A number of people have posted suggestions on who the makers were, and you have responded by whether the name sounded familiar. Another way to do this is to look at the websites and old catalogues and see if the *style* is familiar. Many bobbin makers have distinctive styles, especially the shape of the head and the tail. For example, Acorn bobbins generally have an acorn-shape tail end. Springett's bone bobbins have a head composed of a very round ball with a very flat disk (his wood bobbins don't have the distinctive head, but they're shorter than most makers'). Fielding's bobbins have a long tapered piece, like a cone, where Springett's is a thin disk. Stuart Johnson has a tiny head with deep groove for the thread.
My suggestion is to start by looking at samples of bobbins, not just to find your bobbins but to see if you have some of the same style. Then you could write or email the makers to see if they have info on what their bobbins sold for in the '90s. Here's my opinion/suggestion for the relative pricing. In general, bone were much more expensive than wood (I'd say bone, in the '90s, cost about what fancy wood Midlands sell for now, but I don't claim to be expert). Painting pictures (flowers, people, scenes) cost a lot more than paint that colored areas of the bobbin (barber pole stripes, graduated color). However, some detailed "painted" designs are actually decals stuck on and lacquered. Mother-of-pearl inlay is quite expensive, pewter inlay significantly less so. Beads and/or wire wrapping are probably somewhere around the price of pewter decorations (a little more, a little less, but same ballpark). Fancy turning of wood would be a bit less than the extra decorations mentioned above, but certainly worth more than simple/plain bobbins. I agree with whoever pointed out that most wood bobbins, no matter how fancy the decoration, were well below $10 each in the '90s, probably more like $5 each (less, for the simpler turnings). I think bone were mostly around $10, maybe as much as $15 for the really fancy ones. Rather than trying to identify and price each bobbin, if you use these values ($5 for wood, $10 for bone) on the assumption that some of yours were more and some were less, that should give you a reasonable assessment of your collection's worth. Robin P. Los Angeles, California, USA [email protected] - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
