Hi Ilske, Thanks for your comments. The relative thickness of the thread is part of why I was wondering how certain we could be about the age of the lace. The thread is thinner than it perhaps appears in the pictures, however--the width of the lace is 5 cm, if that helps when viewing the sections.
For comparison, I've found a few pictures in Wesenberg's "Binche-Spitzen" that are interesting. On page 6 is a comparable lace with 5-hole ground (no gimp) and only slightly finer thread--dated 1730. Page 33 shows a simple lace (undated because it was such a common design) with picots with none, or 1 or 2 twists at most, like mine. And page 64 shows lace (dated only as "early Binche" that I think is of a similar scale/similar thread size to mine. Perhaps mine was intended for the end of a baby's christening gown? which would be somewhere between the finest laces on clothes of wealthy men & women and the coarser household linens lace. (and if for a modest christening gown but never used, it was probably for very sad reasons.) The other question I have about late 19th-century bobbin laces is whether they were like the needle laces, which were very finely done to be in competition with machine-made laces (info from Devon Thein here). Or were there still bobbin laces made in a hurry when machines were doing laces so effectively? I suppose my sample could be early 19th C rather than mid-18th C? but for what use would it then be intended? A day dress perhaps? Based on Jane Austen movies :-) I didn't think wider laces were used much in the early 1800's--or do I have my dates wrong? --Nancy, with more & more questions! (and still hoping my lace is mid-18th C :-) Nancy A. Neff Connecticut, USA ----------------- From: Ilske Thomsen [email protected] ... it looks as if it is from 19th century because of the gimp and the thickness of the thread. There exist Flanders laces with thicker thread from earlier time too used for bed- and table-linen not for dresses. The picots and the edge aren't worked properly as the lace was done in a hurry, what could be a sign for 19th century too, but must not. ... - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
