Memo 1 of 2 on this subject - not for speed readers The Lace and Embroidery Resource Center's first book of 2012 has arrived. It is the Sotheby's NY, 22 Jan. 2012, auction catalogue for the "Important American Schoolgirl Embroideries: The Landmark Collection of Betty Ring". Unlike most auction catalogues, this is a book of 140 pages, in full color, featuring Lots 501-698 (197 Lots), of a much larger weekend auction of Americana (antiques). It can be ordered by phone from Sotheby's at 1 212 606-7000, and you might receive it before auction. If ordered before auction, call again to order (no extra charge, they say) the actual sales price list. Or, go to _www.sothebys.com_ (http://www.sothebys.com/) . You will see the catalogue can be printed out at home. I must have the book, because it supports a collection of 5 scholarly books by Ring, plus issues of "The Magazine Antiques" for which Ring wrote many articles. Young Lace Makers: What Ring, a homemaker and mother of 7 children has accomplished could be inspiration for your life and research. Scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have been in awe of Mrs. Ring for decades. She dropped out of college to marry after completing 2 years. Fortunately, she married into a family of wealth. She could have put off her scholarly pursuits, but instead began a determined effort to learn about American antiques 60-plus years ago. The book form of the catalogue fully explains her life journey, with numerous tributes by experts in the fields of antiques and antique dealers, museum collections, and academics on both sides of the Atlantic. Ring developed her own way of doing research into the history of young females. Most samplers were dated antiques that everyone had long been told were taught in the home. Ring's boots-on-the ground research began in 1965, after viewing an impressive private collection of silk embroidered mourning embroideries. She set out to "convince academic historians and antiquarian scholars of the importance of samplers and other schoolgirl embroideries as documents of educational history" All textiles have benefited from Ring's research methods that did not include use of computers. We can now see that individual embroidered works like these are estimated to bring up to $120-thousand at auction. I (Jeri) think they will go for much more. See my 2004 article in our archives at _http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/index.html_ (http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/index.html) Search "Auction Actions". This explains how a high-end auction works. At the Kapnik auction described - 30 years ago this month - I sat behind Betty Ring as she placed winning bids on sampler-after-sampler. All present gasped when she won the Matilda Filbert (age 12) 1830 Pennsylvania sampler with a $38,000 bid (plus auction house fees). For a moment, the air seemed sucked out of the room. The auctioneer exclaimed "What a great down-payment on a house!" A red brick house on the sampler sinks into the background - dwarfed by a female in long white dress (inspired by an engraving), in a pose much like that of the Statue of Liberty. Several times since the early 1980's, I have attended lectures around the U.S. by Betty Ring. She always spoke without notes, memorizing all she had to tell, and her presentations about this aspect of womens' history were always riveting. The last talk I attended was one of her last - at Winterthur, Delaware. Late into her 8th decade, she was still teaching and informing. And worth driving 10 hours (one way) to hear. This memo to inspire our lace researchers continues to a second memo, with 2 lace-type samplers on the block. Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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