https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254607849251
Recently my bobbin partner alerted me to the above bobbin sale on eBay. Her heart was asking the question if this could be a bobbin made by the Napoleonic PoWs? I looked at it and entertained similar thoughts, but then i retrieved some articles from my research db and my head began to takeover. Though i have not found any writings "of the time" telling us that the PoWs made bobbins, we do have references to them making lace at a level which challenged our English lace makers and they had to be stopped as the competition was affecting the income of the English lace makers working in the areas of their camps. It makes good sense to me that, though I have not yet found a reference to it, that they did make bobbins for their fellow prisoners to use and it follows that they sold their excess to local lace makers. Since the "Springett" revolution we have become so absorbed with trying to identify the maker that I suspect we miss what our hearts tell us. The other possible Napoleonic bobbin, that i tend to call the Nelson bobbin, i have written about on Webdocs ( *Lemin*, Brian. and Smith, D./A Most Unusual Lace Bobbin from a Surprising Source/, 18 pages. Posted May 3, 2014. *FIRST PAGE* <https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs/SAMPLES/lb_2014_01a.gif>. File size 1,000KB PDF <https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs/lb_2014_01a.pdf> ) https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs.html . <https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs.html> When we compare the two bobbins we are discussing, they have some natural affinities. It is only when we dig deeper that that the "feelings of our heart" are challenged. I have written an article about this "Victoria" bobbin that i will offer to webdocs and let you know when it is up on the web. What i really want to say is that feelings and emotions that we have to certain bobbins in our collections are very valid. There is a place for scholarship, but though I am perhaps the leading writer in that genre, I still think that heart and feelings are important and if you like a bobbin, have feelings for a bobbin, your knowledge tells you that you should challenge the scholarship, that is fine by me. Most of my thinking starts from the heart because i love bobbins and often i prove myself wrong, but those "heart feelings" never really leave me and it is only when "money" or "bobbin values" come into the equation that we need to fall back to scholarship. Enjoy your bobbins from your heart. Never mind what this hard hearted "head" writer thinks. smile. -- Brian Cooranbong. Australia - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
