OK, I'll bite. I don't know of any lace instructions for making 18th century lace engageantes or barbes or lappets caps/coiffures such as those pictured. Somewhat easier would be to devise instructions for cutting out pieces that were the same shapes as those from muslin, or machine made lace, for instance, but I don't think that is what the question was asking. The head piece to which one is directed in this email is a beautiful set of lace pieces from the first half of the 18th century when lace reached its peak (in my opinion) in lace technique and the thread used was of a fineness no longer available in the linen of which it was made. It is unlikely that such a pattern has been produced since lappets or barbes of this level of fineness were very time consuming to make. Anecdotally, a single lappet of Vallenciennes lace of this era might take 18 months of steady lacemaking to make. The lack of appropriate materials, skill and amount of available time, coupled with the fact that people no longer wear such cap sets is such that there seems little incentive to make a pattern of that kind of a set. On the other hand, wouldn't it be great if someone would tackle such a project? Bart and Francis are selling a cotton that is 240/2 and some silks are made that can be used in reproductions of the lace of the early 18th century. Ulrike Lohr and has diagrammed many of the extremely bobbin intensive grounds, and more and more one is seeing borders being diagrammed and reproduced from that period. Michael Giusiana is teaching classes in which people using hugely enlarged scans of lace, diagram it and produce prickings. Erdmute Wesenberg has produced some diagrams and prickings of such complex laces. So far efforts are being directed toward borders, and in some cases to borders in which one devises a corner so that they can become handkerchief edgings, on the theory that people still use handkerchiefs. Arguably the moment may be approaching in which it is physically possible to reproduce early 18th century patterns in their original sizes in cotton or in silk, not linen. First you would have to find a cap set, possibly in a museum (very few complete sets are still together), scan it, enlarge it, and make a pattern. This is a challenge. Even if one person could make the pattern, which is doubtful, arguably you might need to assemble a team of people to actually make the lace set. Most of us cannot work the hours that professional lace makers used to work, so you might need 50 people working on this project, since lacemaking is now a hobby. If each lappet is 18 months of working all day, that gets you to 3 years of work. The cap back would probably be another 18 months and let's say that the frill is a year. That would make 5 1/2 man years, or woman years. Making the pattern and pricking, I have no idea, maybe 6 months? Total 6 years? The level of skill required to make the pattern and the lace would be quite high. Perhaps there might be 100 people in the US who have this level of skill? Maybe not. One way out, would be to make hand made lace, but of a larger gauge thread and less skilled pattern, say a torchon pattern in the shape of the pieces. But that wouldn't really be as wonderful or as authentic. I would certainly be interested to hear if Carolyn, or anyone could achieve the reproduction of such a cap set. It would undoubtedly set a new standard in lacemaking for our times. Intrigued, Devon In a message dated 9/20/2009 9:16:42 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
I am looking for lace instructions to make 18thC lace engageants and barbed or lappets caps/coiffures such as: http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=mm1740_4&pfad=1700 Thank you very much, Carolyn, Listowner, FandIWomen yahoo group http://18thccuisine.blogspot.com/ http://carolynsmith-kizer.com - 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]
