Alex Of the books you list, I only have Levey and Palliser. Palliser was trying to be scholarly, but wasnât really very good. She does not link laces to external sources to verify dates, but just goes by what other lace writers have said. Levey is the one who is a real historian. She uses the old pattern books, and books of woven brocade designs as external verification. If a design similar to a lace design occurs in a brocade sample book, which has dates attached, she then reasonably uses that date for the lace. I have heard people I respect say that Reigate and Toomer are quite good. But I havenât seen those, and canât venture an opinion. The first part of your statement is reasonable, that Binche, Val and Mechlin were all called Mechlin makes sense, and is basically what I was saying. But the dates attached to when the divergence of names occurred does not fit with what Iâve seen at the museum. (It also does not fit with the sequence of photos in Leveyâs book.) Mechlin is a city in Flanders, and Binche and Valenciennes are not very far away. So that makes sense.
I have never seen a lace with Mechlin ground with a design style that fits a date earlier than 1790. I have never seen a lace with a design like those of 1790-1820 that uses Flanders ground, Val ground, or snowflake ground. However I admit that I have not seen all the laces in the world, but I donât see a reason why the collection in Chicago would be vastly atypical. They do have 1000 laces in their collection. I also admit that I sometimes have trouble dating pieces from about 1750 and about 1850. Both time periods had similar designs, with the floral motifs occupying ½ of the surface. (Ratio of ground to motif is one of the elements I use in dating a piece.) One factor in dating and the use of a particular ground is whether there is a linkage to the Revival Era of about 1900 (give or take a decade or 2). At that time the designer and merchants were trying to produce laces that could be made faster. I think the popularity of Mechlin ground after 1800 fits this intention. Also the decline, or disappearance, of 5 hole ground and the various snowflake grounds also fits. I have been attempting to develop a list of factors that I use in identifying a piece of lace. My current ideas are available on laceioli, for those interested. I will be revising that occasionally. http://laceioli.ning.com/group/identification-history/forum/topics/general-pr inciples Lorelei Halley From: Alex Stillwell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 2:52 AM To: Arachne reply <[email protected]> Cc: Lorelei Halley <[email protected]> Subject: Mechlin - 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/
