Leonard and Devon I have said these things before, but this seems a good time to repeat. There is a lot of confusion about how to use the terms "Flanders lace" and Mechlin lace. From my study of laces at the Art Institute of Chicago, and from Santina Levey's LACE, I have learned that during the 18th century continuous straight laces with gimp were produced in Flanders and the town of Mechlin. (And continuous straight laces were made in the same area and the towns of Binche and Valenciennes, but without gimp. ) All these laces, with and without gimp, might use any one of several different grounds - 5 hole, Paris, small and large snowflakes. All had complex clothwork, where 2 pairs entered at each pin, unlike that later point ground laces and torchon, which have only 1 pair entering at each pin. Towards the end of that century the complex grounds tended to disappear and Mechlin ground became much more common. It continued to be used by preference into the early decades of the 19th century. All the complex grounds disappeared. Then laces, using designs much like the Mechlin laces, appeared, using point ground. And point ground laces were made throughout the remainder of the 19th century, in virtually all lace making areas in the world. Then towards the end of the 19th century, in an effort to revitalize the lace industry, various teachers and lace merchants began to explore the older laces and tried to reproduce them, but in simplified form. What we now know as Valenciennes ground became fairly common during this late period. And the old Flanders with 5 hole ground was re-examined and became what we now call Flanders. (But a question remains in my mind about what degree of simplification was also made standard in these new Flanders laces. Certainly expert designers and historians such as Erdmute Wesenberg and Ulrike Voelker are diagramming some of the most complex.)
My own understanding of lace history has derived from my personal study at the museum, and through books I have read. But I readily acknowledge that it does not come through contact and discussion with other lace historians and collectors. I think part of the terminology problem is that collectors have a different set of terminology than what makes sense to lace makers/designers who are also historians. The solution to the terminology problem that I usually use is one based on description of how the lace is constructed, the techniques used, the structure of the lace. I would be interested to know who (what class of lace aficionados) uses the term Turnhout, and just exactly what structure/technique set they use it for. I seem to recall hearing it applied to a Paris ground lace, but I could be mistaken about that. Lorelei Halley - 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/
