Lace doilies

 

I’ve been doing some research into lace doilies and was delighted to find these at the Lace Guild. They cover a variety of techniques including Bedfordshire bobbin lace, crochet, tatting, and netting.  It seems that doilies were named after a draper with a shop in the Strand in London, in the early nineteenth century. However, I’ve also discovered that it is quite difficult to define a doily as there are many types of lace mat and combinations of lace mats including luncheon sets, cheval sets, coasters and tray cloths. It’s a case of ‘you know one when you see one’, but defining it is not so easy!