Hi Nancy, Lorelei, and others who have contributed to this thread...
I've just returned home from another week at "Lace at Sweet Briar", and
so have not been reading my email. This thread was delightful to find,
and - as usual - Lorelei has given us a great summary of information.
I've recently acquired another remarkable book which sheds new light on
the early Belgian laces. It is "Van speldengrond tot Turnhoutse kant",
a compilation of articles by Nora Andries and others, which describe
the laces made in Turnhout.
Scholars of old Belgian laces have often noted that there is cross-over
of features among the different lace, and this makes it difficult to
give a definitive "type" to some of the laces. In this book about
Turnhout, the writers explain that while the principle trade centers for
Belgian Lace in the 18th century were Antwerpt and Mechlin, many of the
laces were actually produced in smaller villages surrounding these
centers. Turnhout was one of these villages, and... they produced a
number of laces, not named for their home of origin, but for the market
for which they were produced! It is easy to see how lacemakers in such
a village might "borrow" techniques or styles from other laces.
This is a copiously illustrated book, with a translation included with
the price of the book. Sadly, the translation only covers a few of the
chapters, but I've been using Google Translate to give me a sense of the
other chapters.
I highly recommend this (expensive) book for any avid student of Belgian
laces.
Clay
... exhausted, but very pleased to have survived another week at Sweet
Briar.
On 6/27/2010 8:40 AM, Nancy Neff wrote:
Lorelei,
Thank you so much for the long helpful post! I don't have my Santina
Levy here and what I read was too long ago for my memory these days.
Especially helpful is your comparison between the historian's viewpoint and
the lacemaker's--one that I really hadn't thought about and yet is obviously
part of my puzzle once it is pointed out.
Thank you again. Arachne is so
great for getting info in a flash!!
Nancy
Nancy A. Neff
Connecticut, USA
________________________________
From: Lorelei Halley [email protected]
....place the date around the middle
.... Santina Levy does
not speak of
Flanders ground laces, but calls all the 18th century laces with
gimp
"Mechlin" and tells us that this lace (produced near Mechlin) could have
had
any one of several grounds, including Flanders, Mechlin, Binche snowballs
&
snowflakes, Valenciennes, Binche snowballs in half stitch, Paris ground.
....If you follow Ulrika Lohr, who thinks like a lacemaker
and is therefore
primarly interested in structure (what traditional form does
a lacemaker have
to be familiar with in order to reproduce this lace), one
would call it "old
Flanders".
....
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