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
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