These bobbins celebrate battles from the Crimean War (1853-1856).
It was one of the first conflicts from which British newspaper correspondents sent
back reports and photographs so the population at home were aware of the
conflict and many lacemakers would have had relatives in the army and therefore
had a personal interest in the outcome. The war began following arguments about
access to Christian sites in Palestine and Russian attempts to obtain land in the
area. In September 1854 the British, French and Turkish forces landed at
Eupatoria and began marching to Sebastopol, the capital of Crimea and the base
for the Tsar’s Black Sea fleet which threatened the Mediterranean. On the way
they fought the Russians at several battles including Alma and Inkerman, which
are also commemorated on the bobbins. The siege of Sebastopol lasted from
October 1854 to September 1855. The conflict ended with the Treaty of Paris in
which Russian power was curbed and the Turkish state was reinforced. The
battles and the conflict clearly attracted public interest. These bobbins were
probably made by James Compton and the Springetts in their book ‘Success to the
lace pillow’ suggest that they were made as stock rather than as special orders
so there was obviously a market for them.
Tuesday 30 July 2019
Wednesday 17 July 2019
Lace collars from 1904
I found these
lace collars being advertised in a catalogue by the Samuel Peach & Sons
lace company dated 1904. It includes collars, stoles and scarves made from a
variety of machine-made laces ranging in price from 1/ to 10/3.
This circular
collar in Plauen lace is almost 8 inches wide and cost 2/-. Plauen lace was popular
at the time as it was quite intricate, yet reasonably priced. The design is embroidered
using a Schiffli machine either on to a net background or on to a backing
material which can then be burnt away chemically to leave the stitched pattern.
The lace collar with long stole ends in the main image is guipure chemical lace
also produced in this way. Pat Earnshaw in her book on machine laces includes
four patent summaries from the late nineteenth century explaining different techniques
for producing chemical lace. She also notes that ‘the manufacture of guipure
lace was associated particularly with St Gall (Switzerland) and of net laces
with Plauen (Saxony).
This scarf is
labelled as being of real Maltese lace. It is 45 inches long, 6 inches wide and
costs 10/3. From the illustration it is hard to tell whether it is handmade bobbin
lace or a machine copy. It is much more likely to be machine made as at this
time the Leavers lace machine was capable of producing a good imitation of
Maltese bobbin lace. In contrast, the pattern seems irregular in places
suggesting that it is handmade, although this may just be errors in the
reproduction of the image, and it is more expensive than the other collars. The
Peach company clearly imported lace from companies in Plauen and St Gall but
whether they would have imported handmade lace from Malta I do not know. It
just seems a different business approach. It’s a shame we can’t see the actual
lace and know for sure.
Wednesday 10 July 2019
Filet lace panels depicting Jacobean figures
I saw this interesting
piece of filet lace at the Lace Guild exhibition ‘Hidden in stores’ last month,
labelled in the catalogue as depicting ‘the sons of Joseph’. It was loaned from
the Dr Spriggs collection and is thought to have originated in Italy in about
1600. That date or slightly later fits in with the costumes of the figures in
fashionable Jacobean dress. However, I think the panel actually depicts the
sons of Jacob, as Joseph only had two sons and this is clearly a large panel
with many characters. Jacob famously had 12 sons including Joseph, Benjamin and
Levi whose names can be seen in the image. Their story is told in the Old Testament
book of Genesis. Federico Vinciolo’s pattern book for lace and embroidery, published
in 1587, includes several figures but these are in classical rather than
contemporary dress. However many examples of filet lace from that time (there
are some in the V&A) depict figures in fashionable costumes so perhaps
these panels were one-off designs specifically created for this piece of lace.
Wednesday 3 July 2019
Marking time with lace and pins
I’ve been
busy this week writing about net curtains and lace panels – one article about
my Battle of Britain lace panels and the other about my PhD work. The Battle of
Britain article looks at how the original panels were designed and made and how
I went about producing my contemporary response to them. The other article is
looking at the net curtain as a metaphor for women who feel home is both a
sanctuary and a prison. The work is based on female gothic novels and sensation
fiction from the nineteenth century, so books such as Jane Eyre and The woman
in white, but with parallels to today. In the research I used pins and needles on
net curtains to produce tally marks counting out units of time, as this sewing
equipment would be what the gothic heroine had to hand to record her plight. I
also use the idea of the net curtain trapping whispers, secrets and the
memories of the home. It’s been interesting going back to the PhD work and rewriting
it for a different publication – still a way to go though, it’s not finished
yet. I might start counting off the days with pins!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)