On Jul 19, 2009, at 16:04, Celtic Dream Weaver (Sherry) wrote:
My husband [...] brought home this Beaded Art On Net that someone sewed onto what looks like velvet. The beads look like they are tarnished silver lined glass. I have a feeling at one time it was on the front of a dress...maybe a wedding dress. It looks very old.
It's likely to be about 90yrs old and you're right, it's likely to have been a dress front.
My Mother-in-law (born in 1897) had a dress with a similar -- though coloured (red-bronze, silver and gold. The "silver" looks more "gun-metal" than silver, by now) and mounted on black, not white, net -- beaded panel front, when she was "young and flighty" (her words <g>). She gave me the panel about 25 years ago ("you're the only one in the family who cares about such things") and I reused it. Made a (velveteen) dress especially for it, and wore it to her granddaughter's debutante ball. The dress was a "smash", especially with my MIL, so everyone was happy. In "mine", some of the flowery motifs were, in part, metallic thread (satin stitch), not just metallic beads. I never wore the dress again; there are not that many special occasions that come my way and, by now, I don't think I could fit into it any more. Even then, I worried a bit about taking too deep breaths; the net was fragile and some of the threads on which the beads had been strung "gave" at the slightest provocation.
Now that I have seen it...he had every right to be afraid for I do not want to sell it. I think it is pretty and a nice example of vintage Bead work. I know we need the money...but...oh and he hardly paid anything for this.
The only way I'd sell it (especially if the original outlay had not been too high, so that keeping the piece is not a hardship) would be to a haute couture designer -- directly, and for a boatload of money. Forget E-bay; you're not going to get for it what it's really worth, especially in this economy, where even the truly rich are cutting corners... It's not just that it's old (almost antique <g>), it's that you can't get the same quality now. Beginning with the mesh size of the net (very, very fine in mine and, it looks like, in yours), through the net fiber (cotton, while most netting now is "plastic"), through the quality of the beads (uniform, among other superiur qualities)...
Oh, and somewhere (on your website?) you asked about the technique. In all likelihood, it's tambour work. We think of "tambour" and envision Liers or Carrickmacross (spell?) but, before the tambour hook was used to make lace of that kind (thread on net), it was used to attach beads to net or fabric.
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
