Handmade or machine-made lace?

 

The first question most people ask about a piece of lace is ‘Is it made by hand or machine?’ With most types of lace it is fairly easy to tell, but with Chantilly lace it is always difficult to decide because the machine-made versions were such clever copies. This type of bobbin lace was first made in the northern French town of Chantilly in about 1840 and was popular for shawls, lappets, parasols and flounces until the end of the 19th century. It is a very fine lace that is time-consuming to make, so separate strips of the lace were made by different workers and then sewn together using an almost invisible stitch called point de raccroc. This forms a weak point in the lace and sometimes this stitching unravels revealing the join between the sections. Finding these gaps indicates that the lace was handmade because machine-made pieces do not have these joins.

Another way to decide if the lace is handmade is to follow some of the thread paths. In handmade lace you can follow the threads from one section of the work to another, for example in this piece the threads form a continuous line from the floral shapes into the ground net. In handmade lace the thicker outlining gimp threads are also incorporated into the stitches on the edges of the floral design elements. The threads that make up the picots along the edge of the lace should also come from the body of the lace rather than being a separate addition and form loops rather than just thread ends. Handmade lace often feels softer than machine-made lace, which can feel hard to the touch and may drape less well.

People generally value handmade over machine-made lace, probably because they understand the skill that would be required to make the lace and realise how difficult it would be. However we should not dismiss the skill of those who produced machines to make lace and the designers, draughtsmen and twist hands who made the machine lace. We tend to think that machine-made things are worth less because they are plentiful and cheap. However, machine-made lace allowed more people to own and wear beautiful lace at an affordable price.

Bobbin lace mat of the Dorsetshire Regiment badge

 

I have carried out quite a lot of research into war lace, including the Battle of Britain machine-lace panel and the war lace made in Belgium in the First World War, so I was intrigued to find this lace mat which looked as if it was celebrating a battle. I was so interested that I bought it and started some research when I got home.

It turns out it is a depiction of the type of regimental cap badge that was used by soldiers in the Dorsetshire regiment of the British army from 1900 to 1951. The regiment was originally formed in 1702, under a different name, and underwent several changes over the years. Then, in about 1898, the badge was redesigned to reflect some of the battle honours the soldiers had achieved.

The castle and key (the top of the key is the circle immediately under the castle) mark the Great Siege of Gibraltar from 1779-1783. The scroll under the castle includes the Latin inscription Primus in Indis (First in India) to acknowledge that the regiment was the first British Regiment to serve in India in 1754.

The sphinx at the top of the design and the words Marabout under it refer to a battle during the Egyptian Campaign on 21 August 1802. The design of the castle and key is surrounded by a wreath of laurels and the scroll at the bottom is inscribed Dorsetshire. The mat is made of handmade bobbin lace and was probably designed by someone who had a relative serving in the regiment. It is well designed, and I’m impressed by the way the lacemaker has achieved the lettering. Having designed bobbin lace patterns with text in them I know how difficult it is to ensure the words are legible. I like the way she has depicted the bricks of the castle and the parts of the sphinx with a series of twisted threads, and the centres of the leaves too. 

I think the piece was worked in two parts. First, the outer circle including the laurels, sphinx and lettering and, second, the central panel with the castle and key. The lacemaker then sewed the central panel inside the outer ring with an oversewing stitch linking the two edges. I find that method of joining the two parts interesting, because I would have looped pairs into the inner edge of the outer circle and worked the central panel in situ, to ensure it fitted the space correctly. It suggests to me that perhaps two people were working on this piece at the same time, may be a mother and daughter as a reminder of a husband and father far away in the army. However, the place where the beginning of the outer lace circle meets the end of the lace is also joined by oversewing, rather than looping the threads through the starting pinholes, so perhaps it was made by one person and that was just the method she used to join pieces of lace – I will probably never know!

Lace curtain designs inspired by handmade lace

 

Lace curtains were popular furnishings in the early 20th century and a 1904 catalogue from the Peach lacemaking company of Nottingham includes many examples. The detail in the image above comes from a wide store curtain which would have been hung flat across a large sash window. It is 52 inches wide and costs 3/9 for a pair of curtains 3 yards long and 4/6 for a pair 3.5 yards long.

The curtain is actually advertised as a ‘copy of old lace’. This is advertising blurb so I don’t think we are meant to think that the curtain itself is an exact copy of old lace, it just means the designer was inspired by old lace, which in this context refers to handmade lace.

This piece of old Bedfordshire lace shows the serrated ninepin edging, scrolls, floral shapes and fillings which are characteristic of this type of lace. Looking at the curtain, you can clearly see the influences of handmade lace in the scroll which runs down both sides and across the lower part. It does look as if it is a piece of Beds lace with its bold lines, serrated edge, flower shapes and filling stitches. The palmette shapes within each loop also look like motifs taken from a handmade piece of lace.

This curtain is also inspired by handmade lace. It is slightly wider than the one above at 60 inches and again is available in two lengths costing 4/6 for a pair of curtains 3 yards long and 5/6 for a pair 3.5 yards long.

Again you can see from the detail, how the designer was inspired by handmade lace. The scrolls look very similar to Beds lace with their serrated edges and the flowers and small scrolls joined by bars also resemble the shapes and joins, which in Beds lace include plaits and crossings or spider joins. The edging of the curtain with its scrolls, flowers and filling stitches also references handmade lace. At this time handmade lace was experiencing a revival and many people were also interested in antique lace and how it was made. There were regular exhibitions of lace, some of which included demonstrations of lacemaking. Lace was sold at these events, but it was expensive, therefore buying lace curtains inspired by handmade lace was a more economical way to be fashionable.

Lace folding fans

 

Folding fans developed in China and Japan and were introduced to Europe in the late 16th century, where they became high status fashion items. The basic folding fan is made up of a series of sticks with two larger outer sticks known as guards. They can be made of many materials  including ivory, wood, or metal and are all held together at the base with a rivet. The material attached to the upper part of the sticks is called the leaf and it can be made from a variety of materials including paper, silk or lace. When the fan is held open, the leaf is a wide flat area which lends itself well to a pictorial design. Many leaves were painted with beautiful images while others were designed to be ephemeral and were printed with political massages or advertising slogans, however, the lace designs we are looking at were expensive fashion accessories. The fan at the top of the blog was displayed in the recent Marie Antoinette exhibition at the V&A and features an Alençon lace leaf and gilded ivory sticks; it was made between 1750 and 1800. Alençon was one of the most prestigious types of needlelace and was mainly bought by the nobility. Mrs Palliser in her famous History of lace notes that a Russian princess paid the equivalent of £6000 for a set of flounce, lappets, trimmings, handkerchief, fan and parasol cover all made in Alençon lace (however, as a lacemaker who appreciates the work involved I think the princess got a bargain!).

Fan leaves are designed to be folded quite tightly so are only suitable for fine types of lace. Point de gaze lace was another expensive lace that was used for fan leaves. This example was made in Belgium in the 1860s and shows the intricate details in the lace, worked round the central image of the coat of arms.

This black silk bobbin lace was probably made in Bayeux in France in the 1870s. Again it is a fine lace that can be easily folded. Although lace on clothing was not very fashionable at this time, lace fans were popular and at the Paris exhibition of 1878, more lace fans were exhibited than any other type of fan.

By the 1880s the Irish lace industry was flourishing and this beautiful Carrickmacross lace fan with mother-of-pearl sticks  was made between 1870 and 1890. This is an applique lace where small pieces of fabric are applied to a net base and other filling stitches and embellishments added with needlelace.

Machine made lace was also used to produce fan leaves and this example from the 1890s shows the type of lovely design that could be made on the Levers lace machine.

This beautiful lace fan leaf was also made in Ireland. It was designed by Sister Mary Regis and made at the Presentation Convent at Youghal. It was shown at the Chicago exhibition of 1893 with another fan design by Sister Mary Regis. This exhibition was a show case for the very best examples of arts and crafts from around the world and was a fitting place to display this beautifully designed and exquisitely made needlelace fan. In the 19th century most lace fans were used as accessories for evening wear and this fashion continued until about 1914. As this small selection shows, floral designs were popular throughout the decades and their flowing lines were beautifully captured in lace.

Ground stitches in bobbin lace

 

Ground stitches are the ones that fill in the background of lace designs and join the main elements of the pattern together. The most common is a simple net stitch which is used in many types of fine lace and can be seen in the central area of this collar. It is made up of a series of stitches consisting of a cross and three twists on each pair of threads. A pin is placed between the two pairs but no further stitch is made to close, or cover, the pin. Today most lace patterns include prickings for the net ground stitches, indicating where each pin should be placed to make the net, but many older patterns do not include these pin holes at all, as the lacemakers worked the net without using pins. This made the work quicker and provided the lacemaker worked diagonal rows and maintained good tension the effect was the same. This lace collar also includes honeycomb stitch, another common ground stitch, which can be seen on the left of the piece. This is worked with a cross and two twists with each pair, then a pin is placed between them and the cross and two twists repeated, so this time the pin is enclosed, or covered.

Kat stitch is another ground stitch that was often used to make black silk lace. It has strong vertical and diagonal lines and gave a more open appearance to black lace than simple net would have done. The three ground stitches we have looked at are all made as one piece with the main design so the threads from the ground enter and leave the main motifs as the lace is worked.

However, this piece of lace has a ground that is separate from the main lace. The floral design was worked as a separate piece in bobbin lace and then included in this pattern by linking it to the other elements of the design. This can be done using bobbin lace but in this case needlelace has been used to join the designs together. This method of working allowed several people to work on the lace at the same time, some making the bobbin lace others sewing the net and some making the needlelace couronne rings to embellish the net.

Some types of lace do not use ground stitches to join the elements of the design but instead use plaits and their variations. These can be made as part of the main lace, as they are here, or can be used to join separate motifs together in the same way as the fine floral piece above. As you can see ground stitches have an important role to play in lace designs. They must hold the elements of the design in place without overpowering the main patterns or breaking up the flow of the lace. They must also be appropriate for the style of lace, for example the plaits are quite coarse so only work well on lace with large solid motifs, while fine net complements the daintier designs.

 

Joseph Castle hanging bobbin

 

Lacemakers celebrated many different life events on their lace bobbins but hanging bobbins were made to record the executions of murderers. These murders, trials and executions were rare events and obviously sparked a lot of interest in the local population. Six hangings are recorded on lace bobbins and this information about the case of Joseph Castle comes from a facsimile of a poster produced by a printer in Bedford soon after his execution.

Joseph was convicted of the murder of his wife Jane Whitcroft on 9 August 1859. Joseph came from Ware in Hertfordshire and that is where the couple lived. They had married two years previously and Joseph seemed ‘strongly attached and dotingly fond’ of his new wife. However, ‘his wayward disposition and irritable temper, before long rendered them unhappy, and they frequently quarrelled’. He was also prone to ‘unfounded fits of jealousy’ which caused more arguing. Jane decided to leave him on 8 August and walked the long journey back to her parents’ home in Luton. The next day Joseph followed her and persuaded her to return with him. Unfortunately on the way back he killed her by cutting her throat and stabbing her. Jane also had cuts to her hands suggesting that she put up a fight. Joseph then left her body in a ditch with her bonnet and shawl beside her. The crime was soon discovered as there was ‘a great quantity of blood on the road’ and the police were called. On the way home Joseph stopped in Welwyn at the home of a policeman he knew where he confessed to having ‘had a row with my wife’ and having ‘struck her’.

The case was heard at Bedford assizes on 14 March 1860. The evidence was so overwhelming that the jury took only 15 minutes to return a verdict of guilty. Joseph remained ‘passive, silent and reserved’ throughout the trial. He ‘expressed himself satisfied with his counsel and attorney; and of the verdict of the jury and the sentence of the judge he has made no complaint’. In the time after his conviction he had interviews with one of Jane’s sisters and his father-in-law but there is no record of what they said. The hanging took place in Bedford on 31 March 1860 at noon before a large crowd. However, the area ‘was unusually boarded in front and at the ends, which obstructed the view and disappointed the spectators’. Why were lacemakers so interested in this hanging? Ware was not a traditional lacemaking area so it is unlikely that lacemakers in Bedfordshire knew the couple personally. However, because the case was heard at the Bedford assizes, and that is where the hanging took place, it would probably have been of great interest in the local lacemaking area. The case was also very shocking and murders were not common, and we know from our own times how interested people are in ‘true crimes’ that they have no personal link to. Thomas Wright in his history of the Midlands lacemaking areas records ‘that “on the night of Castle’s public execution the friends of his deceased wife held a ball” and every guest on departing was presented with a bobbin as a memento of the occasion’. This seems unlikely to me, as I don’t think Jane’s family had the means to organise a ball or any links to the lacemaking world. However, Wright includes the text in speech marks indicating that he was told this by someone he interviewed during his research, albeit 50 years after the event. There are certainly lace bobbins commemorating the occasion, but hanging bobbins were sold by bobbin makers as souvenirs and were more likely to be bought by lacemakers who were present in the crowd at the hanging, to show they were there on the day.

Making Nottingham lace curtains

 This lovely design was made using the Nottingham lace curtain machine which despite its name was used to make a range of lace furnishings, including tablecloths and bedspreads, and was not only used in Nottingham, as these machines were exported round the world.

The Nottingham lace curtain machine works in a different way to other lace machines. The warp threads remain vertical while the weft thread moves across from one warp to the next one. Each time it moves adjacent to a warp thread it is linked to the warp by a separate bobbin thread which twists, or pillars, around the warp and the weft threads thus joining them together. This produces the characteristic square mesh of curtain lace which you can see in the image above. You can also see that the mesh can be varied by using two different weft threads of different thicknesses or by altering the spacing between the movements of the weft threads leaving wider gaps between the pillaring.

Other decorative ground patterns can also be made by using combination effects, for example where two or more pillars (the warp and weft from the spool threads) are joined together by the bobbin thread to make larger holes.

From its invention in 1846, the lace curtain machine made use of the jacquard system for producing patterned lace and one machine was able to produce a pair of curtains 4 yards (3.6 m) long in 2 hours. By 1851 there were about 100 curtain machines making lace in the Nottingham area and some beautiful lace curtains were displayed at the Great Exhibition in London in that year. The industry benefitted from the surge in house building at the time and the popularity of large windows which showed off the designs on the curtains to great advantage. It was not until the early twentieth century that the industry faced competition from the USA and fashions began to move away from ornate curtains to a simpler style.

Lace making in Nottingham in 1884

 

This blog is based on an article written by a reporter called Bernard H Becker for The English Illustrated Magazine in 1884. It is not, therefore, an accurate description of lace, lacemaking, lace machines, or even Nottingham, but gives a flavour of how people at the time celebrated the lace industry. Describing the history of the machine lace industry, Becker notes that in 1810 Nottingham was known for the production of machine-made net and tens of thousands of people in the town and the neighbouring counties were employed in needle running and tambouring net. The girls employed in this industry used needles or tambour hooks and thread to embroider patterns on to the net, which was held taught in a frame to make the work easier. He then quotes a story about John Heathcoat being inspired to develop his lace machine after a young woman told him her cousin had been employed in London by a man named Dawson who had made a fortune by making lace using machinery.

Becker was obviously visiting the Birkin works at Kimberley (shown in the image above) gathering material for his article as he notes that ‘it is a pleasant little run by rail to Kimberley from Nottingham and gives an excellent idea of the great recent extension of Nottingham and the surrounding townlets’. He also contrasts the conditions of Lancashire cotton workers with the lacemakers of Nottingham. He notes that the Lancashire mills are huge and the workmen’s homes are small and poor ‘suggesting the wide gulf which separates capital from labour and master from man’. In Nottingham, by contrast, ‘the transition from one condition to another is more gradual’ and workmen can hire machines and set up their own smaller manufacturers and ‘have opportunities of development, and with skill, ingenuity and conduct often succeed’ in bettering their life styles.

Although there are many small enterprises involved in the lace industry. Becker focuses on the ‘great mill at Kimberley’ owned by the Birkin family where he sees lace curtains being made. He comments that many children are employed in the works and the girls in particular are neat, quiet and of a modest demeanour. One of their main jobs is to wind the cotton thread from the spools on to the thin, round bobbins used in the lace machines and you can see a girl and a woman operating the bobbin threading machine in the image above. The work of setting up and running the lace machines is done by men and Becker praises their skilled work. The lace curtains are also designed by men who are trained at the Nottingham School of Art and Design in the studio on the top floor of the factory. The draughtsmen who translate the designs into the instructions for the lace machines are also trained at the Art School and Becker commends the school for the improvements in design it has encouraged. He also praises the conversion of Nottingham Castle into a museum, with help from the South Kensington Museum, which he says has ‘given new impetus to the arts of design’.

Once the lace has been removed from the machine, women are employed to check for holes and broken threads, which are repaired by hand. This drawing by A Morrow shows women mending the lace curtains, while the image at the top of the blog shows them checking the curtains. The lace then requires finishing, which involves starching, bleaching and gassing to remove the fluff from the cotton thread. Overall, Becker seems to have been impressed with the skill and dexterity of all the workers involved in the lace industry and pleasantly surprised by the working conditions and the way the industry had developed in Nottingham.   

Torchon bobbin lace

 

This image shows a typical example of Torchon lace, based on geometric shapes, including blocks of cloth and half stitch interspersed with spiders and rose ground, all surrounded with a fan edging. Torchon is often the first type of lace you are taught when starting bobbin lace making because it is based on grids and it is therefore easy to see which pinhole needs to be worked next. Also the patterns require no extra threads to be added or removed as the work progresses so the thread patterns are easy to follow. The filling stitches are generally variations on honeycomb stitch or rose ground. Two versions of rose ground are shown in this pattern, forming the blocks of small open squares. It also features two variations of spiders, with and without central holes and with 12 legs!

Torchon lace developed from the peasant laces of continental Europe, where it was often made and used in the home as a decoration for domestic linen. Santina Levey notes that Torchon means ‘dishcloth’ in French. In the first half of the nineteenth century Torchon lace was being made in France, Germany and Italy, but in the second half of the century it was taken up by the English lacemakers of the East Midlands and by 1900 Mrs Penderel Moody reports that it was also being made in Belgium, Russia, Bavaria, China, India and some African countries. Part of its appeal for domestic use is that if it is made of good quality linen thread it is easy to launder and lasts for many years.

Although Torchon lace is designed on grids or graph paper this does not mean the patterns are limited to squares, triangles and diamond shapes. Various types of graph paper are available including circular and sectional grids. The lace mat in the image above was worked from a design by Jane Atkinson using a circular grid and inspired by a motif on a Pueblo Indian pot.

I designed this three dimensional piece, inspired by modern architecture, using an irregular grid and leaving spaces between the main elements to allow it to be manipulated to form a sculptural shape. As you can see, Torchon lace has outgrown its reputation as a simple peasant lace and is now being used to design interesting contemporary lace works.  

Doily designs inspired by gothic architecture

 

I found these designs for doilies inspired by gothic architecture in a small leaflet produced by Coats Sewing Group in 1964. The introduction explains that ‘in this book the designer has turned to gothic architecture with a fresh eye and discovered, in the soaring pointed arches and the delicate stone tracery, a wonderful inspiration for crochet’. Unfortunately the designer is not named but the booklet suggests that one person designed all ten designs.

This doily with the pointed edges was inspired by the ceiling of Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey. You can see from the detail above that it features the portcullis and Tudor rose. These were both images used by Henry VII to validate his tenuous claim to the English throne, which he had achieved by conquest.

The portcullis was the emblem of his mother’s family, the Beauforts, through which he was related to royalty, and the Tudor rose was a symbol of his union with Elizabeth of York whose family had a stronger claim to the throne. The fleur de lis emblem you can see in the photograph of the ceiling was part of the Elizabeth’s coat of arms, but I think the crochet designer probably decided it was too difficult to reproduce in crochet and did not include it.

The Church of San Michele in Florence was the inspiration for another doily. In particular the star design at the top of the elaborately carved marble tabernacle. In the same way as before, the designer has not reproduced it exactly but has taken inspiration from it to produce a six-sided doily reflecting the six-pointed star.

The instructions for the patterns suggest that the correct tension is important in order to reproduce each design accurately and suggests altering the size of the crochet hook if adjustments are required. Detailed instructions for laundering and pinning out the crochet are also given. These include, accurately drawing the shape of the finished doily in pencil on to plain paper, using a ruler and set squares for squares and rectangles and compasses for circles. Then using rustless pins to pin out the lace, making sure that all scallops are the same size and all flower petals are pulled into the correct position. This all sounds a lot of work, but these gothic designs do rely on the shapes being accurate and reflecting the original architecture. In fact the leaflet does suggest how to starch them if you wanted them to be slightly stiffened to retain their shape.

Shaping sixteenth-century lace ruffs

 

Shaping lace ruffs was a skilled profession in the sixteenth century. It is said that Queen Elizabeth of England had her ruffs starched, shaped and set by the Dutch wife of one of her coachmen. Starch, which provided the stiffening for ruffs, had been introduced to England from Flanders in 1564. The shaping was achieved by using setting sticks, poking sticks and struts, which were held in the hand or in a holder, so they stuck out horizontally, and the frills of the ruffs were formed over them.

Ruffs were made from long lengths of fine fabric, generally lawn or cambric, sewn together to make a long piece and then gathered to form cartridge pleats and attached to a neckband. Without the addition of starch or shaping the folds of the ruff were soft and merely formed a frill around the neck. However, a skilled laundress could transform the ruff into a three-dimensional form, with the aid of starch and poking sticks. She could also make different shaped frills from the same basic form so that one ruff could look quite different each time she shaped it.

This image of monkeys ‘aping’ the fashion for ruffs shows the processes required to set a ruff. It was first washed, then covered in starch, taking care not to clog the holes of the lace with the liquid starch, and then dried. The starch was generally made from grains such as wheat or bran or from roots and could be coloured using plant dyes. Once the laundress was ready to set the ruff it was lightly dampened and ironed flat. It was then shaped using the poking sticks ensuring that the frills were all of the same size and the amount of fabric was divided equally between the sets. Once the shape had been achieved the ruff was ironed to fix the frills by pushing heated poking sticks into each set. To produce a ruff with a figure of eight appearance was more complicated and required the use of small pins to link adjacent sections together.

As you can see from the engraving of the monkeys starching ruffs, the fashion attracted much satire. It was a very impractical fashion, for example Queen Margot at the French court needed a spoon over 60 cm long to eat her soup because her ruff was so large. How she managed to eat soup using such a long spoon and negotiating a wide ruff I have no idea – I think I would have chosen something else to eat! However, fashion is often extravagant, fabulous and over the top and no fashions were more so than lace ruffs.

Venetian gros point needle lace

 

Venetian gros point is an Italian type of needle lace made in the seventeenth century that is characterised by three-dimensional lace scrolls in a baroque design. It was popular from about 1650 to 1660 and was made in fine thread, entirely of buttonhole stitches. First the outline of the motif was couched onto a background fabric and the base layer of filling stitches worked within the couched outlines to produce a flat piece of lace. The filling stitches were made by working one row of buttonhole stitches into the row above leaving spaces where required to make the holes in the patterns. Once the filling stitches are completed the thicker raised edges are worked. This is done by couching additional threads over the couched outlines and then securing them to the lace with closely worked buttonhole stitches. Much of the skill of the designer depends on raising some areas only slightly and padding others quite fully, to give contrast and a three-dimensional appearance to the finished lace.

As the buttonholing over the raised cordonnette progresses loops of buttonhole stitches or picots can also be added into the edge of the work. Once all the raised areas have been completed, separate rings of needle lace called couronnes can also be added, which can also be decorated with loops and picots. In fact the more decorated all the elements are the better! Finally the finished lace motif can be removed from its backing. This type of lace was made by a team of lacemakers each making separate motifs or specialising in different aspects of the work, depending on the structure of the workshop, with the beginners making the simple couronnes. Once the motifs were complete it would be the job of a specialised lacemaker to join them together to form the complete design. This could be done by sewing them directly on to one another or by joining them with thin lines or bars of buttonhole stitching.

Venetian gros point is a heavy lace that is seen to best advantage when it is laid flat so it was ideal for edgings, flounces and church vestments. This image shows part of a lace border dated from about 1660 which could have been used round a skirt, cuffs or church robe. When Venetian gros point was used as a collar it was spread flat over the shoulders and could also be used around the wrists of a garment or as a panel on each side of a neck opening.

By 1670 cravats had become fashionable for menswear. They comprised a long strip of linen with lace attached at each end, which was twisted round the neck and tied at the front, allowing the lace ends to be displayed below the chin and over the coat, as you can see in this painting from 1685 showing William III when he was Prince of Orange. The Prince has knotted his cravat, but an alternative style was to tie the ends together with a separate ribbon, passing round all the material and forming a bow at the front. The skill and time required to make Venetian gros point meant it was expensive. For example James II of England spent about £36 on a Venetian cravat for his coronation in 1685, which would cost the equivalent of over £4000 today. However, considering the work involved in making the lace, I really don’t think this is too high a price!