Thank you Diana, for your input. I was looking at Lynn's question and figuring I'd have to reply once I'ddusted off my trusty Librarianship skills and gone back through my books to find my source.
"Lace villages" (1st edition) sounds about right as a likely source, but it may also have been in Springett's book too. Since I don't mention it in the history part of my ALG assessment from 1993, I must've come across this piece of info post Assessment. It's possible I learnt about it from a lecture or class, too. I would agree with Diana that there is a certain anecdotal quality to that piece of information. 2 years is a long time to not make lace/earn money, so perhaps they made other lace from a less specific pattern to their village in that time, if this is indeed the case. As far as I know it was an East Midlands 'thing', but I don't know very much about the Continental side of the lace history when it comes to things like superstitions, traditions, etc. Given the missing pieces of corner patterns from old parchments - which was a way they protected copyright, as I was advised by a source I have no reason to doubt - I also don't see why something like this wouldn't happen. Interesting, nonetheless :-) Wish I could ask one of my professional lacemaker ancestors about it. I'm sure they'd have some interesting things to say on the subject. Cheers, Helen, Duvall, WA - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
