On 24/05/2011 06:57, Alex Stillwell wrote:
Hi Linda
This was sparked of by someone coming out with the old wives tale of
lacemaker using thorns and fishbones for pins and I was asking if there
was any evidence. Obviously thorns have been used in Brazil, but not for
the very very fine early lace. No one has managed to give any evidence
of any thorns being suffuciently fine for that.
Happy lacemaing
Alex
Thank you, Alex, for your very neat summary of the situation.
I'm very curious to know how this "old wives' tale" first arose.
It would be interesting if we could track down the first time the
alternative pins were mentioned. "Old wives' tales" can be most
intriguing clues: some I've known have turned out to be good
information, unreasonably dismissed by someone supporting an alternative
theory. (Alright, doctors!) Others have been the purest invention,
wishful thinking, romantic story-telling.
But occasionally you can discover an intriguing clue, which has been the
result of a misunderstanding. To get this tale by the tail, (sorry,
couldn't resist that), we first need to find the earliest mentions of
it, then we can understand the context, and the exact way in which the
words were used. I still think there may be more to this than meets the
eye . . .
Linda Walton,
(pondering in a cool and breezy High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, U.K.).
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