This subject reminded me of an Indian couple who were friends of ours. They told me about their marriage, and how the wife was given, on marriage, a sari heavily embroidered with silver thread. It was the husband's proud boast that they had never had to sell this sari, because they had never been poor. This made me realise that valuable gifts such as that, and large engagement rings in times past (as a child I heard many discussions of the number of carats in the diamond or the number of £100's each new engagement cost) were intended primarily as a hedge against possible poverty or future hard times - in fact, for security.
Ann, in Manchester, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy Rusak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 2:19 PM Subject: [lace] La Dame á Licorne/silver thread raffle > 'The technique of metalwork embroidery is used for the British Arms on the Queen's privy purse, in which she carries her speeches to Parliament. The purses are replaced at intervals, most obviously because of tarnishing silver threads used for the unicorn, and I saw a new embroidery being prepared for a purse at The Royal School of Needlework's workrooms 25 years ago (would have been her 25th year as Queen).' > > This discussion touched on a topic that I am curious about. I acquired some vintage metallic thread recently and was wondering how to determine whether the thread was real silver or other metals. Did they, or do they still make any thread with real gold, silver, copper or brass (I have all these 'colours' in this lot)? I have determined that it is real metal - when I burned the thread, the fiber (silk?) in the middle burned while the metal remained in a coil. The weight of the skeins was he first clue that they were not synthetic metallic threads. Some of the silver skeins are a little tarnished in a couple of spots which look like a finger marks. The tarnished areas look the same as silverware that has tarnished. Is there any way to determine whether these are the real thing? Two of the gold ones and one of the copper ones have a label with 'Deposee' and a lion printed on them, and on the back of the label '1850' has been stamped. The silver skeins all have about 4 meters of thread. All the skeins are tied with silk-like thread on either end of the skein and then 15 skeins are tied together. Any information would be appreciated Happy lacing, > Cindy - in cold, wintery Wisconsin > > - > 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]
