Factually correct or not, it was a most enjoyable trip. How does the saying go - Been there, done that, forgotten most of it!! Jeanette Fischer, Western Cape, South Africa. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
