Sorry that I have been "missing in action" of late, as like so many of you,issues of life begin to interfere with important hobbies! I suppose "busy, busy" describes it!
I cant add much to Diana Smiths letter. While ago she and I had a series of correspondence as whether bobbin makers' "lodgers", "Neighbors" and "family members" engaged in the work of the bobbin maker. this came about as Diana had discovered some interesting "coincidences" regarding the occupations and dwellings of a group of "bobbin artisans". I remembered in some of my investigations into beads and bead making reading about small groups of bead makers sitting around a table making beads. The picture if I remember it, was quite domestic. I began to form and unsubstantiated opinion that the making of the beads (Particularly the square cuts) could well have been a family contribution to the income of the family, especially where the bobbin maker was also a lapidary. I would quickly add that beads were very common at that time; of course they were used for trade earlier days and money still in some of the African countries. I find that when I come across a collection of bobbins from a single "historical" source that the spangling , and to some extent the beads are remarkably similar. For example I have been looking at the Met MA collection of their web page and the percentage of "more than nine" beads on the spangles is greater than I would have thought would have occurred by chance So I suggest that the answer to your question is yes, the maker could well have sold some bobbins spangled but certainly a lace maker would have had her favourite beads and spangle design. Yes, I suspect that families would have been involved. Thank you for an interesting observation. I am great believer in an area about which we have very little information ((?social aspects of bobbins) each little observation adds towards gradual building of more understanding of the topic. A bit like the police say "every little piece of information is valuable". In fact most of my writing is done in the hope that someone, somewhere, sometime will be able to build on what I have discovered. Brian and Jean >From Cooranbong. Australia You can read my bobbin stuff on: http://tiny.cc/egb85 - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
