Dear Jeri and All, I'm also a huge fan of Laurie Waters Lace News and reports. She is very thorough with her reporting and it's a wonderful treasure for all of us. Regarding the collection of items and ephemera, our guild tends to get the local lacemaker pieces. There are few lacemakers in our area, but occasionally a non-guild member family will track us down and share the deceased lacemaker's items. As the librarian, the items are all catalogued and photographed. Then, as a group, we decide how to handle everything. Most goes to a group silent auction. More often than not, fair prices are realized. We don't have a local shop, so we're thrilled to be able to purchase used items. As for binders of prickings and notes, scrapbooks, etc. we tend to keep those in our library. It is fun for all of us, new and seasoned lacemakers to look back at other lacemakers' journey through their craft. At least once a year, we have an open library day where everything is spread out and members can look a bit more leisurely through these things. Our library has grown through book, pillow, thread, pricking, and other donations. It is comforting to know the families didn't just pitch things in the garbage, or (in one case) burn it all. They were thoughtful enough and caring enough to get something of importance to them back into the hands that would use them. I hope our families will do so, too!
On Thursday, February 13, 2014 12:47 PM, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: Reading all the disastrous things that can happen to an estate's lace treasures prompts me to write about lace ephemera --- some of which I am keeping in my library for the use of future researchers. Ephemera is defined in my dictionary as 1) Something of no lasting significance, or 2) Collectibles not intended to have lasting value. It is 2) that I am writing about - in this case: lace posters, lace auction catalogues, brochures and photos of lace exhibits, supplies catalogues, etc. Presently, some of these are searchable by computer. But, some are hard to come by, and may be useful to historians after the owners of today's web sites have passed on and their sites have disappeared into ether. I am not giving up on paper ephemera and related equipment, supplies, etc.! Example: We read last year that Susan Cox, Principal of The English Lace School had owned laces. Some of these laces were being sent to auction. It did not take long to decide information about the School and something about her collection should have a special folio in my library. First, I searched for the School, and located a 36-page 1983 prospectus, offered for sale by a U.K. book dealer. It was de-accessioned by the Devon County Council Library Services. My local independent book store gets such things for me. What a treasure of English 20th Century ephemera about lace this is! It provides information about classes, teachers (who became lace book authors of the period), and tuition, and had supporting advertising. Then, I began to track the auctions via computer, so there would be some idea of auction values in 2014 (I am doing this also for Pat Earnshaw's laces - filed in thick binders). There was the big London auction of a few pieces. Then, Laurie Waters of Lace News listed seven smaller Susan Cox laces in her Ebay Alerts! Twenty-one items - December 2, 2014. Note the typo - It was really February 2. The private dealer selling both Cox and Earnshaw laces on Ebay is usually derbeatle, Cheltenham, U.K. If you subscribe to Laurie Waters' Lace News (free), here is what I do: 1. Wait 10 days to read Lace News, capture pictures and get auction results. I don't want to waste time going back for the results (I never buy lace without holding it in my hands for a personal look and feel). 2. Above the Subject line - to Right - click on "Show images and enable links". This moves a picture into each description, and if you click on the picture, you can make an enlarged print for keeping. 3. At the beginning of each entry is http://tinyurl.com/ etc. address. Click on that, and see the Ebay final sale price. Print. Laurie is a knowledgeable expert, and gives a nice assessment of the laces, sometimes correcting identification info given by dealers, sometimes sharing interesting history. She also gives condition, if you are considering bidding. If you would like to learn lace identification, but other demands of life permit only small chunks of free time, this is a wonderful way to see representative examples of laces offered on Ebay, without plodding through hundreds of entries. ------------------------ It would be nice to know if others are trying to keep records that our guilds may not have resources to save. I am mindful that my Hungarian friend has stressed the importance of keeping information in places around the world, so if one region is devastated by war and plunder, all is not lost. Women need to be more aware of this. Men document everything about wars, politics, sports, exploration, business, etc., funding with public money from everyone's taxes. Women? Not much documentation, though they have always represented about 1/2 the human race. What lace makers did was once a huge industry, and those of us doing research have difficulty reconstructing what was not properly recorded then, and what is not being saved now. If you have lace-related things of historical value that should be saved for future generations, please check with this list (Arachne), a lace guild, or a trusted lace expert, for suggestions. Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/ - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
