Re: [lace] Battle of Britain Lace Panel/value of machine made lace
Hello Devon, In my opinion the worth of machine-made lace is a very personel one. There are pieces who take your breathe away. Have you ever been in Le Puy and there in the museum ? There you found hundreds of old machine-made laces they look not only for the first but also for the seond and third look like handmade. They are so fine and beautiful that you couldn't say they are of no great worth even they have excist in greater amounts. Also the old Plauener-Ätzspitze, this are broderie-laces, look so fantastique. But museums in our country doesn't care of machine-made laces. And most people think only on the laces on our underwear which are simple ones. Greetings Ilske - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace] Battle of Britain Lace Panel/value of machine made lace
When Sheila and John Mason visited the Ratti with the panel Mr. Mason mentioned that Sheila was to appear on Flog It. Mr. Mason's family has been machine lace manufacturers in Nottingham for about 8 generations and he has a wealth of information which he very kindly shared with us about machine made lace. Having been apprenticed at the age of 14 in the business he knows a great deal about lace manufacture in Nottingham generally. I hope they had as good a time as we did. However, an interesting question has arisen. What is the market value of exceptional machine made lace? I had originally contacted Sheila because I was contacted by a man who owns a panel called The Lace Merchant. It is a large machine made panel which comes with a parchment saying it won First Prize at the Worlds Fair in Lyon in 1893. This piece was pictured in a book by David Schwab, The Story of Lace and Handkerchiefs. The piece formerly belonged to Mr. Schwab. The owner thought it might be quite valuble and wanted to establish a value. Unfortunately we were unable to do this. Values attributable to handmade lace don't seem to apply and no one I talked to knew of anything to compare it to that had sold recently. A few telephone inquiries brought opinions varying from not worth much because it may have been mass produced, to I saw a documentary in which Quaker Lace tablecloths were being sold for $30,000 at auction. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a copy of this panel, but Sheila Mason had never seen it before. Our copy was donated by a well-known lace manufacturer. Sheila Mason felt the panel was produced only in very small quantity and thought it might be fairly valuble. It was made on a Pusher machine, which hasn't been used for a long time and is really quite an elaborate piece, being a single picture about 30 by 55. It shows a 18th century lace merchant showing lace to a lady. There are many different laces displayed, all reproduced by machine. However, even Sheila could not provide a monetary value, saying the only way to tell would be to put it up for auction. Machine lace is still emerging as a valuble entity and many museums don't even have machine made lace in their collections, although the Met has about 60 examples, some of them quite exceptional. One is a portrait of George Washington and one has a locomotive, light bulbs and all sorts of other symbols of progress on it. One depicts the Spirit of St. Louis and one has Charlie Chaplin and his dog on it. Does anybody have any thoughts about machine made lace and value as a collectible? Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Battle of Britain Lace Panel/value of machine made lace
I have frequently heard, in the Art world as well as in the world of antiques and collectibles, that the value of something is determined by the price it will bring. That is the primary driving force in values. When there are many of a thing and they are sold often, it is easy to determine the value by tracking the sales. When the item is rare, the sale of one similar item may determine the other's value. Still, when Sotheby's or any other auction house puts something on the block, their guess is just that... and the final bid determines the value of the item. Something obscure may fetch a pretty penny by an enthusiastic bidder, who later finds (or his estate finds...) that no one else is interested in spending that kind of money. So the market is volatile, and it is fickle. For the owner of a rare piece of machine made lace this is a real problem. It would be difficult to find anyone who would insure such an item unless solid information could be produced regarding sales of similar items. And even if someone could produce a receipt for the purchase of an item, insurers would not necessarily take that as proof of its value. Best of luck... Clay - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 3:53 PM Subject: [lace] Battle of Britain Lace Panel/value of machine made lace When Sheila and John Mason visited the Ratti with the panel Mr. Mason mentioned that Sheila was to appear on Flog It. Mr. Mason's family has been machine lace manufacturers in Nottingham for about 8 generations and he has a wealth of information which he very kindly shared with us about machine made lace. Having been apprenticed at the age of 14 in the business he knows a great deal about lace manufacture in Nottingham generally. I hope they had as good a time as we did. However, an interesting question has arisen. What is the market value of exceptional machine made lace? I had originally contacted Sheila because I was contacted by a man who owns a panel called The Lace Merchant. It is a large machine made panel which comes with a parchment saying it won First Prize at the Worlds Fair in Lyon in 1893. This piece was pictured in a book by David Schwab, The Story of Lace and Handkerchiefs. The piece formerly belonged to Mr. Schwab. The owner thought it might be quite valuble and wanted to establish a value. Unfortunately we were unable to do this. Values attributable to handmade lace don't seem to apply and no one I talked to knew of anything to compare it to that had sold recently. A few telephone inquiries brought opinions varying from not worth much because it may have been mass produced, to I saw a documentary in which Quaker Lace tablecloths were being sold for $30,000 at auction. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a copy of this panel, but Sheila Mason had never seen it before. Our copy was donated by a well-known lace manufacturer. Sheila Mason felt the panel was produced only in very small quantity and thought it might be fairly valuble. It was made on a Pusher machine, which hasn't been used for a long time and is really quite an elaborate piece, being a single picture about 30 by 55. It shows a 18th century lace merchant showing lace to a lady. There are many different laces displayed, all reproduced by machine. However, even Sheila could not provide a monetary value, saying the only way to tell would be to put it up for auction. Machine lace is still emerging as a valuble entity and many museums don't even have machine made lace in their collections, although the Met has about 60 examples, some of them quite exceptional. One is a portrait of George Washington and one has a locomotive, light bulbs and all sorts of other symbols of progress on it. One depicts the Spirit of St. Louis and one has Charlie Chaplin and his dog on it. Does anybody have any thoughts about machine made lace and value as a collectible? Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Battle of Britain Lace Panel/value of machine made lace
In a message dated 12/31/2003 4:41:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: It would be difficult to find anyone who would insure such an item unless solid information could be produced regarding sales of similar items. And even if someone could produce a receipt for the purchase of an item, insurers would not necessarily take that as proof of its value. Does anyone have any information about sales of similar items? In fact, Sheila and John Mason bought the Battle of Britain panel at auction. It is insured for a rather hefty amount and their insurance company has very particular guidelines about how the property must be guarded which were all followed to the letter in New York. I have heard that there was a documentary about Quaker Lace tablecloths from which the $30,000 was quoted, but have been unable to find out anything else about it. I e-mailed Quaker Lace and received no reply. I have to assume that machine made lace is changing hands just like bakelite plastic, baseball cards and sardine labels, to name but a few things collected by my acquaintences. But I only seem to know of people who deal in handmade lace. Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
