Nancy says, âThis doesn't say what the historical usage was, of course, but that is the current usage by dealers for the antique laces.â Trying to use updated terminology for lace is proving to be nothing short of a metaphysical enterprise. For instance, at one point the museum referred to all needle lace as needlepoint lace. But what with the popularity of yarn based canvas work, this has been confusing, and now it has all been changed to needle lace. Santina Leveyâs book from the 1980s which is still very revered made the case that one should use English language words whenever possible when writing in English. For instance, say Brussels bobbin lace instead of Point dâAngleterre. When I was in college in the late 1970s using a simple English word instead of a longer latin based word was said to be desirable by my teachers, for instance, âthinkâ rather than âconceptualizeâ. I have been following that style my whole life, but now I think that it was a fad, and possibly one that has passed. (Of course I used to think it was revealed truth!) So, is Santinaâs initiative to use English words rather than Frenchified still the latest trend, or has it passed? I think that discovering what things used to be called at the time they were made is very problematic since most lacemakers wouldnât have that grounding in lace linguistic history, and it is not, after all, 18th century people who will be consulting our data base. In addition to that, photography made a big difference in the pursuit of naming things. I am coming along to the theory that the âMechlinâ piece from last week more closely fits what we call Flanders lace because of the five hole ground. So called âFlandersâ lace seems to be a rather modern term, in fact sort of a 20th century lace, as this one quite likely is. It is a term well known to lacemakers, but is it a term known to lace collectors? I have to say that formerly I was not that hung up on names, but rather on how technique evolved as a continuum. But the challenge of trying to put a name on things is different, and rather interesting. Devon
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