Dating from around 1920, this is a never-used piece of handmade bobbin lace which would have come from a boutique specialising in laces and trimmings. This lace would have been made by a piece-worker working from her own home, and the motif here is very old and unlike anything I have seen elsewhere. The lace is made in pure linen thread - parts have been reinforced with stitching to prevent them from sagging. If this looks like something out of a Tudor-era painting, it is because finer versions of exactly this lace would have once been used for collars and cuffs - this design has almost certainly come from the inherited memory of the maker, as most bobbin lace by this stage was made for the big department stores like Le Bon Marché, who provided patterns for their pieceworkers so that they could commercially sell larger quantities of the same pattern for what passed as mass production in the 19th and early 20th century.
This is in pretty much perfect condition- it is strong and beautiful and is the natural colour of the unbleached linen thread used to make it. The original shop tag is still attached. This came from a large collection of laces that came to me at the end of 2024 from a woman who had been collecting for decades in and around the region of Richelieu, in the Touraine.
This is 332cm long and at the widest points it is 33cm wide.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please message me via the contact form and include the title of the listing as it doesn’t automatically transfer across :)
Dating from around 1920, this is a never-used piece of handmade bobbin lace which would have come from a boutique specialising in laces and trimmings. This lace would have been made by a piece-worker working from her own home, and the motif here is very old and unlike anything I have seen elsewhere. The lace is made in pure linen thread - parts have been reinforced with stitching to prevent them from sagging. If this looks like something out of a Tudor-era painting, it is because finer versions of exactly this lace would have once been used for collars and cuffs - this design has almost certainly come from the inherited memory of the maker, as most bobbin lace by this stage was made for the big department stores like Le Bon Marché, who provided patterns for their pieceworkers so that they could commercially sell larger quantities of the same pattern for what passed as mass production in the 19th and early 20th century.
This is in pretty much perfect condition- it is strong and beautiful and is the natural colour of the unbleached linen thread used to make it. The original shop tag is still attached. This came from a large collection of laces that came to me at the end of 2024 from a woman who had been collecting for decades in and around the region of Richelieu, in the Touraine.
This is 332cm long and at the widest points it is 33cm wide.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please message me via the contact form and include the title of the listing as it doesn’t automatically transfer across :)
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