Dear Leonard, The crest is that of Princess Alice. The corners are not designed as such. The lace was made as a strip and the corners are examples of masterly joining as in âlassenâ. Yes, terminology is a mish mash. Is Milanese a style? One hint that I have gotten in another correspondence on this point is that in the late 19th century any lace with a gimp around the motif was called Mechlin. I donât exactly know what to do about this, because I am not sure that in the early 21st century anyone would consider a lace with a five hole ground to be Mechlin. It just appears to be puzzling. As you say, someone looking for a late 19th early 20th century handkerchief could probably find it in our data base using all the other fields. But, would it be misleading if they then read that it was Mechlin? What would be better? Flanders? Devon
Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Leonard Bazar Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2017 12:02 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: Turnout lace, Met Handkerchief Dear Devon and Lorelei As far as I can see in Van speldengrond tot Turnhoutse kant, 2009, by Nora Andries, Lieve Vroom and others, five-hole ground was not used, assuming that is cane-ground or rose ground - the Met's photo pixillates on my computer if I zoom, so I can't see the ground. It is worked on a 45 degree angle, unlike the standard kat stitch ground of Turnhout. The other characteristic of Turnhout lace is that the worker can leave the cloth, go round a pin, and return as a passive, unlike other Flemish laces with other grounds, and indeed unlike Bucks when done with a kat stitch ground. It would be interesting to know what the worker of the handkerchief did, though of course that may not help locate his or her workplace or training in one place or another. I think this is the standard problem of using a place name to classify a lace, and trying to determine where it was made - not always the same thing, as place names are notoriously attributed just for convenience or worse. Bucks and Beds in the nineteenth century were both made in Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire of course, and Mr Armstrong's catalogue of about 1911 describes what we would call Beds as 'Bucks. Cluny Lace'. As he was based in Olney, his workers could have been in any of the three counties. East Devon lace, no doubt sold to wholesalers in London as Honiton lace as that's where the coach transporting it came from, and where it could well have been made, would probably be called Brussels by the retailer, if he thought it would get a higher price... I think it's fairly clear from our inability to find a place name to describe it that there isn't one - even if you did determine where it was made, indexing it under that place isn't going to help one of us track the piece down if we are looking for lace using those techniques in that style. I suspect the only practical solution is to hope that the Met has a searchable index, which could include a short description with the relevant key words in it. However, you could possibly attack it from the other angle. It is clearly a high-quality piece, made to fit a handkerchief with different well-designed corners, and made of linen not cotton. You know the previous owner, and it is possible that the Met's note of provenance as French could be based on more than a guess - if the Duchess is known to have bought it, or acquired it as a present from Princess Alice, there may be a record. I can't make out if the crest includes initials, but there is a coronet, so it presumably was specially commissioned. Indeed, for once this mystery could cast some light, and give at least one place where this sort of lace was made! Kind regards Leonard Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2017 17:06:53 -0600 From: "Lorelei Halley" <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [lace] Turnhout lace Devon Interesting piece. The photo doesn't allow me to see any construction details. But, as to your question, I haven't a clue. I wish we knew more about the detailed history of revival era laces (c. 1900). Turnhout, as I understand it, had a Paris ground. Possibly Michel Bouvot may have something to add. Contact through laceioli. Lorelei - -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, January 20, 2017 12:20 PM To: 'Arachne reply' <[email protected]> Subject: [lace] Turnhout lace Was Turnhout lace ever made with a five hole mesh for the background? We are wondering if this is Turnhout? http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/228920?sortBy=Relevance&f t =63.196.11&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=1 [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of CDB9725EF865423ABD3D2FFFD0D7B2B9.png] - 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/
