Lucie wrote: <If Victorian men were producing bodkins, needle cases and other needle work implements in whatever material was at hand, could ivory not also be a possibility?>
Needlework - the types that use a needle - were done by ladies of middle/high class as part of their education. In the main, they didn't make bobbin lace - they wore it - but might have made needle lace. They could stop needlework at any time for social callers, etc, where they wouldn't have been able to do that easily with bobbin lacemaking. (They couldn't say "Hang on a minte while I get these next two pins in.) The cottagers made it, but didn't wear it because it was their source of income. The ladies had exotic or decorated needlework boxes and tools, the cottagers wouldn't have been able to afford them.
Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK
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