Brise bise lace curtains and blinds

 

Researching more brise bise curtains this week I came across these in a 1933 pamphlet of lace furnishings. Brise bise lace curtains were very fashionable in the early 1930s and were designed to hang across the lower half of a window. The name brise bise comes from two French words, briser meaning to break and bise meaning a light cold wind, so they are designed to stop a light breeze. All the examples in the booklet have an integral channel woven across the top of the curtain through which a rod or wire could be inserted for fixing them. Some of these channels are patterned but others are just plain weave and most have a scalloped lower edge. Brise bise curtains could be gathered along the rod or kept flat against the window and it may be that those labelled as blinds were designed to be used flat. However, it looks as if all the designs could be used either way depending on the preference of the householder.

The fruit design shown at the top is only available in one width (17 inches), but the design of flowers and trellis comes in three sizes (20, 31 or 38 inches). The smaller sizes are those usually associated with brise bise curtains; 38 inches seems quite large for a brise bise, but perhaps the idea was that you could have a combination of matching designs to fit a range of window sizes. The curtains were sold by the yard so would not be finished at the edges, just cut from the roll. Unfortunately there are no details of the manufacturers or the prices and I suspect those details were probably on an order form in the centre of the booklet which has been removed.

Another subversive doily

 

I’m delighted to have finally finished another doily in my subversive doily project. This is an ongoing project with no deadline but something I will write about and exhibit once I’ve made enough doilies to form a body of work. Because of that, other work with deadlines keeps interrupting and, in fact, having to start another large project gave me the incentive to finish this doily and clear the pillow I was working it on. The idea behind the subversive doilies is that they subvert the traditional idea of doilies as overlooked, undervalued domestic craft items by giving them a voice. The latest one incorporates the words 'f*** off’ in a Bedfordshire lace technique in the centre of the mat, which is surrounded by a circular edging of Eastern European style tape lace. I designed the doilies so that the wording is not immediately obvious and it is only after looking at them for a while that the viewer realises that they are more interesting than they first appeared and actually incorporate a message. In general, doilies are overlooked, considered old-fashioned and taken for granted, rather like the women who originally made them. These doilies represent those very skilled women whose work was undervalued and whose voice was not heard. They have a mind of their own and are speaking out!

The Battle of Britain commemorative lace panel

 

The 80th anniversary of the Victory in Europe day, following the second world war, seems an appropriate time to blog about the Battle of Britain commemorative lace panel. The large panel (it is 450 cm long and 163 cm wide) was made by the Nottingham lace company of Dobson and Browne between 1942 and 1946 to celebrate the famous air battle of 1940, which was a pivotal moment in the war. In 1940, Britain was the only major power opposing the Nazis and Adolf Hitler planned to invade Britain to bring an end to that final opposition. He knew that without a functional airforce an invasion of Britain would probably succeed. The German offensive began in July 1940 targetting airfields and cities and the British retaliated by bombing German sites.

The most intense battle occurred on 15 September when the Germans sent two waves of 500 aircraft across the English Channel. It resulted in the greatest defeat the German airforce had experienced and we know it as the Battle of Britain. Two days later Hitler cancelled the invasion plans although the bombing continued until May 1941.

The bombing was very destructive of lives and property and photographs of the bomb damage in London were used as the basis for the images in the panel. This panel depicts the damage to St Clement Danes Church, while the image above shows the dramatic moment a building collapses in Queen Victoria Street.

This depiction of St Paul’s Cathedral shows the undamaged building rising above the smoke and destruction of the Blitz and became an iconic image representing the resilience of London and Londoners. The commemorative panel was designed by Harry Cross, a professional lace designer, and includes eight images of bomb scenes as well as St Paul’s, a cottage and castle and the floral emblems of the commonwealth airforces that took part in the battle. It also includes a stylised image of the aircraft involved and an airman preparing for the battle as well as an abbreviated version of Winston Churchill’s famous and very apt words that ‘Never was so much owed by so many to so few’.

If you are interested in finding out more about the panel I’ve written about different aspects of it in various publications (as well as this blog), most recently in Reading the thread edited by Lesley Millar and Alice Kettle, published by Bloomsbury. I’ve also written about its production and my commission to produce a contemporary response to it in Textile: cloth and culture 18(1) 24-38 which you can access for free via the link below https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4FNFA2Z8U8DBTUWKP4ZK/full?target=10.1080/14759756.2019.1646497