>From the quality of the photo it's hard to make absolute comments as from the lack of definition it could even be machine made lace <VBG> so I'll just talk in general terms.
First I wonder why you think it is Point de Paris as distinct from another Point Ground type lace? PdeP is usually a narrow edge/insertion lace rather than a large shaped piece. (It was also copied on machines from the 1830s, another <VBG>) Do you have the pieces so you can look at the ground with a magnifying glass to make a proper identification? To answer your questions, 1) how many bobbins would be needed to make these laces. How long is a piece of string? Lots and lots. Hundreds of pairs probably. 2) how long would it take approximately? How long would it have taken a professional lacemaker? Or how long would it take a good lacemaker now? The two things are vastly different. Assuming the former, a long time, but not as long as we think it might take. Apart from the fact that they could make lace very much faster than we can, they didn't keep getting up to make a coffee, answer the phone, let the dog out and all the other petty interruptions we allow ourselves. And of course they would work at it for eight or more hours a day, every day, so long as the light was good enough. I always remember Doreen Fudge at the Luton Museum (? I think - it's the museum not the person that I am unsure about) holding up a fairly ornate Bedfordshire lace collar and telling us it was a day and a half's work for the professional lacemakers of the time it was made. 3) which side is the beginning and where does it end? Vertical? Horizontal? Short end start, work the length of the piece, otherwise the hundreds of pairs of bobbins would be thousands, even with the smaller piece. On the smaller piece, which is the one with a slightly better photo, there looks to be a slight difference on the right hand end, this could be the finish. The end should be easier to find than the start - unless it's machine lace. If it is yours, could you take a couple of much clearer close-ups for us to see? Jacquie in Lincolnshire - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
