Hello Mark I agree with others that the first one > http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/BLgallery/Rescued_Beds_tally_lace.jpg looks to be Bedfordshire - I won't say Beds-Maltese because it's not geometrical enough.
The second one > http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/BLgallery/Rescued_Beds_scallop_lace.jpg is Le Puy. I have several bits of plaited black BL in my collection. Some time ago I spent a lot of time with Pat Earnshaw's and other books to properly ID them, and tI have listed all but the narrowest piece as Le Puy; partly because of the black colour partly because of the distinctive trails and sometimes lots of leaf shaped tallies and mainly because of the elaborate plaited grounds ie Guipure. In style they are all not dissimilar to your piece. According to Earnshaw a lot of black 'Le Puy' was made in France in the second half of the 19th century, and a lot of Le Puy/Clunytype of plaited laces were also made in England at the same time, some indistinguishable from the French. The lace school at Le Puy re-opened in the 1970s under Mick Fouriscot and I believe they teach a variety of styles of BL. There are a number of pattern books co-written by various people with Mme Fouriscot for various types of BL. Brenda in Allhallows [email protected] http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/ - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
