It appears that it was sometimes the case that there were books that combined needle lace or embroidery patterns with calligraphy. I know that some scholars have made the point that the era coincides with rising female literacy. I think the point has also been made that after female literacy really took hold, home needlework seemed to decline in quality. Is this book a reprint or is it supposed to be an original from the 1600s? There were an incredible number of 16th and 17th century pattern books reprinted from the 1870s to the early 20th century. The only date I saw was 1604 which was in the calligraphy of the book. I will also point out something that others may have missed. The donor of the book is Magdalena Nuttal. Magdalena Nuttal donated a very large collection of lace to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, much of it small samples that I think she must have obtained during travels in Europe. If one were to look at the MMA collection on line, all the lace whose accession numbers start with 08.180. are her donation. The significance of the 08. in the accession number is that she donated all these pieces in 1908. Indeed the book says it was bought in Paris, in 1900 on a little slip of paper at the end of the scan. I think that Magdalena Nuttal must have thought it was lace related. Devon In a message dated 10/11/2011 1:25:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Interesting about the alphabet. Italian still does not use 'j' except in imported words. The collection seems to be an exercise book for writing, including the ornamentation around the script. Was it intended as a lace book as such? I haven't studied it thoroughly and the only date I found at first glance looks to be added long after these pages were penned (so beautifully). Yes, thanks so much to Tess. On 10/11/11, Agnes Boddington <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks again, Tess, for all your hard work. > What I found interesting as a linguist, was the alphabet on page 81 - no J - > U - W yet. > In those days functioned as J, and V as U/V/W. -- Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada - 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 - 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
